Actually, even if there was no wildcard, you'd still have 3 NL west teams competing for the division, and 2 NL East ones. You wouldn't have this mediocre "drunk fuck" pennant race in the central between 2 barely over .500 squads.

Decent bit of work here by the AJC's Braves beat writer/blogger.

Pretty good line that sums up an article apparently due out on Saturday. After a 25 minute conversation with agent Scott Boras, the writer says "Suffice to say, I’ll be getting a five-year, $75 mill contract before Andruw Jones accepts a one-year deal. ... And without giving me any salary figures, he made it pretty clear that five years and $75 mill ain’t gonna get it done for Andruw’s next deal."

After spending half the blog hitting on Boras' planned selling points, he then adds some figures of his own, including:

With bases loaded, Andruw as 3-for-16 with a walk and six strikeouts. The rest of the Braves were 45-for-144 (.313).

After the sixth inning, Andruw has hit .199 with 50 strikeouts in 176 at-bats.

With runners in scoring position and two outs, he’s hit - brace yourselves — .169 (14-for-83) with 24 walks and 26 strikeouts. Only Braves lower were Langy, Salty, and Sneezy, er, Craig Wilson. And the three of them together only had 30 such at-bats, so they didn’t do much damage in those spots.

The only Brave with more at-bats with RISP and two outs than Andruw was Francoeur, who hit .333 in 97 such at-bats.

With two strikes, Andruw’s hit .156 (48-for-307). In interleague play, he hit .061 (3-for-49) ...

True.

This year's NL finish kicks ass on every level.

As a Mets fan I would have prefered a much more boring ending

Colorado's position got a little more untenable when both the Padres and D-Backs won, meaning even with a win (and they currently hold a 3-2 lead at last check), they're all but dead for the NL West since they'd have to sweep out the D-Backs and get help from the Brewers for at least a game or two to keep San Diego down. Even so, they have control of their own destiny they're going directly against another playoff contender. A three-game sweep of the D-Backs will in all likelihood get them into the playoffs somehow, whether as a division winner or as a wild card.

It'll be interesting to see how the Rox play this weekend, especially since they play really well at home this year. I guess we'll wait and see, I'd hate to wait for them to refund tickets for a home NLDS game, but at the same time...I'd love to get to a playoff game. And I don't really have a dog in the NL hunt, so..I'd see them win just as well as anyone else.

http://www.mccoveychronicles.com/sto.../28/122618/096

If you're a Giants fan - this is by far the greatest blog out there. If you're a baseball fun, check out the thread - it will make you laugh at us, if not with us. ;)

Cole Hamels is the worthy successor to Steve Carlton I always thought Bruce Ruffin would/could be. What an incredible start.

Hell freakin' yeah!!! :D

C'mon Padres!

Boooyah! Cubs in the playoffs!

Cubs and Red Sox clinch their divisions within about 10 minutes of each other.

For all the talk of tiebreakers and so forth, the picture cleared up quite a lot in the last hour. It's all but certain that the Padres and D-backs are getting in from the West. Colorado and the Mets are still mathematically alive for the Wild Card, but who here really thinks the Brewers will somehow find the will to win the next two games? All that's left to shake out now is whether the Padres and Mets can catch the D-backs and Phillies for the division titles.

CUBS WIN! CUBS WIN!!!!!!!!!!!!

With the D-Backs win and the Mets loss, Arizona has atleast clinched the wild card. Their magic number for the division is 2.

Oh man, how sweet that was. Trevor striking out the side!

I hate the Cubs and I never would have thought they would win the division. Now let everyone lose tomorrow except the Pads, k?

Mets kill the Marlins. Phillies down 1 to the Nats.

I don't get how Manuel is running his pitching staff today at all. He's managing like the Phillies are a game down in the standings. First of all, Adam Eaton fucking blows. If you had that little confidence in him that you pull him after giving up 1 run in 2.1 IP, and you eventually bring in Kyle Lohse, why not start Lohse to begin with? It's the 5th inning, and the Phillies are on their 4th pitcher. I don't get it.

