Should Braves fans pull for the Nationals to win the World Series?

Washington Nationals slugger Bryce Harper.

The fifth weekend of our local ESPN College Football Pick ‘Em Contest wrapped up last Saturday and left us with another shakeup in the local standings.

Phig Newton held on to the No. 1 spot in the standings, and “Murder Creek Man 78” dropped into second place. Sharon Peacock held on to the third-place spot, and Travis Presley dropped down into fourth place. Arthur Ingram III and David Parker were tied for the No. 5 spot in the standings.

Defending champion Drew Skipper went from eighth place to seventh place. Ricky Taylor and Mike Dailey were both tied for the No. 8 spot in the standings. Chad Emmons and past champion Hunter Norris were tied for the tenth-place spot in the local standings.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I remained in 15^th place in the local standings, tied with my bossman Robert Bozeman, the publisher and editor-in-chief at The Courant.

With that said, if you’re playing in the contest and didn’t make the Top 10, don’t give up. The contest will run for a total of 14 weeks, and we’ve got nine more weeks to go. Remember, it’s a marathon, not a sprint.

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This coming Saturday, there will be six football games involving SEC teams and all six games will feature head-to-head matchups between SEC teams. Here are my predictions for that slate of games. I like Alabama over Texas A&M, Auburn over Ole Miss, Georgia over Vanderbilt, Florida over LSU, Arkansas over South Carolina and Kentucky over Missouri. Tennessee and Mississippi State are off this week.

Last week: 7-1. So far this year: 42-9.

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The Atlanta Braves wrapped up their 2017 season on a winning note Sunday night by beating the Miami Marlins, 8-5, in Miami. Atlanta closed out the season with a 72-90 overall record, leaving them with a winning percentage of just .444, which is .198 points behind the .642 posted by the Major League-leading Los Angeles Dodgers. Atlanta went 37-45 in their brand-new stadium, SunTrust Park, and posted a 35-45 record on the road.

Atlanta finished the season third in the National League East standings, 25 games behind the division leading Washington Nationals and the Marlins. Over the course of the season, Atlanta went 33-35 against opponents within their division. It should be noted that entering the last week of the season, Atlanta actually had a winning record against division opponents (31-29) before going 2-6 in the final week against the Mets and Marlins.

Atlanta scored 734 total runs this season, an average of 4.5 runs per game. On defense, the Braves gave up 818 total runs this season, an average of 5.0 runs per game. Maybe during the offseason, the Braves will sign a big-time slugger to help their offensive numbers or perhaps they’ll get themselves a lockdown pitcher to drive down the offensive numbers of their opponents.

Postseason play was scheduled to begin Tuesday with an American League wildcard game between the New York Yankees and the Minnesota Twins. Other American League teams making the playoff cut included the Boston Red Sox, the Houston Astros and the Cleveland Indians. On the National League side, playoff teams include the Colorado Rockies, the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Chicago Cubs, the Washington Nationals and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

If you’re a Braves fan, I guess the thing to do in the playoffs is to pull for the Nationals. That way, at least you can say that Atlanta had to compete this season in the same division with the eventual World Champions.