After the Chicago Cubs historical World Series win last year, the new MLB season is underway. The league’s big name teams are starting to reveal themselves, and others are struggling to live up to their expectations.

The first team that I believe will have a good season is the Washington Nationals with right fielder Bryce Harper leading the way. He is just 23 years old and can’t stop hitting home runs this season, and he recently signed a new one-year contract to avoid arbitration. This means they should be set for a deep playoff run that doesn’t include any contract drama. They also have 26-year-old third-baseman Anthony Rendon. Rendon is on a hot-streak at the moment, batting .283. He has also hit five home runs and scored 23 RBI’s. The amazing roster doesn’t stop there. At SP (Starting Pitcher), they have both Stephen Strasburg and Max Scherzer who are pitching lights-out this season. This amazing roster alone is what I believe will take them to the playoffs this season, even if they don’t play well as a team.

Although in the past Colorado has not been a very successful franchise at all, this year I believe they have a shot at the playoffs. Their overall record is 29-17 as of now, and they lead the NL West. Not to mention, they have seven players in their lineup batting over .300, with Ryan Hanigan batting an astounding .375. This strong lineup has the potential to help them when the playoffs get underway. I do believe that they will continue their winning run, but I do not think they have a strong enough pitching lineup to get far into the playoffs this year.

Now to the AL. First up, the Houston Astros. By beating the Yankees to take the best record in the MLB, they really showed they deserved it. A lot of this is thanks to world-class pitcher Dallas Keuchel, who has proved he can pretty much pitch any ball and get the batter to swing at it. Not only do they have Keuchel in their bullpen, they have other great pitchers like Mike Fiers, Lance McCullers and a solid CP (Closing Pitcher) Ken Giles, who are all also pitching very well. In the field, they have not been able to stop making SportsCenter highlight plays with the amount of crazy catches and throws they’ve been making. In the batting lineup they have 23-year-old Carlos Correa, who hit a home run right off the bat versus the Yankees in game 1 of their first series against each other. They also have power-hitter George Springer and Jose Altuve at the top of their order, which makes the lineup even more deadly. Their batting lineup could fuel their playoff run, and if the pitching stays elite, they could go far.

Even though they got completely dominated by the Astros, I still have hope for the New York Yankees. Yes, there are many reasons why the Yankees shouldn’t be that good. But there are also a plenty of reasons why they are a good team, one of them being 6’ 7” 289 pound slugger Aaron Judge, who set the franchise record for most home runs in their first month on the team. Yes, you might look at the other names on the roster and question them. “Brett Gardner? Is he gonna retire soon?” or “Jacoby Ellsbury? He isn’t hitting like he used to.” But the truth is, these players are over-performing this season for the Yankees, especially Gardner. But the main factor to the Yankees’ success is their bullpen. With Masahiro Tanaka at SP, Dellin Betances and Aroldis Chapman at CP, you’ll find the Yankees not giving up late-game leads very often. They also have young names like Ronald Torreyes and Starlin Castro in the infield to make up for the somewhat older team. The veteran leadership mixed with a solid core of young players could make for a successful run by the Yankees this season.

These are the four teams that I believe will have a successful 2017 season. If these teams, especially the Rockies, continue what they are doing right now, they are destined for success. Some other teams to keep track of are the Orioles, Brewers and the Dodgers. However, they don’t seem to have the same consistency that the other teams I’ve mentioned do. Every team has a fresh chance to take the title at the beginning of the season. This is one of the good things about the MLB, that a different team could contend for the title every year. The MLB is probably one of the more difficult professional sports leagues to predict, but I’m confident these teams will have success in October.