MLB trade deadline hard to predict with so many teams in contention for playoffs

PHILADELPHIA — Expanded playoffs make it harder to predict whether Tarik Skubal and other choice acquisitions will be dealt before the Aug, 3 trade deadline. Twenty-three of the 30 teams are within four games of a playoff position heading into the season's second half, which opens Thursday with the back-in-contention Philadelphia Phillies hosting the woeful New York Mets. "You've got a lot of really good teams that were on the bubble that have gotten in and kind of made it," Phillies first…