That Championship Season

Right now, Oakland and Houston are running at full court press. Both teams' records rested right around the .500 mark earlier this month, but after several months of win-lose-win-lose leapfrogging, the As and the 'Stros have gone 9-1 in their last ten games. This is what we expect from these franchises, both of which underperformed at the start of the season -- Billy Beane and Ken Macha love the underdog status and Phil Garner can't resist a good fight.

Head over to the NL East and the Nationals just can't keep it together. You may recall the Expos late-season identity crisis and attendant implosion after acquiring Bartolo Colon and Cliff Floyd a few years back. That's what's going on in Washington now as momentum has drained and Omar Minaya and Frank Robinson attempt to keep the ship from sinking with some spare parts. Nothing against Preston Wilson, Ryan Drese, Junior Spivey et al, but any team where Vinny Castilla and turdbox Cristian Guzman have soaked up that much playing time is bound to fail. These moves should have come a month or two into the season. It might be strange to talk about a team that's currently 55-48 in these terms, but a 2-8 record in the last 10 games speaks for itself. Everything Washington does, Atlanta does better.

Still, the worst best team in the majors right now is the Padres -- a drubbing last night at the hands of the Reds pushed the Pads' record to under .500. The Padres are the first team to lead their division with a losing record this late in the season since 1994. 18 teams in baseball have a superior record. And this team is 18-33 since June 1st. How do you keep losing like that and remain at the top of your division? The whole NL West is genuinely terrible; AZ, LA, SF and Colorado aren't putting up a threat. The dominance of St. Louis at the White Sox might play a role in skewing the standings, but the Padres really can't win outside of Petco. Right now, they can't win at all -- they'd have better odds of deciding the outcome of a game with a coin toss.