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Its pretty stupid when the 3 best teams in baseball, not even one league, are all from the same division. The fact that 2 of the teams in the NL Central are going to have to play in a Best of 1 wildcard game to make the playoffs while teams like mets and dodgers are getting a pass into the top 8 is ridiculous.

Every sport has dumb playoff technicalities, the NL Central situation is very unfortunate for whoever doesn't win the division.

It's like in football, technically the Ravens could go 15-1, and the Steelers go 14-2 and the winner of the AFC West could go 6-10. Steelers would be on the road with 14 wins.

But notice most sports are slowly changing that. NBA made it official its seeding by record. NFL is being pressured to do the same. Of course MLB finally adopted 5 teams and replay way after the rest. maybe they'll update themselves in year 2050

Well just as the season was over, it came back to life. Pirates take 2/3 from The NL West leading Dodgers in Dodger Stadium. They beat one of the best pitchers in the game too. The Pirates are looking down a 4 game series against the Colorado Rockies, who own the second worst record in the NL. 2 game cushion on the Cubs, 4 back of St Louis. 3 games head to head with each team, season is still entirely in their hands.

Yes, it is. Kudos for taking 2 of 3 from LA. They need 3 of 4 from CR, or better yet, a sweep. I still don't like how Cole gives up 2 or 3 runs early in a game, then works his **** off for 5 or 6 innings. Today the BP or defense didn't lose it for him, but Marte's baserunning gaffe really bugged me. C'mon, Bucs. THIS is the kind of stuff that's keeping them from overtaking the Cards. The last 3 series against Chi, St.L. and Cin. will show the world what this team is made of, if it's championship caliber or not.

12HankQB wrote:Remember the time Bobby Boucher showed up at halftime and the Mud Dogs won the Bourbon Bowl, do ya?

BEST. POST. EVER!

My favorite party entrance.

Cole went 7, struck out 9, and walked none. That's an efficient and very good start for him. I don't like that he gives up runs early either, but it's asking a lot of him to be shutdown every game. A thing with Cole is, he pitches to contact sometimes and goes right at guys, sometimes guys can't catch up to it, but other times it leaves him vulnerable to some runs against good teams.

17-8 2.64 ERA 194 Innings 192 Strikeouts for a 25 year old in his first true full season in the majors with 2-3 starts left. He's an incredible talent that still has better years than this ahead of him.

Everything you said is true. But, he can't carry them through the playoffs himself!

Liriano, Burnett and Happ are more than adequate pitchers for games two, three and four.