June: The Line of Death Cometh
by Keith Glab, BaseballEvolution.com
June 1, 2008

The Line of Death is back! Tremble in fear!

I hear you snickering. I can't really blame you. Last season, four of the eventual eight playoff teams fell below the Line of Death, signifying that the team didn't have the right stuff to reach the postseason. A 50% success rate isn't too great.

This year, we hope to do better. With two months in the books, we find five teams, or one-sixth of the teams, without any realistic hopes for the playoffs. One of these squads just demoted their most promising young hitter after enduring an 11-game losing streak. I don't know whether a team has ever had a losing streak like that and made the playoffs, but either way, this team isn't going to. Another team fell below the LOD due to being further behind the first place team than any other in the majors. Still another fell off because their team OPS was the lowest in baseball, while the other four teams in their division ended May playing .500 ball or better.

The final two Liners simply fell prey to the injury bug excessively in the early going. They play in an absolutely atrocious division, so anything's possible, but it just doesn't look like these two squads have enough depth to recover.

In more pleasant news, the Chicago Cubs are off to their best start in 90 years and the Tampa Bay Rays are off to their best start ever. And both teams can breathe a little easier, knowing that neither will become this year's 2007 Brewers. That team has already been identified below.

So whether you're a fan of one of the teams that fell below the Line of Death or one of the two teams that jumped more than 15 spots in the standings over the past month, feel free to comment.