Astros Minor League Playoff Picture - 8/26 Update

Oklahoma City
Oklahoma City is currently in first place with a magic number of two to clinch the division. They have 8 games left to play. Albuquerque and Round Rock are now tied for second place in the division, seven games behind the RedHawks. With Sunday's loss, Oklahoma City cannot clinch the division on Monday now, but they can eliminate one of the two second place teams with a win against Nashville tonight. Since Round Rock and Albuquerque are playing head-to-head tonight (and for the next three games), the loser of that match will automatically be one game closer to elimination. If OKC also wins, the Round Rock/Albuquerque loser will be eliminated and the RedHawks magic number will drop to one for the winner of that match. Oklahoma City is playing four against Nashville at home. Nashville has the worst record in the Pacific Coast League and the RedHawks have the best home record in the league.

If Oklahoma City makes the playoffs and if the conference series and the finals both last the full five games and if they take the same days off as last year, get your tickets for the Astros-Reds series starting September 16th, because that's when you'll be seeing George Springer's MLB debut (at least that's what I predict). You may want to get tickets for the preceding Angels series just in case. [UPDATED TO ADD: According to this fan post on The Crawfish Boxes, Reid Ryan has said that George Springer will not make it to Houston this year because of Rule 5 draft concerns.]

Corpus Christi
The Hooks are in the playoffs by virtue of winning the first half of the season. The schedule for the first four games has already been set with the first two against San Antonio at home on Wednesday, September 4th and Thursday, September 6th and the next two at San Antonio on that Friday and Saturday. The Hooks will play the Missions four more times over their last 8 games. With Sunday's win against the Missions, the Hooks currently trail them by one game for the second half title. The Hooks lead the Missions by two and a half games for the season.

Lancaster
The JetHawks are also in the playoffs by virtue of winning the first half and just clinched the second half title last night. The schedule for the first four games has been set with Lancaster playing at home on Saturday, September 7th and Sunday, September 8th (and will be attended by yours truly) and on the road the following Monday and Tuesday. What is still to be determined is the JetHawks opponent. They will play the winner of a mini-series between the #2 and #3 seeds.

Quad Cities
Quad Cities became the third Astros minor league affiliate to clinch a playoff spot with Sunday's win over Burlington. The first playoff game is scheduled for September 4th at Modern Woodmen Park and will likely be against the first place Cedar Rapids team who the River Bandits trail by four and a half games in the second half and by seven games for the overall season.

Tri-City
The ValleyCats have two ways to make it to the playoffs. They are currently in first place, four games ahead of second place Lowell with 11 games left to play. The magic number to eliminate Lowell is 7 (1 for the other two teams in the division). If they fall out of first place, they can earn a wild card berth. Their current record would give them the wild card lead if they weren't in first place. They have won five games in a row and have two games left to play against Lowell. Lowell has lost three in a row.

Greeneville
The Astros need to be in first or second place in their division to make the playoffs. With Sunday's win, they regained first place and are a half game ahead of Kingsport, two and a half games ahead of third place Elizabethton and three games ahead of fourth place Johnson City with five games left to play. The magic number to eliminate the latter two teams is four and five, respectively. They really needed Sunday's win to take advantage of the losses by Elizabethton and Kingsport because this is a very tight race and will likely come down to the wire. Greeneville has 3 games left against Danville who they have gone 1-2 against thus far and two games against the East division leader Bluefield who they are 2-2 against this season.

GCL Astros
The GCL club has been eliminated from playoff contention. They are 26-30 with four games left. They will need to go 4-0 to end the season at .500.

DSL Astros
The DSL team was also eliminated from contention. They ended their season on Saturday with another win to cap off a four-game win streak and a 39-31 record for the season.