Battle for a spot in the 2015 playoffs

Thank you. We are winning the east (even if we still get a protected pick ). I think the rough times are over, as the kids are starting to get their feet under them, and the rotation is straightening out -- Erod earning a spot and some consistency with the remainder.

I assume you realize that even to win the second Wild Card spot, the Sox probably would have to win about 88 games? To do that, the team would have to go 61-40 the rest of the way, a winning pace of .604, which is higher than the winning percentage of any team currently.

Things like that have happened in baseball, even with the Sox once upon a time. But with this team, so many things would have to improve that it truly would be a miracle if it occurred.

The only way I can imagine this happening now is if the Sox traded all their good prospects in the minors in the next few weeks for established quality major league players and replaced the position players who are not performing, as well as adding at least one ace starting pitcher and maybe two. That would be so out of character, and so short-sighted, that the odds of it happening are close to zero.

That is particularly true because the foundation for a multi-year championship caliber team already exists and that team is not far away. Maybe not next year but very possibly beginning the year after.

As I noted, the Rays, currently occupying the second Wild Card, are on pace for 85 wins. The Yankees are on pace for 91.

Of course that's assuming a Red Sox hot streak and playing near .575 ball the rest of the way and the bigger assumptions that out of the 8 teams in front of them, that practically none of them play as well the rest of the way, which seems highly unlikely to me. Seems more likely the Red Sox keep stumbling and bumbling their way through the rest of the season on the way to around 90 losses.

It's not impossible, but frankly I don't believe (as if that's worth $0.02) that this team is capable of playing well enough to make the playoffs, let alone .500. The more I read about the playoffs, the more I remember that press conference where the football coach (was it Jim Mora?) stares at the questioner as if he's from Mars and says, "Playoffs???! You want to talk about playoffs???!! Playoffs?!"

I swear, there is another curse that makes the Yankees better than they should be and the Red Sox worse. Every crappy player who has been on 10 teams turns into a good player for them and the opposite is true here. Why?

Only in some people's world can the numbers 16.5 and 13.5 be "roughly 20".

But other than that, nice call out...

Yes. I'll be holding out hope until at least the all-star break. I'm not pulling for a high draft pick right now, I've done it 2 of the last 3 seasons and it's downright miserable.