After 7 1/2 innings, Pads have held the Brewers to 2 hits but ahead only 3-2. 6 more outs. Time for the great combo of Bell/Hoffy.

He's a fucking retard, what did you expect?

You and I both know Eaton blows, apparently he's too stupid to figure it out himself.

Where the hell was that John Maine the past 2-3 months?

ALDS Matchups finally set:

Yankees v. Indians
Red Sox v. Angles

And with the Rockies currently blowing out the D'backs, we still have a chance for a 4 way-tie for the NL East Title & Wild Card between the Mets, Phillies, Rockies, and Padres, with 89 wins each.

If that happens, the Phillies and Mets would play for the division on Monday. Then the loser would join the Rockies and Padres in a mini 3-team wild card tournament. Per coin flip, one team gets to chose whether they play in a play-in game then potential final both at home, or if they go right to the final game, to be played on the road. (per Jason Stark). Under that scenario, it'd be possible for a team to play 4 games in 4 days in 4 cities, starting tomorrow. (Regular Season Finale, Wild Card Play-in/Division Playoff, Wild Card Final, NLDS game 1)

What an exciting way to end the year.

He wanted to make it dramatic ;).

Tomorrow should be a great day for baseball. Even though my Sox have no clinched the best record and the AL playoff picture is set, the NL playoffs are very interesting to say the least. I myself am rooting for the Rockies to make, those guys went from setting up golfing trips for next week to being in the playoffs with good position to take the NL. The last 2 weeks have been great baseball.

I just love that people have a reason to watch the Nats today. :)

Yahoo has it laid out nice and easy:
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_yl...yhoo&type=lgns

in KC, we're a little more concerned about the bottom. Ok, maybe no one is since I had to do a lot of digging to find out about draft orders:
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/standing...type=wild+card

Apparently, they are no longer doing the alternating league thing- it's strictly by lowest record. The other thing I didn't know until I looked it up is that the tiebreaker is pick from last year. For instance, if Kansas City ties with Pittsburgh for the 2nd worst record in the league, KC would get the 2nd pick since they picked lower last year (2 vs 4 last year). Tampa has clinched back-to-back 1st overall picks for the first time in history. Then there's a cluster of teams vying for those next picks (team, last years pick, wins):
Pittsburgh (4), 68 wins
Kansas City (2), 69 wins
Baltimore (5), 69 wins
Florida (10), 70 wins
San Fransisco (12), 70 wins
Cincinnati (15), 71 wins
Houston (17), 72 wins
Chicago AL (25), 72 wins
Washington (6), 73 wins

(keep in mind, this is all my own homework and no fact checking really done so I may be off with something).

So, for instance, with KC, they have three scenarios. If they lose and Pittsburgh loses, the Royals (69) pick 3rd as the Pirates (68) 2nd. If KC (69, 2) loses and Pittsburgh (69, 4) wins, KC has the tiebreaker from last year and they pick 2nd.

If KC (70, 2) wins, Pittsburgh (68/69, 4) automatically gets 2nd and the rest depends on Baltimore (69/70, 5). If Baltimore loses, they would get 3rd, losing out to Pittsburgh on the 4th vs 5th last year tiebreaker. But, if Baltimore wins, they get 4th as KC would edge them on the tiebreaker.

My favorite scenario at the bottom is KC winning, getting them to 70. Baltimore winning, giving KC the 3rd pick. And then San Fran and Florida both losing, giving all 4 of those teams 70 wins, making the Royals tied for 6th worst record in the league rather than lower but still getting that #3 pick :)

SI

I have to say that even with the wild card, the fact that there are all of these crazy tiebreaker scenarios to determine who goes to the playoffs in baseball -- after 162 games -- is pretty cool.

way to step it up Glavine.

Fucking has been

That's acute matchup.

