AL/NL EAST/WEST

A test of Dan's earlier hypothesis. This is sort of based on where the NBA teams were at the middle of the season.

-Red Sox - Spurs (Cruising through the regular season, veteran team, recent championship, high expectations, some concern about age)
-Angels - Jazz (A relatively new threat, but legitimate contenders nevertheless)
-Indians - Rockets (For sure. A team that everyone knew was good, that had solid talent and good pitching/defense but was coming off of an uncharacteristically bad season, and would probably be resurgent.)
-Tigers - Suns (offensive-minded, frontrunnerish after recent playoff successes)
-Mariners - Warriors (A different brand of ball, hard to read)
-Yankees - Lakers (Epic team with epic holes)
-Blue Jays - Nuggets (Perhaps a slight stretch, but big-name acquisitions over the last couple years have only sort of put them in contention, due to injuries, strong competition, and a failure to gel)

The remainder is the Mavs. I don't quite know who to compare them to. I suppose an equally valid case could be made that Red Sox=Mavs, but I have no idea what you would do with the Spurs in that case. QED: the West = the AL + one more championship-caliber club. That role was supposed to be filled by the White Sox or Twins this year, or perhaps the Yankees, in which case CHI or MIN might have been the Lakers.

The NL landscape is much like the East in that you despair in even thinking about it. The Mets would clearly be the Pistons. Anybody except the Giants from the West would be the Raptors, Bulls and, I don't know, Sixers? The Cavs would be someone depressing like Houston, or the Cardinals if they hadn't accidentally won the World Series.