It was a quote that breezed past most of the listening and reading sports public.

The fact it fell from the lips of everyone's favorite comedian, er, sports commissioner, Bud Selig, should have alerted more of the masses to the absurdity about to be uttered.

"Major League Baseball's competitive balance is the best in all of sports," Selig said — with a straight face, too.

Sure it is, Bud. It doesn't take Paul the Oracle Octopus to predict each season who will win (the Yankees) and who will lose (the Pirates). How is that competitive balance?

Luckily for you I am of a clearer, less delusional mind than Selig. I can clearly see baseball's burning questions as the second half of the season revs up:

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Will the Pirates lose 100 games?Selig needs to look no further than the sorry state of the Buccos for evidence that baseball's competitive balance is out of whack.The Pirates went five weeks and more than 1,000 at-bats between home runs with a runner on base. The Yankees hit a two-run homer on a nightly basis, it seems.The Yanks win more than once a week, too.There is a generation of baseball fans in Pittsburgh who haven't experienced a pennant race.No more.Standards must be lowered. The Bucs need a good "Don't Lose 100" race. Or it can be billed as "The Hunt for .388" — as in winning percentage.Right now, the Pirates are .026 percentage points behind. Their magic number for clinching the magical 63 wins is 29.Let the race begin.•

Will the Orioles have a 10-game winner?The list of teams to go through a 162-game season without a 10-game winner is like a roll call of losers: The 2003 Tigers (119 losses), the 2004 and 2005 Royals (combined 210 losses) and the 1988 Orioles (107 losses).Not having a 10-game winner cements a team's status in stinkhood.•

Will a dude hit 40-plus homers?Not since 1982, when only football players, professional wrestlers and action film stars dipped into the steroid pool, has baseball gone an entire season without someone mashing at least 40 longballs.•

Will Mark Reynolds break his whiff record?The Diamondbacks third baseman and human oscillating fan is certainly giving it his best try.The free swinger is on pace to strike out 250 times this season.•

Will David Eckstein strike out 25 times this season?The pesky Padres second baseman has fanned a mere 15 times in more than 300 at-bats.Reynolds sometimes strikes out that many times in a week.•

Other questions — Who will sneeze himself to the DL next? And can the Mets find someone dumb enough to take Oliver Perez (perhaps the Pirates)? After all, Perez will provide the Pirates some competitive balance.Mike Kilroy is a staff writer for the Butler Eagle.