I'm doing my best to ignore the results today, I'm just scared of the multi-teams mini-playoff scenarios.

I thought I was seeing an NFL score and had to do a double take. Never would have thought he'd have layed an egg like that in a million years. Brutal.

We need a Pads loss and a Rockies win. With our management sure to let every player who made this run possible leave, we have a one or two year window for playoff success.

Go Marlins, Nats and Backs.

Looks like the Mets have blown it. The Phillies and Padres just have to win and then we won't get to see any tiebreaker games.

Boston got the best record and actually chose to start its series a day earlier meaning that they'll get an extra day of rest. The Angels can now go with Lackey and Escobar up to 4 times and put Weaver or Colon out there just once. I thought Boston would choose the shorter series because of their depth in starting pitching, but I guess not. This means the Yankees and Cleveland will have to go 4 deep and not pitch Sabathia/Carmona and Pettitte/Wang for 4 games. I'm not sure who that hurts more. The Yankees hit Byrd and Westbrook pretty well this year. Mussina pitched pretty well the one time he faced Cleveland and Clemens didn't face them this year.

No kidding. No way they spend money and let this core stay, so...they need to go ahead and get it done while people are paying attention. Well and before the Marlins win another World Series. ;)

I was just looking at MLB.com and I'm glad that this year's Wild Card champs gear doesn't say "Wild Card Champions" on it. Because that's just pure silliness.

:(

Willis is trying his best to let the Mets back into the game and they just won't oblidge

Still, any Yankee fan should get his ass kicked if he wore that outside the house.

I bet there would be more Sox fan than Yankees fans wearing that if they faced off in the ALCS.

Not sure it's all that shocking really. Going into today, he'd given up 6 runs or more in 6 of his last 21 starts.

Guy is 6-2 with five other quality starts in which he got no decisions since July 1. Throw him under the bus for your collapse.

And the counterpoint!

It doesn't matter.

Guy comes out in the biggest game of the season and lays an egg. As a hall of famer you need to come out and find a way to get outs. Period.

It's kind of annoying that there's apparently no national MLB TV coverage today.

I wasn't saying a Yankee fan ought to wear it. I was just commenting on the change in lingo. I'd have rather have put the National League's up there, given my disdain for the Bronx Bitches, but...we obviously don't know who that's gonna be yet. :)

And yeah, if today isn't evidence that the baseball season needs to go back to 154 games, nothing is.

All football on TV, no baseball and it's going to get better, it's going to get worse as we head into the post-season. It's frustrating.

Besides, if they go back to 154 or shorten the calendar to even 148 games, it would give them a chance to wipe the record books and make all of those so-called steroid tainted records not count. Even selectively so. So obviously Cal's streak would be fine. But no one is going to hit 72 homers in 148 games and so, you can file that record away. And so forth...what an out for baseball. But that's too sensible, so I know it'll never happen.

The season will slog along and people will continue to have no idea what's going on, except for fans who follow the sport regularly.

I definitely agree with the shorter MLB season, I know what you were saying about the Wild Card lingo. As a Red Sox fan though, that shirt and hat just made me smile. I would definitely wear that stuff to a Sox/Yankees ALCS game.

I also HATE the 5-game first round series. 162 games to a 5 game series? Might as well save the time and flip a coin. If it were up to me, there'd be a 148-154 game season, 7 game division and league series, and 9 game world series. And all playoff series would only have an off-day on travel days. Because playoff baseball is a beautiful thing.

How about blaming a guy like Jose Reyes, hitting .250 since the ASB?

There's a lot of blame to go around for the collapse. But if Glavine threw a no-hitter today, he'd be getting a ridiculous amount of praise. He bombed, so he gets what's coming. Life of an athlete.

Glavines last 2 starts

5.0 IP, 9 hits, 6ER
.1 IP, 5 hits, 7ER

this is a guy who you gave big money to and in his 2 most important starts of the year this is what you get.