The National League, also known as Quadruple A baseball, looks like they will have few surprises as the final 50 or so games dwindle down in this awful August heat. Most of the divisions look pretty set no matter what the standings say about a team nipping at their heals. The only real question is who will win the Wild Card spot?

If you have doubts over my brazen predictions lets go through the three divisions first and clear the air.

National League East

The Philadelphia Phillies have the lead with the Florida Marlins just 3.5 games back and the Atlanta Braves 4.5 back. The Phillies pitching only ranks tenth best in the NL, but they just added Cliff Lee to the rotation, which suddenly looks playoff ready with Lee, J.A. Happ, Joe Blanton, and Cole Hamels picking up the rear. Pitching or not, this is a team that has still scored 63 runs more than their opponents. Also, this is the division title we are discussing hear, not the NL title.

The competition is the Marlins and the Braves. To begin with the Braves are stuck between rebuilding and contending mode. They also need to jump over two teams to win the division. That alone is a difficult task, but that task gets infinitely more difficult when you struggle so mightily to move the players from the bases to home plate. This is a team with the fifth best batting average and sixth best on base percentage in the NL that still somehow ranks just ninth in runs scored.

The other big reason the Braves are stuck in third place is the team in front of them, the Florida Marlins. The Marlins win World Series, not divisions. The two years the Marlins won the World Series (1997 and 2003) they went to the playoffs as a Wild Card team. They want this wild card (it also follows the every-six-year rule in Florida), so they will feel a little bit of competitive oomph if the Braves get any closer.

National League Central

The St. Louis Cardinals have just a three game lead over the Chicago Cubs. The other two contenders, the Milwaukee Brewers and Houston Astros, are beginning to fade away on their own.

The Cardinals are team with good pitching and an ok offense. That offense includes one Albert Pujols and newly acquired Matt Holiday. The offense should get better and the team should be able to hold off the Cubs.

The Chicago Cubs have a great pitching staff and an offense that remains confounding and dreadful. Lou Piniella has been ranting every couple of weeks, which is not a good sign. Also Aramis Ramirez, whose return from the DL July 6 was supposed to turn things around, is again fighting pain while trying to be the lone starter to maintain an average over .300.

Things just look bad for the fans as they should quickly move to elation in anticipation of the the first Cutler experiences before letting that dream wither and die as well.

National League West

This division is a week away from being called. The Los Angeles Dodgers hold a 6.5 game lead over the Colorado Rockies and a 7.5 game lead over the San Francisco Giants. They also have been able to weather the early season Manny Ramirez storm and have top-tier offenses and pitching staffs in the NL. The have outscored other team by 1.03 runs a game, which is like scoring 14 points more than an opponent in football.

The Rockies and the Giants should not be written off though, they are part of the race for the…

Wild Card

The Rockies are leading the wild card race with the Giants a game back, the Marlins two games back, and the Cubs and Braves three games back. The Rockies have a huge edge in terms of run differential, outscoring teams by 63 runs. The Rockies pitching is also shockingly not terrible. The team ERA is sixth in the league, while the offense has enjoyed the typical bump in the thin mountain air, scoring the third most runs in the NL.

Still, never count out the Marlins. They defy statistical analysis. This is a team that has scored as many runs as they have allowed and have still managed to post winning records at home and away.

The Giants are all hitting and no scoring. This team has the second best ERA and the third worst run total in the league. I’ve already gone over the Cubs and Braves deficiencies and still have no clue which team is going to win the right to play the Los Angeles Dodgers (or the Phillies if a team from the NL West wins). All I do know is that if the Marlins manage to win the Wild Card they will win the World Series because I have watched them do it twice before, defying every convention along the way.

MLB Tickets