This year in Major League Baseball (MLB) 5 teams get to play, at least initially, in the post-season for both leagues (the American & National). This is a total of 10 teams out of 30 out there who get to feel some post-season baseball. That's not bad - a third of all the teams playing have a shot at winning it all. Compare this to other pro sports: In the NFL 12 out of 32 teams see post-season play (37.5%). In the NBA 16 out of 30 teams get into the playoffs (53.3%). In the NHL 16 of the 30 teams play in the post-season (53.3%). So comparatively MLB has the fewest teams seeing post-season play. When I started writing this post I had no idea that MLB was the loser in this, I actually assumed it had the most teams - but it's totally opposite.
As of this moment the Atlanta Braves are in 3rd place in the Wild Card standings, which means they would not see post-season play if the regular season was over. They have 21 games left in the regular season - 21 games left to try and beat out the competition for one of the top 2 spots. Their chances of winning the Eastern Division over Washington are nigh impossible - so that ship has sailed. But they do stand a chance at getting in as a wild card.
Assuming that San Francisco takes the top spot, the next spot looks to be between Atlanta, Milwaukee and Pittsburgh to take. There's only like 2 games difference between these 3 teams in the current standings, so with 21 games left any one of them could win it. Atlanta's been playing a little better lately, going 5-5 the last 10 games, while Milwaukee's gone 1-9 and Pitt's gone 4-6. If the Braves can keep up 50-50 ball they'll end up I think in pretty good shape & it would take one of the other two teams getting really hot to beat them. Of course anything can happen, which is why we watch them play, so we'll just have to wait and see.
Update: As of today (Sept. 13) Atlanta is in 4th place in the wild card standings behind San Francisco, Pittsburgh and Milwaukee with 15 games left to play. It's looking more and more like it'll be the Giants and Pirates playing for the wild card birth. There's still time to catch up being 3 games back, but it will be a Herculean effort to say the least for Atlanta to accomplish. And they're not playing well at the moment
(3-7 in the last 10 games). We'll just have to keep watching and hoping.
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