Such a strange season so far.

-The Mets, after being so dominant the 1st two months, have managed to give back 5 games to the Braves, and 4.5 to the Phillies in just the last 10 games...while still playing .500 ball.

-The Brewers have coughed-up 1st place by going 1-10 in their last 11, but are only 1.5 back in a terrible division.

- The Twins are in 1st place, and 9 games over .500, despite scoring only 31 more runs than they've given up.

-The Red Sox are now tied for a playoff spot, after being 7 games under .500 at the beginning of June.

By "giving back" I simply meant that despite playing decent ball, the Mets still lost 5 games to the Braves over those 14 games.

The NL Central, in my opinion, isn't very good. The Brewers are 11-13 vs the NL East and 3-5 vs the West. The Cards are 7-8 vs the East and 9-5 vs the West. Thats a combined 30-31 vs the East & West. Meh...

Amazing day of baseball yesterday. When the Mariners were down 8-1 and hitting batters to load the bases it seemed like the game-result was a given. Apparently not.

And the NL East could have 3 of the 4 teams left in the NL at the end of the day today.

The Cards and the NL Central limped out of the playoffs like the division played through the season. (Worst division in baseball. 36 of the Cards' W's this year came against just 3 teams (the Cubs, Pirates, and Reds); 33 of the Brewers W's came from games vs. those 3 teams as well. Cards were 8-13 vs. the top 3 teams of the NL East; the Brewers 8-12.)

And 15 innings of defense and pitching in Cleveland was just nuts.

Next round is going to be incredibly interesting with the matchups. Especially if it ends up being Mets v LA.

This is possibly better for the Phillies, who are far less deep with pitching. Gives Wheeler and Nola an additional day of rest, and I suspect they roll them out in games 5 and 6 now.

They could get super aggressive and go Ranger Suarez instead of Syndergaard tomorrow in game 3 and maybe Nola in 4 and Wheeler in 5. But that would be a gamble.

As a Phillies fan, congrats to the 'Stros. They were the better team this series. Phils' bats didn't show up, but Houston's pitching was probably the reason. Painted the strike zones all Series and kept batters off balance throughout the playoffs.

Offseason is going to be fun for a lot of teams. Phillies will need to plug holes to get a pure leadoff hitter and some guys who actually get on base.
The pitching will likely come from the minors, and the bullpen is now at the very least solid.

Will be interesting to see if the Astros can keep all these players and pay them.

After this offseason, it will likely be another season of Haves and Have Nots. Would *love* to see MLB expand to a few more teams and have a 2-League relagation set-up. If teams like the Marlins, Pirates, and Royals don't want to pay to compete, they can compete to not be sent down.

When the better teams play each other consistently, baseball is sooo good. This year's playoffs were a good example of that. Some great baseball, and about 10-15 really exciting games.

With the World Series over, it got me dreaming about how great a 2-Tiered relegation League would be. Here's what my Dream League would look like, based on this year's standings and adding expansion teams.

General rules: Last place team from each division in "A" is replaced by the first place team from the same "B" league division every year. "B" League playoff champion gets the option to choose their "A" division but have to remain in the respective National or American League.

Playoff Format: A-League, top 2 teams from each division make playoffs, with normal 7 game series, and division winners having home field advantage or even playing all first round games at division winner. B-League, same format, and if a non-division winner wins their B-League championship, they also move up to A, replacing the team in the respective National or American League with the worst record left in that division. (This would make the B-League playoffs meaningful for a cities in the A-League who finished 4th in their divisions, and their fans can sweat it out until their danger-team in the B-League is eliminated.)

(So, come playoffs, the only cities in the A-League where baseball might be boring are for the 3rd place teams cemented into 3rd place.)

A-League:

NL East:
Phillies
Braves
Mets
Cardinals
Brewers

NL West:
Dodgers
Padres
Cubs
Giants
Diamondbacks

AL East:
Yankees
Blue Jays
Rays
Orioles
Red Sox

AL West:
Astros
Mariners
Guardians
WhiteSox
Twins

League 2

NL East:
Marlins
Nationals
Pirates
Montreal
Nashville

NL West:
Rockies
Reds
Oklahoma City
Salt Lake City
Indianapolis

AL East:
Tigers
Twins
Royals
Charlotte
Orlando

AL West:
Angels
Rangers
A's
Portland
Las Vegas