Is the NL in MLB, or AAA?

Tonight I'm just gonna poke some fun at the NL. Everywhere I look, something new and exciting jumps out at me about them. So here we go. The first thing was almost too easy. I checked ESPN's stat page last night, and guess what - of the top five leaders in each of the following categories - HR, RBI, W, ERA, and SV, a total of 50 candidates - exactly four of those come out of the two West divisions. Two of those are from Arizona, one is from San Diego, and the other is San Francisco. The AL/NL West is kind of like NL Lite, and so that gives you an idea of what to expect.

As good as interleague play is for the AL, it's that bad for the NL. The Cardinals just ended an 8-gamer. The Pirates just ended a 13-gamer, (more on that later). Meanwhile, the Red Sox are on the right side (for them, at least,) of a 12-gamer, and the Tigers are on a 6-gamer, and have won 17 of their last 20. Even Minnesota is on a 7 game winning streak, having won 15 of their last 16. And how frustrating must it be for them to go on a tear like that, and go from 11.5 to 11 games back of Detroit. An entire half game in three weeks; utterly meaningless.

And while the entire NL has a problem, the Pirates have a more serious problem than most teams. Hell, they may have surpassed PFC Grudzielanek's KC Company as the worst team in the league. The Pirates just snapped a 13-game losing streak. A 13-gamer. And the best part is, when it ended, it was on a stroke of luck. The Pirates played the White Sox tonight, but even in victory they were stinky. In the top of the eighth, up by two runs, Roberto Hernandez blew the save. The Sox tied the score at 6 by scoring two runs. Then, in the bottom of the ninth inning, pigs finally took flight. Some guy hit a walk off home run, winning the game for the Pirates... and they celebrated like they had just won the World Series. It's a big deal for them, because it was really starting to become a problem. In fact, it was so bad that Pirate fans began to boo the mascot, because he wasn't a parrot. It's kind of complicated I think. You can see the video at the bottom of the post.

While the Pirates are looking up -- for the first time in more than two weeks -- the Cubs are still bad. As one blogger recently put it, "Dusty Baker has gone on a one-man crusade to make walk-up tickets at Wrigley a reality again, a crusade which does not involve anything remotely resembling On Base Percentage." As bad as the Pirates are, the Cubs are only three games up of them, and have scored the fewest runs - 308 - of any other team in all of MLB, by a lot. That's 50 fewer runs than the Pirates have scored. Imagine if the Pirates, being as horrible as they are, weren't even the worst team in their division. And here's the thing - it's not looking any better for the Cubs. Anyone who honestly, in their heart of hearts, thought the team would bounce back when Prior and Lee returned is living in the wrong reality. Prior could pitch a perfect game every fifth day -- something he's light years away from doing right now -- and Lee could hit a home run every game, and it wouldn't make a difference. This team is playing like pre-schoolers, and Dusty Baker is the last guy on the planet that will push them to do any better. And the NL is on the same plane as the AL, right.