What a wild and crazy night it was. Heading into the final day of the 2011 MLB season, four teams were tied for the final two playoff spots. The National League Wild Card race came down to a contentious battle between the Atlanta Braves and St. Louis Cardinals, while the Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays slugged it out for the coveted American League Wild Card spot. Within a span of two hours, two teams were knocked out of the MLB playoff race and two were getting ready for October baseball.

Amazingly enough, the Atlanta Braves began September with a firm 8.5 game lead in the Wild Card standings against the St. Louis Cardinals however, injuries and poor starting pitcher performance proved to be their downfall. Their comfy lead all but disappeared and they were tied for the Wild Card spot with the Cardinals heading into the final game of the season. St. Louis played their last game earlier in the day and dropped a final notch in the W column with a victory over the Houston Astros. From there all the Cards could do was wait to see if the Braves could top the Phillies and force a one game playoff but as midnight approached on the East Coast, the Braves couldn’t hold their ground and fell to the Philadelphia Phillies, thus ensuring a final playoff spot for the Cardinals.

Like the Braves, the Boston Red Sox sat atop a nice lead in the American League East. At the beginning of September, the Bo Sox looked down at both the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays, and even held a comfortable 9 game lead over the third place Rays. Boston’s comfortable lead dwindled and they soon found themselves tied for the final playoff spot at the last regular game of the season. Unfortunately, the Red Sox came up short against the Baltimore Orioles. Meanwhile, down 7-0, the Rays staged an epic comeback against the New York Yankees to win thus securing the Rays the final playoff spot.

In terms of tension and fun, you could not have asked for a better day of baseball and an exhilarating end-of-season run. With four teams tied for two playoff spots heading into the final day of the season, September 28 will go down as an epic day in sports history.

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Well, our projected speed for churning these previews out has slowed to a Bengie Molina on the basepaths like pace. But we’ll see if a preview of the Diamondbacks cant get us back on…track. Lots of “acks” in there.

The Arizona Diamonbacks originated in 1998. They promptly came out of the gate and were World Series Champions by their 3rd year. Seems fitting. The Diamondbacks and Marlins have both won World Series titles while pitiable franchises like the Cubs haven’t so much as sniffed a World Series appearance in decades. Even the Rays and Rockies have been to the Series in the last few years. Doesn’t seem right.

On a side note, why do these expansion teams always pick the worst names? The Nashville Predators? The Toronto Raptors? I guess fans of Arnold and/or Jurrasic Park were clamoring for sports franchises to cross over to? At least the Diamondbacks took the normal route of selecting a local animal to represent themselves with, but a poisonous snake?

Hey Kids! Come on out to the ballpark and win a chance to pet Diamondback mascot Freddy the Rattlesnake! Don’t worry Mom and Dad, he’s been de-fanged!

(In a brilliant marketing move, the Diamondbacks have selected this to be their actual mascot)

Anyways, terrible name. Snakes are dangerous and children should fear them at all costs.
These Diamondbacks though, let’s see how much fear they’ll inspire in the rest of the National League in 2010.

C – Miguel Montero
1B – Adam LaRoche
2B – Kelly Johnson
3B – Mark Reynolds
SS – Stephen Drew
LF – Conor Jackson
CF – Chris Young
RF – Justin Upton

UTL – Gerrardo Parra, Chris Snyder

Rotation – Dan Haren, Brandon Webb, Edwin Jackson, Ian Kennedy, Kenny DeNunez

Closer – Chad Qualls

Honestly, I really want to dislike this team. I don’t know why. Call it latent snake hatred if you want, but just from their lineup and first three starters, they’ve got a good chance to compete in the NL West. Picking up LaRoche and Johnson in the offseason on reasonable deals (4.5M and 2.3M respectively) were quiet but smart value moves as both should see improvemed hitting in Arizona.

Mark Reynolds was a player that won a lot of league titles for fantasy owners last season. The only player in the league to hit 40 HR, 100 RBI and 20 SB, Reynolds came out of Jack Cust like depths of the waiver pool and produced at an elite level. Justin Upton, on the other hand, had all the pedigree you could hope for, and actually delivered by hitting 26 HR to go with 20 SB. Upton is 20 years old or 17 or some ridiculous age that makes everyone salivate over his eventual ceiling. This isn’t the year he reaches it, but expecting him to increase 2009’s totals is a fairly easy thing to do.

The pitching staff might boast the best 3 pitchers on any team in the NL. Dan Haren is a perennial stud, posting back to back 200+ strikeout seasons, with an ERA in the low 3’s and a whip in the low 1’s. He’s good. Brandon Webb is coming back from shoulder problems last season, but was the NL Cy Young in 2006 and runner up in 2007 and 2008. If he’s healthy again, there is no reason to expect different from him. Edwin Jackson was picked up in the Max Scherzer trade, and Arizona can expect the young hurler to see improved numbers in an inferior league.

Chad Qualls is their closer. His last name begins with the letter “Q” which is unusual, I think.

The Diamondbacks will be overlooked in the NL this year due to their poor showing last season and because all people fear and hate snakes. But if healthy, they’re a team that you probably wouldn’t want to face in the playoffs simply because of the top of their pitching rotation and a couple of big power hitters. People may scoff at “playoffs” and “Diamondbacks” in the same sentence, but that’s a difficult division out there and the winner could come out with 88 wins or so.

Predictions:

Team MVP – Webb…if he’s healthy this team has a shot at the playoffs

X- Factor – Snakes across the great State of Arizona will gather and prepare for a massive first strike campaign against the people of that state. Act accordingly.

Standings – 2nd Place NL West (potential Wild Card winner)