Call the A’s 2012 season what you want, just don’t attribute the results to luck. This was a carefully constructed club built from scratch on talent, not chance.

Beyond the numbers and the matchups, emotion could play a huge role in Friday’s Orioles-Rangers American League Wild Card Game.

Theo Epstein, president of baseball operations, helped present grants and scholarships to a Chicago-area student and Christopher House during a ceremony at Wrigley Field this week.

The Cubs promoted Shiraz Rehman to assistant general manager, reporting to GM Jed Hoyer, on Thursday.

Wrigley Field will get some extra seats behind home plate and may be able to host football games in the future.

Ichiro Suzuki is back in the postseason for the first time since the Yankees advanced to the 2001 World Series with a 12-3 Game 5 win over the Mariners, ending the outfielder’s historic first season in the United States.

The superlative makes me uncomfortable unless it can be mathematically measured. I accept the tallest, longest, fastest, heaviest, et al. Subjective assessments, though — the greatest game, best shortstop, funniest reliever, quickest bat — routinely bother me. That said, the 2012 season is, without question, the greatest baseball season.

The Giants lost four of the seven regular-season games they played against their National League Division Series opponent, the Cincinnati Reds. But Cincinnati will face a very different San Francisco ballclub.

Don’t expect another conversation between Rangers manager Ron Washington and center fielder Josh Hamilton concerning his error on a dropped fly ball in Wednesday’s loss to Oakland that helped the A’s win the American League West title.

The Yankees stand as American League East champions for the 13th time since 1996 and for the 18th time in franchise history, ready to enjoy a well-earned brief respite after battling into the season’s final day.

The 2012 season was obviously a disappointment in terms of the final record, but Theo Epstein said he was encouraged by how the Cubs established a better culture, as well as some of the team’s additions.

GM Ben Cherington is not ready to name specific targets in his search for a new manager, but some of the candidates who will likely end up on his radar are John Farrell, Tim Bogar and longtime Boston captain Jason Varitek.

Jim Leyland couldn’t have predicted the kind of season that would land the Tigers back in the postseason for a second consecutive year. He could predict the encore of his reigning American League Most Valuable Player Award winner.

The White Sox announced that first baseman Paul Konerko underwent successful surgery on Thursday morning at RUSH University Medical Center to remove a loose body from his left wrist.

Joe Maddon’s wife, Jaye, has taken the brunt of any disappointment the Rays manager has felt since the elimination of his team early Tuesday morning.

Asked early in 2011 to identify his most enduring memory of the previous year’s Division Series triumph, Matt Cain cited Tim Lincecum’s two-hit, 14-strikeout classic in Game 1. That was the Giants’ first postseason victory en route to their World Series triumph. Now Cain has the opportunity to point San Francisco in the same direction.

Gio Gonzalez, who won 21 games in his first season with the Nationals, was named Thursday as the winner of the Warren Spahn Award, presented annually to best lefty starting pitcher in the big leagues.