re: Dodgers or Cardinals, who is the team to beat in the NL

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And I don't know how you can look at the Giants upcoming august and think that it wouldn't be surprising if they win the division.

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The Giants don't play a single playoff team in September not counting head to head with LAD (CO, AZ, SD, CIN, AZ, SD, OAK).

While the Dodgers is fairly easy too, they at least have 3 with LAA and 3 with Pittsburgh.

Evens out pretty nicely by seasons end.

MLB does a pretty good job with scheduling, currently the Giants have the 29th SOS and the Dodgers 25, come seasons end with the remaining 2 months they'll be extremely even.

Giants have an easier September which matters more than August. I trust the Giants experience and coaching staff against a weaker September schedule than I do LAD against a slightly tougher month.

I don't think many around baseball would be surprised if SF won the West.

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I don't think many around baseball would be surprised if SF won the West

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if this where the case, we'd see the projections even out

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if this where the case, we'd see the projections even out

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What does that matter? Dodgers are paper champions every year. Matters zero.

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Ebbs and flows of an MLB season, mate

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my point exactly. The Giants were like 4.5 games back and then hit a really easy July. Now they are about to enter a very rough august. It's more likely that that the Giants will be 5 games back by September than over taking the lead

It means as much as the Giants being 2.5 games back at a random point in the season right before they enter a brutal part of their schedule

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. I don't trust the Dodgers or Kershaw in the postseason at all.

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There is no one in the game I would trust more in a postseason start more than Kershaw because he is the best pitcher alive. I'll put faith in that more than overreacting to a small playoff sample.

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Kershaw is a HUGE HUGE failure in the playoffs

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jesus. I'm not even going to get into his starts when he was 20 because he was 20. In 2013, he had three straight normal Kershaw starts in games 1 and 4 against the Braves and in game 2 against the cardinals. Last year, if Hanley ramirez got half an inch off higher off the ground in game 4, we aren't even having this discussion

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Last year, if Hanley ramirez got half an inch off higher off the ground in game 4, we aren't even having this discussion

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And game 1 was only because he was left in too long (which it's hard to fault Mattingly for considering the bullpen outside of Kenley was very shaky)

In the playoffs last year, he had 13.5 K/9 and 1.42 BB/9. That's dominant. 30% LOB and 25% HR/FB were both ridiculous and sunk him. But in 12 innings anything can happen.

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I'm not even going to get into his starts when he was 20 because he was 20

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Yeah because age makes any difference. He's made the playoffs 4 times, and all of them except for 2013 he was pretty bad. I know he's Clayton fricking Kershaw, the best pitcher in the game, and he could easily have a fantastic postseason and win a World Series ring, because he really is the best pitcher. But right now, his stats in the playoffs prove otherwise. Quit trying to defend this because you're not correct in this argument.