Far better than the AL race which is mostly propped up by the White Sox being a horrible baseball team. Tigers and Royals are 82-74. Twins are 81-75. The Tigers are 9-1 against the White Sox and the Twins and Royals are 12-1 against the White Sox.
Playing the worst team in MLB history 13 times is going to get 2 of those teams into the playoffs that probably don't deserve to be there.
Kind of just dawned on me how LHP heavy our middle relievers are. Williams and Megill locked into 8th and 9th innings leaves just Payamps, Ross, and one of Mears/Rea/Civale for our non-8th/9th inning RHP. Definitely makes you wish we had called up Misiorowski at some point. All of our WC opponents are better against LHP and all of them only have 3 LHP on their active roster.
wRC+ vs LHP
NYM - 120 wRC+ (107 vs RHP)
ARI - 119 wRC+ (113 vs RHP)
ATL - 114 wRC+ (95 vs RHP)
LHH on their active roster
NYM - 3
ARI - 3
ATL - 3
Makes sense to call it because worst case scenario is the Brewers get swept by the Pirates then win game 1 against the Mets before dropping the series.
They have basically played full strength lineups in this series outside of game 3.
Game 1 - Adames day off
Game 2 - full strength lineup
Game 3 - Chourio and Contreras day off
Game 4 - full strength lineup
So when the Cubs had a less than 1% chance to win the division you were fine stoking fear that they would come back but when the Brewers have a 5-15% chance to secure the bye after the Phillies series they had no chance? That makes zero sense.
No chance the guy who was acting like the Cubs still had a chance in the division race 2 weeks ago is saying the race for the bye was over when the Brewers clinched.
I really don't want to hear the whole "Brewers had nothing to play for" line. The 2 seed and bye was absolutely in reach before this Arizona series started. If the Brewers swept the Dbacks like they are about to do to us we would be tied in the win column with the Phillies before their Sunday Night Baseball game tonight.
Brewers SP IP by game since DL Hall started against Arizona last weekend.
3
5
5.2
5
4
4
4.1
2.2
That's an average of 4.1 IP per start over a stretch of 8 games in a row.
This is my playoff lineup.
C: Contreras
1B: Hoskins
2B: Turang
3B: Ortiz
SS: Adames
LF: Chourio
RF: Frelick
CF: Mitchell
DH: Sanchez
I'm not sure there's a single other player I want to see play in the playoffs at this point.
Brewers SP IP by game since DL Hall started against Arizona last weekend.
3
5
5.2
5
4
4
4.1
That's an average of 4.4 IP per start over a stretch of 7 games in a row. Brewers relievers must be on fumes right now.
Playing one of the top offenses in the MLB and you're giving away outs bunting while down by 2 runs in the 3rd...it's scary to think about how often we might be bunting in the playoffs.
Probably although the Mets are a pretty damn good team in their own right. Really good and deep offense and a solid pitching staff that's been really good in the 2nd half of the year.
With the Cubs loss today they are technically eliminated from playoff contention. The most wins the Cubs can finish the season with is 86. The Mets currently have 85 wins and the Braves 83 wins. Those teams still have 3 games together meaning it either guarantees the Mets or Braves reach 86 wins and eliminate the Cubs because they have the tiebreaker.
It's actually crazy how deep the Dbacks roster is. 12 of the 14 players on their active roster have a wRC+ of 100 or better. The 2 who don't are Kevin Newman a glove first utility infielder and Jose Herrera a backup catcher.
Compare that to the Brewers who only have 6 players on the active roster with a wRC+ of 100 or better and one of them is Eric Haase with his 59 PA who is way overperforming his underlying numbers.
Shame that Biloxi couldn't clone K.C. Hunt for the game tonight. Peterson was absolutely rocked. Gave up 5 runs in 1.2 IP. With Biloxi's offense that's probably the season.
While that's true on his innings pitched, he's only exceeded last year's IP total by 3 innings at this point, so it's not like he's well exceeded his career high in IP. If they bring him up, I'd imagine it be as an opener or long reliever. Not as a SP.