Elimination watch, 8/25/09

It's late August and time for me to once again do my at-least-weekly posts on which teams are in danger of being eliminated from the possibility of post-season play.  Since all teams still have a mathematical chance, today I'll just look at the 6 last place teams.

In the AL, the Orioles, Royals, and A's are bringing up the rears.  The Orioles have a tragic number of 10 for the division but 18 for the wild card.  The Royals have the worst record in the AL but only 19 games back of their division-leader; a combination of 14 BoSox wins and KC losses will kill their post-season hopes.  The Oakland Moneyballs are the best last-place team in baseball but still 20 out of the Angels.

The 3 cabooses of the senior circuit are the Nats, Pirates, and Padres.  The Nats again have the worst record in all baseball and predictably are the closest of elimination: their tragic numbers are 2 for the division and 10 for the wild card.  The Pirates have 40 games to play and are less than 20 games back of division and wild card leaders.  The Padres are only slightly worse than the Pirates in the wild card race but have a tragic number of 13 wrt the Dodgers.


22 teams remain to be eliminated.

The Giants' tragic number to finish with a worse record than the Dodgers is 30.

Dodgers' best possible record: 111-51
Dodgers' worst possible record: 74-88