The NL Central is by far the best division in baseball. There's no doubt about it. And I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that the World Series champions will come from this division.
If you take a look at the numbers than I have a feeling you may agree with me. Only one team in the AL--Kansas City--has a better record than the third place team in the NL Central. And only one other team in the NL--Los Angeles--has the same record as the third place team in the NL Central.
I willfully admit that I am pretty partial to the NL Central considering I am rooting for my Lovable Losers to go all the way this year, but I also try to stay as realistic as possible when I make predictions. And I'm predicting that the World Series champions will be from the NL Central.
My sincere hope is that it's the Cubbies, but I'll write another post on that when and if they make it to the World Series. I'm really trying to not get ahead of myself just yet!
Lovable Losers Wrote:If you take a look at the numbers than I have a feeling you may agree with me. Only one team in the AL--Kansas City--has a better record than the third place team in the NL Central. And only one other team in the NL--Los Angeles--has the same record as the third place team in the NL Central.
It's hard to believe, but this division still has the best three records in the entire MLB. If the Cards, Pirates, and Cubs finish the regular season with the best three records then this would be the first time in the history of major league baseball that three teams from the same division finished with the best three records.
Think about that for a second. A sport that has been around since the Cincinnati Red Stockings formed the first professional team in 1869 has never, not once, had three teams from the same division have the best three records in all of baseball.
There's only a handful of games left in the regular season and the Cubs currently have a one game "lead" on the Toronto Blue Jays and a two game "lead" on Kansas City. If they can finish off the season strongly then the NL Central will make major league history. (It helps that the Cubs final five games are against two of the worst teams in the major leagues.)
Regardless of where your team loyalties lie, you have to admit that this would be an extremely exciting thing for the sport. It's just sad that two of the teams (Pirates and Cubs) have only a one game Wild Card to make it further into the playoffs. That just seems so unfair to basically punish two of the three teams that have the best three records in all of baseball because they happen to come from the same division!
Lovable Losers Wrote: And it's official. St. Louis, Cincinnati, and Chicago have made history. This is the first time in history that three teams from the same division finished with the best three records in MLB. That's just insane.
I can't believe ESPN and other sports outlets aren't talking about this more.
If the MLB had their playoff format in the same way the NBA recently switched it to then these would be the top three ranked teams in the playoffs, but instead two of the top three teams in the league have one game to see who gets to proceed. That doesn't seem very fair to me, but it is what it is.
BearDown Wrote:Lovable Losers Wrote: And it's official. St. Louis, Cincinnati, and Chicago have made history. This is the first time in history that three teams from the same division finished with the best three records in MLB. That's just insane.I can't believe ESPN and other sports outlets aren't talking about this more.If the MLB had their playoff format in the same way the NBA recently switched it to then these would be the top three ranked teams in the playoffs, but instead two of the top three teams in the league have one game to see who gets to proceed. That doesn't seem very fair to me, but it is what it is.