Welcome back to the 3rd installment of OV's annual Race to the Top series! This has become an extremely fun tradition where we flip the stadings upside down, reverse wins and losses and track the Cubs "progress" towards achieving the top draft pick in the next draft! We sure do know how to have fun around here!
In previous years, we put the standings somewhere on the blog itself and tried to keep it updated daily. I think those of you who were around last year remember that we failed colossally in that endeavor, so we've scaled back our goals for this year. Going forward, we'll post the updated standings each Monday and try to highlight any interesting tidbits (if any) from the week.
So here we go:
The last I had bothered to check prior to this morning, the Cubs had been in real danger of dropping out of the top ten picks. They were actually playing kind of well and their run differential compared favorably to the teams right around them in the standings. Well, that's all pretty much been shot to hell and they are about to crash back into a top three pick. If they had managed to lose even a couple to the White Sox this year, they'd even be in a decent position to challenge Miami for a back-to-back 2nd draft pick finish. (Nobody is catching Houston.)
Meanwhile, I found it interesting that the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim of Los Angeles, California and their roughly eleventy billion dollars owed to Josh Hamilton and Albert Pujols are looking at a protected pick, as are the defending World Series champions, the San Francisco Giants, and the Rant Sports pre-season pick as World Series contenders, the Toronto Blue Jays.
Other factoids of note:
- The Cubs must finish 7-25 to improve on their 101 loss season of last year.
- They must finish 8-24 to avoid 100 losses.
- They will finish 13-19 if they maintain their .423 winning percentage pace.
- They must finish 26-6 to finish .500.
Looks like it's going to be a fun race down to the wire to see who drafts after the Astros pick Carlos Rodon!