Thank heavens for the wild card!

[sfaustin3]

I've built my Pittsburgh franchise into the typical OOTP juggernaut (won the series in 2013) but in 2014 I ran into a buzzsaw called the Big Red Machine.

Here's the final standings:



The Reds signed the best pitcher and best hitter in Free Agency and it really paid off for them. They went from 92-70 (pretty good before) to the ridiculous 115-47. I chased them all year thinking they'd eventually fade since I'd never seen a CPU team with that many wins, but they never did.

I had the wildcard wrapped up by early September so I wasn't that panicked about Cincinnati, but it sure would've stunk if there was no wildcard and I'd had to watch the playoffs on TV after winning 111 games.

Fortunately, the Dodgers dispatched the Reds in the Divisonal Series (thank you!) so I was able to defend my title successfully. Who knows what would've happened if I'd had to face the Reds in the NLCS.

[Raidergoo]

Originally Posted by sfaustin3

Who knows what would've happened if I'd had to face the Reds in the NLCS.

Ask Andy Van Slyke and Barry Bonds.

[Left-handed Badger]

I beleive the Yanks won 103 in 54. But finished 2nd to Cleveland so it did happen on occasion in the past.

[Syd Thrift]

...and of course, the 1993 season, where the San Francisco Giants' 103 victories ended up 1 short of the Atlanta Braves' 104, and in those days they missed the playoffs. Recently when the Mariners won 116 games in 2001 the Oakland A's won over 100 themselves.