Dissecting the National League Playoff Bracket

Four teams with one dream and four teams with four different stories. That's what fans are looking at in the National League playoff bracket today as the postseason really gets underway. The Wild Card games are in the books and the final four NL teams are set. St. Louis and Pittsburgh will meet in a divisional showdown while Atlanta and Los Angeles will square off in a highly-anticipated series filled with young stars.

You want history? You got it. The four National League teams left have all been in existence since the 1880s. There is a combined 25 World Series victories among the four and plenty of Hall of Fame legends. More recently, the NL has belonged to the Braves and the Cardinals. St. Louis won a dramatic World Series in 2011 and also was victorious in 2006. Atlanta dominated the 90s and has remained the beast of the NL East with a fresh crop of talent.

Los Angeles enters the playoffs as the hottest team over the second half. At the beginning of the season, fans and analysts were discussing Don Mattingly's job, but LA turned it around and finished with 92 wins and ran away with the West Division. Yasiel Puig took the nation by storm with his you-gotta-see-this theatrics on the field and on the base paths, but it was Hanley Ramirez who really acted as the catalyst for LA's run.

LA's matchup with Atlanta is intriguing for multiple reasons. While the Dodgers were the focal point of the second half, Atlanta flew under the radar for much of the season. If it's possible, the Braves somehow won 96 games quietly. To make it even more impressive, Atlanta got nothing out of B.J. Upton and Dan Uggla during the regular season. Uggla batted .179 and was left off the playoff roster.

Still, the Braves lineup is potent with Justin Upton, Jason Heyward, Freddie Freeman and Chris Johnson. However, they are going to be facing a pitching staff headlined by Clayton Kershaw. Runs won't come easy for the Braves in this series. Kershaw finished the season with a miniscule 1.83 ERA and is one of the most decorated pitchers in the game today.

In the other series, the Cardinals and Pirates face off in a familiar matchup. The two teams played 19 times with Pittsburgh winning 10 games. While the matchup is familiar, the setting is not for one team. Pittsburgh hasn't been in the playoffs since 1992 when the lost in the NLCS. Still, there are players on the roster that do have playoff experience. A.J. Burnett and Justin Morneau are no strangers to postseason baseball, but for a star like Andrew McCutchen this is all new.

St. Louis finished with the best record in baseball behind little-known stars such as Matt Carpenter and Allen Craig and a pitching staff led by Adam Wainwright. The Cardinals are better than any team in baseball with runners in scoring position and that will come in handy during the playoffs when every run matters.

So who moves on? Count on the Cardinals to defeat the Pirates due to their experience and timely hitting. It's a toss up in the Braves-Dodgers series, but I'll take LA.

Legends are made in October and the team that gets that timely hit, run-saving catch or shutdown pitching performance is the team that wins. Let the games begin...

Time Will Tell if This Band of Pirates is Legit

You may do a double take, but you aren't seeing things when looking at the MLB standings. At the All-Star Break the Pittsburgh Pirates really are the second best team in baseball with a 56-37 record and one game behind the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Central. The franchise that has perfected the art of losing hasn't had a winning season since 1992, so if you were born since 1990 then you have no memory of Pittsburgh ever being a winner. That's futility at it's finest right there.

However, the winds of change are sweeping through the Steel City. The Bucs have flirted with success the past two seasons, only to bottom out in the second half and finish under .500 once again. Last season they were close, but 79-83 still won't get the job done and the playoffs continued to evade the franchise. But this year -- no, not this year. This year there is something different about the Pirates and saying "playoffs" and "Pirates" in the same sentence is no longer a funny joke.

It all starts with Andrew McCutchen for Pittsburgh. The 26-year-old All-Star got off to a slow start this season, but has recovered to hit .302 with 10 home runs, 49 RBIs and 20 stolen bases. A team needs a star if they are to win and Pittsburgh has one in McCutchen. The centerfielder obviously believes in the franchise and the direction they are headed in because he inked a six-year extension worth $51.5 million in 2012. In past years he was the lone bright spot, but not this season.

Starling Marte has emerged as a reliable every day player with a batting average of .291, 28 RBIs and 28 stolen bases. At only 24 years of age, Marte is a player that figures to factor into the Pirates plans for years down the road and both he and McCutchen should man their outfield spots through at least 2018 when McCutchen's deal ends. Then there is Pedro Alvarez, another All-Star, who provides the pop in the lineup with 28 home runs. Like Marte and McCutchen, Alvarez is young at just 26 years and the Bucs finally have a solid young core they can find hope in.

Yet none of this is possible, and the playoffs certainly aren't a possibility, if not for the pitching depth that Pittsburgh has. Pitching wins when it comes to the playoffs and the Pirates have the starters (Francisco Liriano, A.J. Burnett, Jeff Locke) and the bullpen (Jason Grilli, Justin Wilson, Mark Melancon) to make a run. That's what has prohibited the Pirates from staying afloat in the second half the past two seasons, but again, it seems this club is different.

Obviously no one really knows if the Pirates will be in the playoffs come October, but time will tell if the losing will finally come to an end. A team must learn how to win before they can actually do it and Pittsburgh has been going through the process the last two seasons. Now, with a 20-game cushion from that dreaded sub-.500 and just 69 games remaining maybe Bucs fans can finally try and figure out where they are. After all, 19 games over .500 this late in the season certainly is uncharted territory.