Maybe we should let them play the games

Last week, I suggested we could fast forward to October because Baseball Prospectus was predicting that the Phillies and Red Sox would make the playoffs and the Yankees would not.

But they have since updated their calculations and have the Yankees, not the Rays, winning the division. They have the Red Sox winning the Wild Card in either scenario, but with a less impressive 92-70 record.

The Phillies' projection did not move; they're still expected to win the division handily with a surprisingly low 88-74 record. There is a sad story toward the bottom of the NL East. The Mets are still slated to finish fourth, but they are not expected to suffer the embarrassment of finishing beneath the Nationals, who were originally and curiously predicted to go 82-80.

But thanks to updates and errors, the Nationals are no longer predicted to have their first winning season since Youppi cheered them on in Montreal. They are now expected to finish 76-86 in last place, not third place.

Poor Nationals. And to make matters worse for them, Washington's getting the same ridiculous amount of snow as we are getting. There are 58 more long days until Opening Day.