MLB Wild Card Predictions 2013: Boston Red Sox, Detroit Tigers, Oakland Athletics, Seattle Mariners, Pittsburgh Pirates, Chicago White Sox and Tampa Bay Rays All In Play For 2013

The Major League Baseball season is just past the quarter mark and many teams see the memorial day weekend as a benchmark of where their teams will finish at the end of the season and with the implementation of the new Wild cards last year, some will have more hope than others, including the Cleveland Indians, Oakland Athletics, Kansas City Royals, Pittsburgh Pirates, St. Louis Cardinals and the Seattle Mariners.

While some of these teams are in better positions than others and some are in second place in their divisions and some are in first, it is still too early to know if they will make the playoffs, but it's never too early to speculate. Wild cards in both leagues are expected to be tough to get this year and the American League one should be even tougher than in the National League, with teams like the Red Sox, Tigers, Orioles, Rays, Athletics, White Sox and Twins all within four games as of the beginning of the week on May 20.

The American League East could have the Yankees, Rays, or Red Sox get the wild cards, but many believe that the AL wild card teams (or at least one of them) will come from the AL West, since their division is a bit skewed with the Houston Astros playing 19 games against everyone and they are basically a minor league team with a 12-32 record and 17 games behind in the division.

The Cleveland Indians have been one of the surprise teams this year in the AL Central, but they also led the division at one point last year before falling apart later on. The team is currently in first place in the Central after beating up on the Mariners this past weekend and they are almost three games ahead of the Tigers. The Indians made a number of improvements by bringing in new manager Terry Francona and adding names like Nick Swisher, Michael Bourn and Mark Reynolds to a roster that already had talent in Carlos Santana, Jason Kipnis and Michael Brantley. The pitching has been better this year already and if the team can continue hitting home runs, they should be right there at the end of the year with Ubaldo Jimenez and Justin Masterson heading the rotation.

The Royals are an interesting team to watch going forward, as they went 20-20 over their first 40 games for one of their best starts in years and the team has a very young core that's starting to mature with Eric Hosmer, Alex Gordon and Mike Moustakas. The trade of Wil Myers for James Shield may have been short term and foolish, but for a team that hasn't made the playoffs in a decade and more, it was a risk worth taking. The Royals play in a tough division with the Tigers, White Sox and upstart Indians, but they could be right in the thick of things when September hits.

The Pirates looked like they were about to end their own streak last season after playing well for about three quarters of the season before collapsing and this year they are eight games over .500 one quarter of the way through the season. The team has tons of talent with names like Neil Walker, Pedro Alvarez and Starling Marte, who has been fantastic, and they also have an MVP candidate in Andrew McCutcheon. The rotation is solid as well with Wandy Rodriguez and AJ Burnett and if the team can keep it up through the year this time around they will be in position to make the playoffs.

The Mariners have a whole heap of talent in names like Dustin Ackley, Justin Smoak and Jesus Montero, but the team has not been able to play consistent baseball over the past few years. Eric Wedge has done a good job with a limited roster and the pitching has been excellent at the top with Felix Hernandez and Iwakuma, but past that has been a question mark. Having Hernandez always gives the team a chance, but they will need to score more.

(All records and division standings are from May 20)