Pirates are young and hot, Cardinals still favored

The Pirates are hot and right now have a higher chance than the Giants of reaching the NLCS/World Series according to Fan Graphs playoff odds. They still have a chance to catch the Cardinals and win the Central, perhaps giving the Giants a break if they can dump the Cards into the wild card play-in game.

Interesting that the Fan Graphs odds ( http://www.fangraphs.com/coolstandings.aspx ) give the Cardinals almost twice the chance to advance as the Pirates, even though it's a virtual dead-heat both statistically and in the standings. Age before beauty, I suppose. Or maybe deference to prior history.

 Team                      NLDS    NLCS       WS
Nats                         65%       41%          24
Dodgers                   55%        25%         13%
Cards                       42%       16%          7%
Pirates                      21%         9%          4%
Giants                       18%         8%          3%

from MLB.com
Pittsburgh Pirates at Atlanta Braves - September 23, 2014 | MLB.com PIT Recap:

The Pirates had just been swept out of St. Louis at the beginning of September and went on to Chicago, where Clint Hurdle was asked about prospects for a turnaround. "We need to play our best ball," Hurdle said. "If we play our best ball for the remaining games, we'll get in." 

 From that point through Tuesday night, the Pirates went 15-3. "And we're in," Hurdle said, simply, not immodestly. Milwaukee's loss in Cincinnati officially punched the Bucs' ticket, but they still have eyes on jumping the October rails on the National League Central title express and not the NL Wild Card local.

'via Blog this'

Cards finish with Arizona while Pittsburgh closes with Cincinnati, a wash as to scheduling. The Cardinals have to collapse while Pirates have to keep the pedal to the metal something I'm pretty sure manager Clint Hurdle will have no problem conveying to his squad.

Pittsburgh will be the youngest team in the playoffs. Surprisingly, the Cardinals will be the second youngest. The Gigantes will limp in as the oldest.

from ESPN:
http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/rosters/_/sort/average_age/order/true

Normally, I would defer to experience over youth in the playoffs, but given the Giants injury/fatigue situation, now I'm not so sure.