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As it stands right now, the Diamondbacks Magic Number to be in the postseason is at 3. With the Rockies stumbling a little and the Brewers unable to capitalize, it seems likely that the Magic Number will hit 0 in the not too distant future. I decided to look ahead a little bit and look at the other teams in the National League playoff race and do some quick hits on them as potential playoff opponents. They’re listed in order of “Round the Diamondbacks would likely face them at this point in time” from Wild Card Game to NLCS.
I thought about writing in AL Teams for the World Series, but that seemed presumptuous, and since every AL team and their minor league affiliates are still technically in the running, it would have involved way more writing.
The first three teams on this list are the teams that eliminated the Diamondbacks in their last three postseason appearances. Is this some sort of divine intervention? Probably not, just a weird coincidence.
The Cardinals still, technically, being alive for a Wild Card spot despite not being impressive and their fans wanting to display Mike Matheney’s head in the town square is a testament to the fact that they’re probably an American League team this year.
My fear of facing the Cardinals in the Wild Card game is that somehow they’d get a great game from some 5’5” guy named Skeeter who’d immediately become a local legend at the Diamondback’s expense.
Brewers
One game (barring the Cubs collapsing) to get revenge for 2011 is something out of a movie. A movie whose script never made it past the first draft, but a script nonetheless. Ryan Braun is still around from 2011, and that’s kinda amazing. You don’t really see lifers with one team anymore in MLB. I thought Justin Verlander would have a chance, but he was finally traded, so Braun may be the last one. I hope he strikes out 4 times in clutch situations.
Also if they lose in the Wild Card game they might fess up about what happened to Hank.
Rockies
Kinda tired of them, conceptually, to be honest. Nolan Arenado is one of those players that is so good defensively that I can remember every time I’ve seen him make an error in the field and make fun of him, unfairly.
Also unfairly, it’s kinda funny how Trevor Story fell off this year. He has the same Story problem I do, you start off well with a good idea (hit a lot of dingers), but then couldn’t come up with any ideas after that and things just withered.
Jim told me I couldn’t just fill this section with curse words, so now I’m stumped.
The Nationals are the only team in MLB to never win a playoff series, and this goes back to the Montreal era. Their last two NLDS appearances ended in heartbreak, after long five-game series. I wonder if that weighs on them. A lot. When they’re trying to sleep peacefully at night and then the terrors come in the form of that blown lead to the Cardinals in 2012. Boy, that would put a lot of pressure on you, and you’d hate to see another Wild Card team take advantage, wouldn’t you?
Wouldn’t you?
Cubs
The Cubs are the defending champs, you may have heard about this and the time it took between titles for them. It’s kind of funny that a team so obviously more talented than its NL Central peers struggled to pass Milwaukee for so long this season. I saw a twitter phenomenon, documented by Travis Sarandos (@travis_mke of the Woodward and Bernstein level work of the Hank story) wherein Cubs fans would be like “HA HA WE PASSED YOU GUYS CAUSE Y’ALL SUCK!” and the Brewers response would be “Well, yeah, we’re supposed to be rebuilding.”
So Cubs fans have definitely reached that next level of insufferable. Can’t wait for them to complain on years they lose in the World Series, if only to see older fans whack them with canes.