Opinion

1. Washington Nationals: Fight Club

From the Stephen Strasburg Shutdown to naming a manager with no experience as a replacement for Davey Johnson, no organization has swaggered forward more cocksure while believing in itself than the Nationals.

Years from now, we will look back at the video of Jonathan Papelbon's dugout choking of Bryce Harper as the overriding symbol of a 2015 season gone way off the rails.

Three years ago, the Houston Astros lost 107 games, and the Chicago Cubs lost 101. The Kansas City Royals were finishing their fourth straight 90-loss season, their eighth in nine years. The Pittsburgh Pirates were making North American sports history with their 20th-straight losing season.

Quick, who won last season's Wilson Defensive Player of the Year Award? No fair looking it up.

If your answer was, "I had no idea that award existed," you aren't alone. Despite increasing acceptance of advanced defensive metrics and a league-wide emphasis on glove work and run prevention, baseball still doesn't have a defensive prize on par with the Most Valuable Player and Cy Young awards.

The American League West is completely invested in and totally behind the implementation of the second wild card. It has to be. 

If it were not for that spot, two of its postseason contenders would be left out of the tournament, fighting solely for first place in the division.

There are many intriguing questions surrounding the MLB postseason.

Will the New York Yankees win the Wild Card Game? Is an NL Central team destined to take home the Commissioner's Trophy?

While the MLB postseason may be quickly approaching, rumors about the offseason have already begun to leak.

Is Dustin Pedroia's position in Boston safe? Will Yoenis Cespedes return to Queens and the New York Mets next season?

The pick-an-ace game of chance will not work in October.

The New York Yankees need a definitive answer. But for nearly six months, that all-important No. 1 spot in the rotation has been a revolving door of what-have-you-done-for-me-lately candidates, none of which have been able to keep the position in their grasps for what seems like more than a couple of weeks at a time because of ineffectiveness, injuries or both. 

Put on your imaginary general manager hat for a moment (you know you have one) and ponder this tantalizing hypothetical: Matt Harvey of the New York Mets and the Washington Nationals' Stephen Strasburg are both available for the taking.

Whom do you take?

There isn't really a wrong answer. They're two of the top young aces in baseball. And despite a few warts—largely related to injuries—they're both studs you'd build a franchise around.

Just when you thought the Washington Nationals couldn't sink any lower, there they go, plunging to new depths.

It is done. At last.

The inevitable seemed to drag out longer than anyone truly wanted it to, delaying what everyone knew was coming, which was jubilation on one side and a hint of finality about to set in on the other.

The New York Mets clinched the National League East title Saturday, hammering the Cincinnati Reds early at Great American Ball Park to ensure about an hour into the game that the celebration would be commencing soon.