Well, let's start the insanity...


Yankees are 9 up. Rangers are up 5.5 on the fighting Trouts. Every other division is tight.

EIGHT teams are within 2 games of each other for the AL wild card.

As I predicted before the season, squeezing this new playoff format in at the last minute will result in a scheduling nightmare/embarrassment for Bud Selig.


If you consider 10 games out to be "out of it" there are only 5 teams in that group, all in the NL


The AL is gonna be real interesting.

Storylines to watch down the stretch

Strasburg and Washington in a pennant race

Harper and Trout could both make playoffs

Chris Sale making a Cy Young run

Will Pittsburgh last?

Will Josh Hamilton get to 40 homeruns?

It's unlikely but I think the Angels can still catch the Rangers. That was as bad an April as possible for them.

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

For sure. They have the best player in baseball right now in Trout and Pujols can still carry a team.

The Rangers might be too good, but it wont be the Angels fading.

Great news for my Cardinals with Votto being out 3-4 weeks. Time to make up some ground!

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-- source

The surging Cubs have passed the Astros, Rockies and Padres in what will be a historic and heroic effort to reach the 2012 post season.

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

Agreed.

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Run differential suggests they will regardless.

But yeah, that helps.

The record according to the runn differential should be much better. For those who believe in "clutch", if you've watched the games, the big run producers haven't always come through and are injury-prone; bullpen has been bad to terrible

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1926-1931-1934-1942-1944-1946-1964-1967-1982-2006-2011

12.5 games out of the wild card.

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One person here predicted a playoff appearance for the Cubs.

I knew this happen.

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My question is meatball related, I think....

Since there will be two wild cards this year, that will obviously increase the number of teams involved. Speaking from my recollection, I know there have been several times where there has been a runaway wild card, and therefore little "down the stretch" interest in the season. I believe there have been several, but fewer, times where two teams were competing for the wild card and everyone else was left in the dust.

My question is what do you do if you are a team that is contending for the second wild card. Say the first wild card team will finish 3 to 4 games out of their division, maybe an average division... say 92 wins. Then let's say there are four teams that are tracking towards 87 wins.

As a GM, what do you do when you get down to the trading deadline? At that point, you are pretty far away from knowing the final picture, but you know you are one of the teams who is probably in it. But you know you won't win your division -- you can only get in as a wild card. Is it worth it to trade away some great prospects to get one good pitcher or one good bat just to get WC2? And then be eliminated in one game potentially? I would hate to see my favorite team's GM do that... but I predict this will happen for the first few years of this situation. Eventually, savvy teams will realize that it isn't worth it to try to trade to get into the wild card play in game, but they'll still have to deal with the fans saying they waved the "white flag."

How as a GM can you convince your fanbase that you're really not that great this year, that even if you traded and improved, you would still be low end material, with a coin flip of moving past the wild card round? That's going to be pretty tough to do, and I imagine you'll see a couple GMs accused of not going for it in the next couple of years.

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"All crowds boycotting football games shouldn't care who sings or takes a knee because they aren't watching." - Nas

A lot of "Great News!" responses from Cardinals fans on Votto being injured.

I'm sure you were absolutely crushed when Pujols landed on the DL last year with a wrist injury.

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-- source

I believe I had them losing in the NLCS to the Phillies.


Someone take away my baseball viewing card.

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Eh. I had the Rockies, Brewers, Marlins, and Phillies going to the playoffs in the NL

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No, I was not.

He said, "time to make up some ground." He wasn't celebrating the fact that Votto is going under the knife.

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Well, the Cardinals were 10 games out in the NL Central with a month to go last year, and we all remember what happened. Anything's possible...

You're darn tootin', SHARK. I still have NLCS Game Six on my DVR, aptly titled as "The Simpsons" and "TMZ" since the game ran well past Fox's allotted time slot.

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-- source

Yeah, I really don't get that. We (Cards fans) would be better suited worrying about our own team.

Well... yeah. Isn't it great news for the Cardinals?

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Maybe if our bullpen wasn't awful on epic levels and our hitters didn't forget how to hit once runners got in scoring position.

Thats because David Freese isn't a good a leader like Albert Pujols was.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Don't look now but the Cubs just won another series.

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

The Cards have been playing very good baseball.

With one of those weeks in the books, they only lost a game and a half in the standings.

After two weeks of Votto being out of the lineup the Cardinals are still losing ground. It's tough because they continue to play great baseball, they just have the misfortune of being in the same division as the best team in the majors.

I want the Reds to win today just to see Marty get his head shaved.

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

Ive got the Reds broadcast on and they are up 7-2 in the 9th. A head will be shaved.

Dammit...he isnt doing it until next weekend.

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

Didn't realize they gave out World Series titles in July. Congrats!!!

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-- source