Postseason possibilities

The regular season isn't especially meaningful in the West Raleigh Minor League fall season. That's not just because the Mudcats have occasionally struggled this fall. It's because no trophies are awarded to the regular season champion; only the postseason tournament winner gets the hardware.

As the season enters its final week, here's a look at where the Mudcats stand with tournament possibilities. The Fall Minor League uses a pool play tournament format. Every team is guaranteed to play at least three games in the postseason. The team in each pool (Pool A: Seeds 1, 4, 5 and 8; Pool B: Seeds 2, 3, 6 and 7) with the best record in pool play advances to the championship game, where they play the team with the best record from the opposing pool.

Based on the current Minor League standings, the Mudcats have been eliminated from seeds 1-5. With regard to your non-West Raleigh life, assuming you still have one, that gives us three important pieces of information:

• On Sunday, Oct. 24, the Mudcats can't play in the 4 p.m. game. That game matches the 4 and 5 seeds and that can't be the Mudcats.



• On Saturday, Oct. 30, the Mudcats will play in either the 1:30 or 3:30 game. Assuming the existing schedule doesn't change, the top four seeds play in the morning games that day, and that can't be the Mudcats.



• The Mudcats can't play on Tuesday, Oct. 26, because that game matches seeds 1 and 5.

In addition to the two Mudcat games this week, there is another key game to keep an eye on: Riverdogs vs. Bulls on Thursday night. A win by the Riverdogs would ensure that the Bulls and Mudcats would occupy the 7 and 8 seeds (in an order still to be determined) in the postseason. A win by the Bulls would keep open the possibility that one of those two teams could climb into sixth.

Because of the way the pools are set up, there's a significant difference between earning the 7th seed and the 8th seed. As the teams stand right now, the seventh seed would go into a pool with the Riverdogs, Lookouts and Bees. The Mudcats already have at least one win against two of those three teams and still control their own destiny with respect to staying out of the eighth seed--if they win out, they can finish no lower than 7th.

Because the Mudcats and Bulls face each other on Saturday, it's very possible that the final seedings won't be known until the conclusion of that game. The Bulls defeated the Mudcats earlier this season in one of the best-played games of the year.