Thursday, September 27, 2007

My dream National League finish

With four days left in the season, the American League playoff teams are all set. Things are quite different in the National League where 7 teams have a legitimate shot at making the playoffs. Here's my dream situation as to how the NL teams finish.

Current Standings (All Thursday games finished)

ARZ 88 70 --- West 1
NYM 87 71 1.5 East 1
SDP 87 71 1.5 West 2 - WC 1
PHI 86 72 2.5 East 2 - WC 2t
COL 86 72 2.5 West 3 - WC 2t
CHC 83 75 6.0 Cent 1
MIL 81 77 7.5 Cent 2

Here's what each team needs to do to maximize ties.

The Key Series
San Diego at Milwaukee - The Brewers need to take 3 of the 4 games. The Padres end with 88 wins and the Brewers would end with 84 wins.

The Mets need to finish 1-3 to end with 88 wins. They finish with St. Louis today and three home games against Florida.

The Phillies have 4 games left - one with Atlanta and a three-game home series against Washington. I'd like to see the Phils split 2-2, that way they end up with 88 wins.

The Rockies have one at Chavez Ravine tonight and then three at home against Arizona. Of the four games the Rockies need to win two to finish with 88 wins. The D'Backs have some flexibility. They can win 1, 2 or 3 games.

The Cubs play at Florida today and then finish with three at Cincinnati. They need to go 1-3 to finish with 84 wins.

If all these situations pan out, the Diamondbacks would have home field throughout, the Mets and Phillies tie for the East title, the Brewers and Cubs tie for the Central and the Mets, Phillies, Padres and Rockies tie for the Wild Card. Here's what the standings would look like...

ARZ 90 72 --- West 1
NYM 88 74 2.0 East 1t - WC 1t
SDP 88 74 2.0 West 2t - WC 1t
PHI 88 74 2.0 East 1t - WC 1t
COL 88 74 2.0 West 2t - WC 1t
CHC 84 78 6.0 Cent 1t
MIL 84 78 6.0 Cent 1t

That's it. There would be tie-breakers galore. So many, I'm not even going to try and figure out how baseball would solve them.

Go Brewers!