Tall Order

After Tuesday's punchless performance against the Mets, the Giants are 39-51. That's third place, six games out, good enough for some to call the Giants "contenders." Clearly, my quotation marks indicate that I disagree.

Since the institution of the three-division league in 1995, the worst record for a division winner was 82-80, by the 2005 Padres. I think it's fair to assume that a team will need at least a winning record to lead the division, and 82-80 is the absolute minimum for that. Do a little math and that means the Giants must finish the season with a 43-29 run, which is .597 baseball. They've played at .433 so far.

I'm not seeing that happening.