Lazy, Lazy, Lazy

A weak one-game Weekend Pickoff and just one blog the whole week is not gonna cut it. I don't know what happened. We had breakdowns across the board. But, in analyzing and trying to find a good excuse for the lack of blogs, I came across this dandy from a few blogs ago...

"It's mid-September, and usually the baseball races contend with football for the media spotlight. Well, not this year. Colorado plays San Francisco tonight as they battle for the National League Wild Card spot. Realistically, it's the only race in question."

Well, not so much, Conor. Yes, that race is still in question (but with the Braves challenging Colorado, not the Giants), but the big deal now comes courtesy of the American League Central. The Minnesota Twins have cooked up quite a tasty dish for this final week of the season, as they are just two games behind the Detroit Tigers. How you ask? Well, going 10-1 over their last 11 usually helps.

The gamebreaker in all of this: The Twins virtually control their own destiny thanks to the schedule, as 4 of their final 9 games are against those very Tigers. If the Twins go into Detroit and make some hay, they will have earned their spot in the playoffs and become a nightmare in the first round because of their mojo overload. And who faces the winner of this tight division in the first round? The almighty Yankees. Should be fun to watch. If we're gonna handicap it (and we're GONNA handicap it), I'm still giving the edge to Detroit despite this remarakble run by the Twins (who, by the way, are without thier best offensive threat Justin Morneau.) After 17-20 seconds of thinking, I give the Tigers a 78% chance of winning, and the Twins 22%. Whoever comes out will play the Yankees while the Angels will play the Red Sox in a sweet first-round matchup.

Now over to the race I mentioned in that previous blog. The only team as hot as the Twins in the American League are the Braves of the NL. How 'bout 13-2 in their last 15? Atlanta has gone nuts and is putting some serious heat on the Rockies. Colorado has held strong of late, but have a bizarre ability to lose several games in a row and then flip the switch and rip off many wins in a row. Right now, the Rocks lead by 3 with 8 left. It's a relatively cozy lead, but I think it is surmountable.

The handicap for this one: 55% for the Braves, 45% for the Rockies. And it has everything to do with the schedule. Colorado hosts the Cardinals and Brewers, then go on the road to Los Angeles, where you get the feeling the Dodgers would love to spoil things for their divisional foe. Not so easy. The Braves? Well they are in Washington tomorrow to play the lowly lowly Nationals, and then head home for 7 straight against those same Nationals and a Marlins team that will likely be demoralized and waiting to pack thier bags for the winter. It is all set up on a platter for the Braves to dominate the rest of the way and sneak into the playoffs. Colorado has to stay tough against some much tougher opponents to fend off those sneaky Braves. It's a great thing about sports though: that the Nationals or whoever can be awful all season, but still have a big role in who goes to the playoffs in the end.

Whoever wins the Wild Card melee will decide the first-round matchups in the National League. All three division winners are very close in record so it will be interesting to see how it plays out. What we (almost) know for certain: the Phillies, Cardinals, and Dodgers are all in. With one week left, there are still answers to be saught. When we know these answers, we will have the Reilly Sports Blog playoff preview extravaganza. Until then, we will see you tomorrow for the NFL Weekend Pickoff. And we won't be lazy this time. We are going back to fundamentals. And the Reilly Sports Blog puts the fun in fundamentals. Thanks for reading and enjoy your Saturday.