Wild Card?

This being the start of September, (where the hell did summer go), this is the time in baseball when the pennant races heat up. I think it is a safe bet that the Braves aren’t going to catch the Philadelphia Philthies since they are 7.5 games back. But the wild card is still within reach.

The Braves are three games back in the wild card race with 31 to play and the baseball rule of thumb: You can only expect to make up one game a week. The Braves have four weeks and six days left so the goal is well within reach. Currently they are, three games behind two teams, but they don’t play either of those two teams again this season. But they have a softer schedule (only 12 of the final 31 games are against winning teams) than San Francisco and are playing better than Colorado, which has lost five in a row.

The key is the Braves don’t have to jump over four or five teams. They have only to climb past two, and the Giants and Rockies still must play one another three more times (Sept. 14-16 in San Fran). So the Braves have to just keep doing what they are doing by winning 2 out of 3 games for the remainder of the series in the season and we sit back and let San Fran and Colorado knock each other out. But we can’t forget about the Florida Marlins, they are right behind the Braves in the standings and we face them 6 more times this season. It is going to be an exciting race and will probably go to the last day or two of the season.

Also, today is the first day of the expanded rosters so hopefully we can call up some bats we can use in critical pinch hitting situations. Now we won’t have to relay on Greg Norton to come through for us in the clutch, Brooks Conrad, I am looking at you!

Go Braves!