If MLB didn't divide up into two leagues and three divisions in each of those two leagues, the top three seeds in the playoffs this season would be:
1. St. Louis Cardinals (100-62)
2. Pittsburgh Pirates (98-64)
3. Chicago Cubs (97-65)
Remarkable.
This is the first time in baseball history -- divisional play began in 1969 and there have been six divisions since 1994 -- that the best three records in all of baseball came from the same division.
This is the second time in MLB history that three teams from the same division won at least 95 games. The 1977 AL East had the 100-win Yankees, 97-win Orioles and 97-win Red Sox. That was before there was a wild card, so if there are any Pirates or Cubs fans fretting over playing the wild card game, remember that those Orioles and Red Sox got no postseason whatsoever.
Now, to the people who claim this isn't a big deal because there were two really bad teams in the NL Central, every division has bad teams. The fourth and fifth place teams in the NL East were respectively worse than in the NL Central. The collective divisional winning percentage in the NL Central was the best in baseball, despite having these two bad teams.
Only one division in history has ever had the top three records in baseball. If it was as simple as just having two bad teams, we'd have had this conversation before. And the NL Central didn't even have a 100-game loser.
