It doesn’t seem fair that the teams with baseball’s second and third-best records are playing in a sudden death elimination game, but those are the breaks. The Chicago Cubs (97-65) travel to Pittsburgh to play the Pirates (98-64) to win the right to move on to the NLDS in St. Louis. Unlike the AL game […]

The Houston Astros (86-76) and the New York Yankees (87-75) meet tonight in the American League Wild Card game to determine who’ll go on to face the Kansas City Royals in the ALDS. It’s a battle of two teams that have had their ups and downs this year: both of them were in first place […]

Before last year’s playoffs, Madison Bumgarner was probably regarded by most baseball fans as a pretty good pitcher, just a notch or two below the best in the game. One ridiculous October later and he was a household name, gracing the cover of Sports Illustrated and selling underwear on The Tonight Show. The Postseason can […]

Winning back-to-back world championships is hard. The San Francisco Giants have learned that three times over now, with their latest quest to defend their title coming to an end last night. But unlike the previous two odd years, this one left Giants fans with good feelings and hope that the even year thing may continue […]

Down years happen. For as good as any player can be, he’s bound to have a year where his numbers fall and he fails to live up to lofty expectations. It’s part of the game, and usually fans are accepting of them to a point. But some down years are definitely worse than others, like […]

The first year of the Tony LaRussa/Dave Stewart regime in Phoenix provided plenty of comic relief for snarky baseball bloggers, but more importantly it also provided a step forward for a franchise one year removed from a 98-loss season. The Diamondbacks were over .500 as late as August 23, and while they likely won’t finish […]

The San Diego Padres found out the hard way that winning the offseason world championship doesn’t mean much of anything once April rolls around. The darlings of the winter, San Diego hoped their multitude of personnel moves would result in the team’s first playoff appearance since 2006; instead, barring a miracle they’ll finish under .500 […]

Having a big lead in September is usually a good sign that a team is playoff-bound, but it’s definitely not a sure thing. You may think your team is sitting pretty with a 9 game division lead in the middle of the month, then cold hard reality smacks you in the face and your squad […]

If any division-leading team was primed for a September collapse, it was the Mets. They had a bunch of things working against them: the drama surrounding Matt Harvey and his innings limit, a young pitching staff that could tire down the stretch, and a history of gut-punching September finishes (like 2007 and 2008) that seemed […]

Should a league MVP come from a team that doesn’t make the playoffs? There’s a good chance that old argument will be reignited this offseason in the National League. Bryce Harper is having a transcendent year, one that would seemingly make awarding him the big prize a cinch. But the Nationals are in a downward […]

August is just about in the books, and the Giants managed to survive a brutal schedule and keep themselves within striking distance of a playoff spot. And while we’re supposed to believe baseball is a team game, they basically have one person to thank for keeping them in contention: Madison Bumgarner. Bumgarner had one of […]

Are the Boston Red Sox contenders this year? (waiting for you to stop laughing) Okay, now that you’ve gotten that out of your system: have you noticed that the Red Sox haven’t been terrible lately? And that as things stand currently, they’re only 7.5 games out of a Wild Card spot? Could they actually make […]

The National League West had a legitmate claim to the toughest division in baseball when the season began. You had the defending world champion Giants and the defending division champion Dodgers, both reloaded and looking like contenders. The Padres had made a ton of moves over the winter and boasted a dangerous lineup on paper. […]

Last week, Ichiro Suzuki made history when he tied (and ultimately surpassed) Ty Cobb on the all-time hits list. Well, actually, no: Ichiro is still 1,270 hits behind Cobb. But because he had 1,278 career hits in the Japanese League, people decided to combine the two and come up with that Cobb-beating number. Depending on […]

High expectations can be a dangerous thing. Almost everyone expected the Washington Nationals to be really, really good this year. Many expected them to win the National League, and just as many picked them to win the World Series. They were a team that didn’t have many obvious weaknesses; instead, they added to their strengths, […]