Chasing the Wild Card(s)

As might be clear from my many charts, I like plotting a team’s games above/below .500 over time. I think it gives me a sense of the flow of a season. Since I’m having trouble following the Bulls recently, I thought I put up a couple of non-Bull charts just for fun.

We are at the end of season for the International League. I thought it would be fun to keep an eye on who’s got a shot at the one wild-card spot for the playoffs.

The International League starts the playoff season with the three division leaders (standings) and then adds a wild card team — the team with the best record who is not a division leader.

At the moment the leader for the wild card is the Columbus Clippers. The Gwinnett Braves are two games back and would appear to have a shot at the slot.

click on chart for larger image

Over in the American League they have two wild card slots. The Blue Jays and Yankees have recently been swapping places for the AL East lead and, at the moment, second place has the best shot at a wild card spot. The Angels would get the other slot if the season ended today, but the major leagues have a lot of games to go. The International League only has about 20 some games left.