Astros Minor League Playoff Picture

With five days left in the minor league regular season, let's take a brief look at the Astro affiliates' playoff picture. I will try to update this daily until all of the playoffs have been decided.

Playoff Picture - 4 games left; elimination number is N/A

For the season:
1st     74-66     .529     -.- GB     W5

The RedHawks just keep winning and their fifth straight win puts them two games ahead of Omaha (elimination number of 3) and four games ahead of Iowa (elimination number of 1). On paper, Omaha has the easiest remaining schedule of the three teams since they will be playing their final five games at home against last place Colorado Springs (53-86) while Iowa and OKC will face off for their final four (in Oklahoma City). The RedHawks are off today so they could potentially drop a half game in the standings if Omaha wins tonight. I've suddenly become a huge Colorado Springs fan and will be indulging in a little scoreboard watching tonight.

CORPUS CHRISTI - Eliminated

LANCASTER - Clinched

For the season:
1st    77-58    .570    -.-GB    L1

For the second half:
1st     33-32     .508     -.-GB     L1

Playoff Picture - 5 games left; elimination number is N/A

The 'Hawks clinched their playoff berth by winning the first half. All that remains at this point is to see whether or not they can win the second half as well. Although Lancaster lost last night, they remain in sole possession of first place in the second half standings as second place Inland Empire and Lake Elsinore (one game behind) also lost. Rancho Cucamonga crept up to two games out and High Desert is now three games out. The second half title looks as though it may come down to the wire. Lancaster plays one more game at High Desert before finishing the season with four at home against Inland Empire.

QUAD CITIES

For the second half:
T4th    32-33     .492     11.0GB     (2.0GB for playoff berth)    W1

Playoff Picture - 5 games left; elimination number is 4 (I think)

OK, I'm officially ready for the regular season to be over. I'm doing a really lousy job of tracking these playoff hopes, so thanks to Jennifer Adamczyk for pointing out the error of my ways in thinking that QC had been eliminated. From the RiverBandit's website ~

With their sixth win in eight games, the River Bandits (32-33 second half, 67-67 overall) put themselves two games behind Wisconsin (34-31) for the final second half playoff spot with five games remaining. Peoria (32-33) also won Wednesday to tie Quad Cities.

TRI-CITY - Clinched

1st     43-28     .606     -.-GB     L4

Playoff Picture - 5 games left; elimination number is N/A

Although, technically, the magic number for elimination of second place Connecticut remains at 1, the ValleyCats have clinched at least a tie and the tie-breaker would be decided in their favor because of their record against division teams. With that said, Tri-City needs to get a win tonight and put an end to the current losing streak. Joe Musgrove is slated to take the mound; with the way he has pitched of late, one hopes that he can get the ship turned around.

GREENEVILLE

Playoff Picture - 2 games left; elimination number is 1

4th     32-32     .500     4.0GB     W1

OK, I was a little bit premature in declaring Greeneville as having been eliminated in yesterday's post. They have been eliminated from first place, but since the first AND SECOND place teams advance to the playoffs, they are still hanging in there. They will have to straight up win both remaining games against Johnson City. If they do so, their final win percentage will be roughly .5152 and Johnson City's win percentage would be roughly .5147. If current third place team Kingsport wins both remaining games, their win percentage would be the same as Johnson City's.

GCL ASTROS - Eliminated

DSL ASTROS ORANGE - Eliminated

DSL ASTROS BLUE - Eliminated