FanNation - The Republic of Sport

The MLB Wild Card and Pennant Races are heating up. The Rays, Angels, Cubs, Phillies, and Dodgers are already clinched and in my mind the Twins are too. The real race to me is the Brew Crew and the Mets. As a Mets and Yankees fan, but more of a Yankees fan. I would like to see the Mets not collapse. The main problems for the Mets are the bullpen and Johan Santana. Santana pitched 125 pitches, a carreer high, then three days later he pitched a complete game! All because of bullpen troubles, but still, his arm is bound to get tired and Oliver Perez and Pedro Martinez really have to step up and pitch better in the playoffs if the Mets do make the playoffs. Now what's really sad is that the Brewers played against the Cubs, who were using backups, and lost 7-3. That evens them up with the Mets and snaps a five game winning streak after a major slump. Luckily for them, they have ace CC Sabathia on the mound against the Cubs, but they are still against backups and pitching against Angel Guzman a former minor leaguer not to long ago. While the Mets are facing the Marlins, who knocked them out last year and would love to knock them out again, with Oliver Perez pitching, who can step up now and they are against the slumping Scott Olsen. Remeber the team that wins the World Series or any other title is the team that gets the hottest at the right time. Like the NFL playoffs in 2005 the Steelers marched all the way to the super bowl. In 2007 the Cardinals and Tigers went to the World Series with the Cards winning. In 2007 the Giants won the Super Bowl, in 2003 the Panthers went to the super bowl, in 2007 the Cavs went to the NBA Finals, in 2007 the Ducks won the Stanley Cup,  and in 2007 the Rockies made it to the World Series. So you see it doesn't matter which sport, but a lot of times the hottest team and not the best seeded team makes it to the championship. Right now the Dodgers and the Twins look like those teams. The White Sox will be out due to Carlos Quentin's injury and a lack of proven starters other than Javier Vazquez who hasn't won much and Mark Buerhle has only been OK but both haven't won much. Their closer Bobby Jenks was dreadful too. At least Gavin Floyd won games and Johnny Danks was solid. Even if they did make the playoffs they probably wouldn't be contenders at all. Hank Steinnbreiner and I agree that the MLB's playoff system is screwed up. That the Twins who have a worse record than the Yankees can make it to the playoffs because they have an easier division. Division playoffs are a mistake, there should be the top 8 teams in each league to make it to the playoffs. In this playoff system however the top team in each division and the next best team based on their record make it to the playoffs so only four do and it is not as exciting. The Yankees were fourth in the AL, yet they still didn't make it and they are currently the sixth best team in the entire major league! The MLB have a dire need to change this system.