5 & 7

Barring an epic collapse, the rule of thumb is that a team can realistically make up one game per week in the standings.

There are approximately 5 weeks left to go in the season.

The Brewers are 3.5 games behind the Cubs. The Cardinals are 4.5 games behind.

The NL Central rivals may be looking more toward a tightening wild card race than a division win.

But the Cubs still have 7 games left with each of the Brewers and Cardinals. That means that the Brewers and Cardinals are not out of the race even if they trail by 7 games before meeting the Cubs.

Another rule of thumb is that a team needs to take care of business in its own division. The only two teams left with an above .500 record are the Brewers and Cardinals. The Cubs still need to play well against division teams in order to avoid a bitter September surprise.

THE PLAYOFFS

There have been more rumblings on the way baseball is organized
defeats the whole purpose of a long season.

the Cubs have the 4th best record in baseball, but are in third place
in their division. If the playoffs start today, Pittsburgh with the third best
record would play the Cubs while teams with lesser victory totals
get a bye.

I got it when the leagues expanded and broke into four divisions.
It was done for scheduling and to maintain rivalries.

When it last expanded and shuffled into three divisions, there
needed to have a wild card to balance out of the playoffs.
A divisional bridesmaid got an invitation to the party. OK.
It was still based on number of season victories, making the
162 game schedule meaningful.

I still don't really like the interleague play. It does not help the
scheduling of divisional games. It just tries to add new revenue
to home teams with different clubs fans don't see often.

The idea of eliminating the divisions and having one league standings
is a good one. In essence, that is what the "wild card" standings are now.
Get rid of interleague play and make each league team play each other
more to see who is the best AL and NL squad. The teams with the best
records get home field advantage throughout the playoffs (as the prize
for being the best).

The one true criticism of the wild card game is that is contrary to
how the regular season is structured: by series. A playoff should also
follow the format of a series contest, like best of 3 games.

Then if baseball wants to get greedy with its TV partners, expand the
playoffs to six teams.

The top 2 teams have a bye, and the next four teams play a one game
play-in. Winners play the top two teams in a seeded series, best of 5 or 7.

This helps distinguish the  leagues which still have their own schedules and rules 
(like the AL with DH). It would also return to having a pure "league" champion
that fans of other teams in the league could support in a playoff run.