OnlyBucs

I still like the Bucs chances of at the very least grabbing one of those two wildcard spots. I'm not a big believer in the Dodgers I feel they are still way too inconsistent and are prone to choke a lot down the stretch. The Marlins are playing well but they are still a fairly young team and I don't know if they can hold up in this race in the long run. And the Cards and Mets right now have a lot of injuries with both key position players and starting pitchers. So all the Pirates have to do is beat out 3 of those 4 teams to get a wildcard spot which is definitely doable for sure.



I said in my season prediction thread that the Pirates would finish 89-73 and that would be good enough I felt to make the playoffs as a wildcard at least. Plus, I said if that would happen both Taillon and Glasnow would have to be big contributors in the 2nd half which they now have a chance to be. To get to 89 wins the Pirates have to go 43-30 the last 73 games to do so which is definitely reasonable looking at their remaining schedule. If Cutch continues to stay hot and get better, get Cervelli back, Cole and Frankie and the young arms get better starting pitching, and you add a guy like Josh Bell into the mix the Pirates most definitely have a great shot to make it to the playoffs for a 4th straight season.

It is going to be a close race until the end. That bad stretch in late May into June may come back to hurt the Bucs. On the former site someone had a prediction for each series during the season, and they had them at 50 wins at the All Star Break. I would feel a little more confident if we had 50 wins right now. Notwithstanding, these last couple weeks have restored my hope that the Bucs could still make the playoffs.