bukie

I admittedly know less about the Marlins than I do any of the playoff teams this year, so I did a bit of research, and the question coming out of the research is: How in the world did the Marlins make the playoffs this year? I'm not sure there's anything they do particularly well. - As a team, they were outscored by 41 runs on the season, bested only by the Pirates and Rockies for worst RD in the NL. - They scored 263 runs, 2 fewer than the Cubs who basically shut their offense off for the entirety of September. - As a team, they hit 60 HRs, better than only the Pirates, Indians, Diamondbacks and Cardinals (who played 2 fewer games) - Their team OBP was .319, good enough for 17th in baseball (Cuts were 18th at .318) - The one thing they did excel at was SB, where they stole 51 bases, good for second in baseball. They were successful 78% of the time. - Their starting pitching FIP was 5.02, good for 26th in baseball. Their starting pitching fWAR was 1.9, good for 28th in baseball, or 2/3 of a Yu Darvish (3.0 fWAR). Their best starting pitchers (top 3 are similar) had peripherals similar to Alzolay for the season. - Their relievers had a 5.65 FIP and -1.5 fWAR, good for 29th in baseball (Cubs ended up 18th). Their closer is Brandon Kintzler, who should be familiar to Cubs fans, and he hasn't exactly been stellar this season, despite a deceptively good looking ERA (similar to Jeffress, but Jeffress has better peripherals). - Their best reliever (and arguably best player ovreall) has been Yimi Garcia, with a 0.60 ERA and a 0.93 WHIP. He's a righty that throws FB/CH/SL, sitting just under 95 on the fastball, but he's been effective in 14 appearances for the Marlins this season after spending the prior 6 seasons with the Dodgers. - Their best hitter has been either 31 year old veteran Miguel Rojas, who has doubled his walk rate this year and has a .392 OBP, or 27 year old Brian Anderson, who led the team in HRs with 11, and had a K rate of 28%, similar to Schwarber this year.

You missed one winless team, the Texans, aka the anti-Bears, 0-3 after a schedule of Chiefs-Ravens-Steelers.

Over/under on the first Bartman reference on Wednesday? I'm going to guess 2 hours before the game starts, during the day's pregame.

And 3 of 5 AL central teams. And none are playing each other in round 1, leaving open the possibility of 7 central teams in the division series. Or none.

Reds beat Twins 5-3, and AL playoffs are set: 1. Rays vs 8. Blue Jays 2. As vs 7. White Sox 3. Twins vs 6. Astros 4. Indians vs 5. Yankees

White Sox lose, putting them 7th, Indians 4th. Twins trailing 5-2 in the 10th,As get 2nd if the score holds Twins 2nd if they win.

Reds-Twins in extras. If Twins win and White Sox lose, Twins-White Sox in first round. If Twins and WS both lose, Twins play Astros . If Twins lose and WS win, Twins play Yankees.

NL playoffs set: 1. Dodgers vs 8. Brewers 2. Braves vs 7. Reds 3. Cubs vs 6. Marlins 4. Padres vs 5. Cardinals

Giants lose, so the Brewers get the 8 seed at 29-31.

Indians win, so if the White Sox lose, the Indians will be the 4 seed and WS 7th. If White Sox win and Twins lose, the WS are the 2 seed and Indians 7th.

Cardinals win clinches 5 seed for them, 6 for Miami, 7 for Reds.

Cards win, they are the 5 seed, Marlins the 6 seed. Blue Jays lose, they are the 8 seed, Yanks the 5 seed.

Phillies lose, and are eliminated from playoff contention. Giants down 5-4 in the bottom of the 8th.

Should have just held off on using him until a low leverage situation in a meaningless game.

yikes, how many days ago were they the #1 seed? A week ago they were the top seed.

I'm looking forward to an NLDS in Texas featuring Cubs vs Reds and Cards vs Brewers.

Since the Marlins are up 3-0 yes definitely if mia/stl win and cin loses, dont we get the reds? No, if STL wins the Cubs get MIA no matter what else happens.

Edited the chart to show the Phillies are playing the Rays, not the Nats. It's essentially the same, but the Rays are a better team, though playing for nothing and may toss out the lineup of "players not expected to see time in the playoffs". Giants and Phillies HAVE to win the make the playoffs. If both lose, the Cards and Brewers are in regardless of that game's results.

Looking forward to a 2-HR game from Hamilton today, one inside the park, one out of the park.

Cubs abandon Wisdom to call up Marquez.

The only other thing the chart doesn't cover: - If MIL wins, they are in the playoffs 100%. Seeding would depend on the rest of the league's results. - If SFG loses, the Cardinals are in and would not play extra games regardless of other results.

Here's a chart of the 32 possible scenarios and how the seeds would shake out in the NL:

If the Reds or Cards win today, the Cubs will play the Marlins. If they both lose, and the Cards either don't play the extra games or split them, the Cubs play the Cards (even if the Marlins lose). If the Cards somehow don't make the playoffs, and the Reds lose and the Marlins win, the Cubs play the Reds.

Giants lose, bumping the Brewers into the 8 spot for now, reducing the Cards magic number to 1, and keeping the Phillies alive for a spot. 4 teams alive for 2 spots going into the last day of the season.

I just want them to lose tomorrow because they’re probably in if they win and I want them to both have a chance to miss the playoffs and to have to play on Monday. They are definitely in with a win and wouldn't have to play the extra games. Even if the Cards lose to the Brewers tomorrow, it would still require at least 1 Giants win to play the Tigers games.