Thursday, April 23, 2009

Playoff Hunt Is On The NL

With 24 games to go, who has the best chance of making the playoffs. Since the AL picture looks pretty well locked up and already reported, here is the NL.

NL North
Chicago Cubs seem to have things well in hand with a 7 game lead. The reason, 7 games are too hard to make up in the NL North.

NL East
Atlanta Pork-N-Beans have a 12 game lead and inside track to the #1 seed.

NL South
Houston Astros have a 15 game lead which pretty well locks the division up for them.

NL West
Salem Volcanoes have a 15 game lead and has staved off a sudden Vancouver run and has the division well in hand.

The Wild Card
This is where things get very interesting and nasty.
The Pittsburgh Pirates are currently in the #5 seed spot. For how long is a huge question mark since they are part of that rough and tumble NL North.
The Cleveland Indians have sneaked their way into the #6 slot 1 game in back of the Pirates.
The Cincinnati Reds, yeah the Reds, are not in a playoff spot at this time, how long ago has it been since that happened this late in the season? They are only 1 game behind the Indians however and two behind the Pirates so we can't count them out yet.
The Milwaukee Brewers have played their way into contention even though they are the 4th place team in the North.
The Florida Marlins are on a rampage of late to be a contender, will it hold up?
The Trenton Ball Hogs have stayed steady and are looking to make a run.

So who has the best chance to securing the Wild Cards before the dust settles? Yesterday I would have said the Indians because they have the easiest schedule, however today is another story. Three of the teams are in the rough and tumble North and could boil down to a brew ha ha at the end as the Cubs could play favorites, but it may not matter by then. Trenton and Florida could sneak in but that actually remains a long shot with their schedules as each would need to go 16-8 at a minimum.

No comments: