October in America

[wiggin]

Any other baseball fans here? I've been pretty excited this season because of the potential for fulfilling Marty Mcfly's timeline:



Pretty crazy regular season, with the three best teams in baseball coming out of a single division. I've got to feel bad for the Pirates - looks like they will yet again get screwed over by the Wild Card playoff system despite being a far better team than the likes of the Mets or Dodgers. It's pretty crazy that the divisional Cubs-Cards series might be the best we see until the World Series; definitely an argument in favor of ditching the division system in favor of conference-wide rankings. Then again, unevenness in schedules is hard to fix in a conference system, so maybe a divisional system has its merits.

The AL is a snooze - only worthwhile teams are the Royals and the Blue Jays, and my money is on the Blue Jays given their remarkable turnaround and talent. The NL will likely see some more fireworks, but my money is on the Cards or Cubs. If my fondest wishes are realized and the Cubs win the NLCS, it will be one of the most remarkable stories baseball has ever seen. They have always had the enormous weight of history given such a ridiculously long championship drought and so many near-misses in the playoffs... but the turnaround from just last year is phenomenal. I have to hand it to Epstein for investing in their farm system; the crop of young talent they have on offense is fantastic and likely to only get better with a bit of experience. Having only one Bryant would be good enough, but throw in Russell, Schwarber, and a bunch of other young talent, and you're looking at a serious future. The Lester signing was a waste, but fortunately Arrieta has turned in probably the most dominating second-half performance baseball has every seen. They need to patch some holes in starting pitching and relief, but even so I'm optimistic about the coming years, even if 2015 isn't it.

I'm currently watching Arrieta blank the Pirates in yet another commanding performance - we all thought this would be a fantastic pitching matchup given Cole's performance, but instead the game is decidedly one-sided under the crazily good offensive power under display. This bodes well for the NLDS against the Cards - if they can stay in this kind of shape, I'm thinking Cubs-Blue Jays, decided in 6. Anyone else?

(Full disclosure: when it comes to the Cubs I am less than dispassionate.)