This is October: 2014 MLB Postseason Thread

[WSU151]

Seahawks. Kings. Spurs. Giants.

2014 in sports for me personally has sucked out loud save for FSU finally dethroning the SEC

2015 can't get here fast enough

The last time all four major champions were located west of the Mississippi River was 1989 (I'm including Calgary here).

[JasonFromMiami]

Two wildcard teams, two sub 90 win teams. Giants win it yet again. 3 in 5 years. Ho-Hum. I wonder what the anemic TV ratings will be for this World Series. 6 Division races all for nothing. Mediocrity is once again rewarded. And thus the decline of our once great and proud nation continues.

Pretty sure baseball is not the reason for the decline of the once great and proud nation .

[Kramerica Industries]

Well, now that the 2000, 2002, and 2003 Giants (97, 95, 100 win teams) have had their championship-less seasons made up for, I guess now we can end this crusade of Giants teams that are by no means overwhelmingly good winning championships.

[Sport]

I'm having a hard time resolving that this group of Giants now have more championships than the freaking Big Red Machine, widely considered one of the three best baseball teams ever assembled. If that team had a wildcard safety net they probably would've won a couple more championships.

This is the era of baseball we're in.

When the Cubs finally win a world series it won't be with a dominant 104 win team. It'll be with a run of the mill 86 win wildcard that gets hot at the right time.

[CLEstones]

Two wildcard teams, two sub 90 win teams. Giants win it yet again. 3 in 5 years. Ho-Hum. I wonder what the anemic TV ratings will be for this World Series. 6 Division races all for nothing. Mediocrity is once again rewarded. And thus the decline of our once great and proud nation continues.

Pretty sure baseball is not the reason for the decline of the once great and proud nation .

You have 10 of 30 teams make the post season. That is FAR from rewarding mediocrity. Its not like the NBA where over half the teams make the playoffs. THAT is rewarding mediocrity. Divisional races are far from pointless, they make sure you are 1 of the 5 teams to make it in your league, whether you have 105 wins or 75 wins. Sure, the additional of the second Wild Card dilutes the divisional races, but its far from rewarding mediocrity. Its sports. I would rather have a 75 win team battle through a Wild Card Game, Divisional Series, League Series and World Series rather than saying oh, by default we are going to put the Angels and Nationals in the World Series because they won the most games.

The issue you are trying to crowbar in to this discussion is better suited for a different thread.

[Kramerica Industries]

The topic of the 1998 Padres, a Bruce Bochy-managed team, came up last night in a discussion I was having. Look at what that team, a 98-win team, had to deal with that postseason:

NLDS: 102-60 Houston

NLCS: 106-56 Atlanta

WS: 114-48 New York

That is nuts! While I fully realize that, yeah, that was anomalous in its own right, it still looks a lot more like an October that I embrace rather than an October that we just saw this year. In any case, with the World Series ending last night, I can officially update this statistic (it was going to be updated regardless the winner):

World Series champions with 100+ wins since 2000: 1 ('09 NY Yankees)

World Series champions with 80-89 wins since 2000: 3 ('00 NY Yankees, '06 St. Louis, '14 San Francisco)

I could look at that stat for days and feel persistent sadness.

I would rather have a 75 win team battle through a Wild Card Game, Divisional Series, League Series and World Series rather than saying oh, by default we are going to put the Angels and Nationals in the World Series because they won the most games.

I could not possibly disagree anymore with this statement. Literally, it's not possible.

[kewp80]

Nightmare come true. Thanks for ruining baseball, San Francisco and St. Louis.

*waits for incoming death threats from Giants and Cardinals fans*

Ridiculous hyperbole topped off with attacking a strawman. Nice.

I'm surprised you haven't yet blamed the Cardinals for losing to the Giants, because if the Cards were in the series, Taveras wouldn't have been in that car and also Royals would have won the championship.

You know, i thougt about cards coach Maheney not using Taveras enough, had he used him more Vs. SF, cards might have won and he still would be alive, crazy to think how things could have worked out

Did you watch Taveres at all in the later part of the season? While he was still looking like a minor leaguer at the plate Grichuk was pounding the ball. Next year would have been his true break out year. R.I.P

[DarkJourney]

Go Giants. You don't have to apologize for anything. A lot of people on here need to get over themselves. Get off your soap boxes with your lame rants. It's obvious you guys can't enjoy anything. Have a nice day.

[IceCap]

I would rather have a 75 win team battle through a Wild Card Game, Divisional Series, League Series and World Series rather than saying oh, by default we are going to put the Angels and Nationals in the World Series because they won the most games.

I could not possibly disagree anymore with this statement. Literally, it's not possible.

I agree with him. The Angels and Nationals had their chance. They were beaten. Relatively easily by the two eventual pennant winners.

People joke about how they don't want their favourite NHL team to win the President's Trophy because it's, more often then not, a postseason death sentence.

So why do people freak out if the World Series isn't being contested by the two teams with the best records in the Majors?

The playoff system is the way it is because simply giving the best regular season team in the NL and the best regular season team in the AL berths in the World Series would mean the death of Major League Baseball.

And, as this post season proved, would reward teams that wouldn't deserve those berths.

[-kj]

World Series champions with 100+ wins since 2000: 1 ('09 NY Yankees)

World Series champions with 80-89 wins since 2000: 3 ('00 NY Yankees, '06 St. Louis, '14 San Francisco)

I could look at that stat for days and feel persistent sadness.

No team won more than 100 games this year. In fact, let's step backwards through time:

2014: -

2013: -

2012: -

2011: Phillies (102)

2010: -

2009: Yankees (103)

2008: Angels (100)

2007: -

2006: -

2005: Cardinals (100)

2004: Cardinals (105), Yankees (101)

2003: Yankees (101), Braves (101), Giants (100)

2002: Yankees (103), A's (103), Braves (101)

2001: Mariners (116), A's (102)

2000: -

1999: Braves (103), Diamondbacks (100)

1998: Yankees (114), Braves (106), Astros (102)

1997: Braves (101)

1996: -

1995: Indians (100) [144-game season]

So is this a rant about the wild card spots, or a rant about the salary cap luxury tax keeping things more competitive?

[Kramerica Industries]

I'm beating a really dead horse at this point...

The Angels and Nationals were better teams over the course of six months. The Royals and Giants were better teams over the course of four days. If this is how people like their championship teams decided, well, more power to you. It's not like my protestations are going to change anything; it's just blubber from a perpetual malcontent with a deadset agenda on this topic.

[kewp80]

I would rather have a 75 win team battle through a Wild Card Game, Divisional Series, League Series and World Series rather than saying oh, by default we are going to put the Angels and Nationals in the World Series because they won the most games.

I could not possibly disagree anymore with this statement. Literally, it's not possible.

I agree with him. The Angels and Nationals had their chance. They were beaten. Relatively easily by the two eventual pennant winners.

People joke about how they don't want their favourite NHL team to win the President's Trophy because it's, more often then not, a postseason death sentence.

So why do people freak out if the World Series isn't being contested by the two teams with the best records in the Majors?

The playoff system is the way it is because simply giving the best regular season team in the NL and the best regular season team in the AL berths in the World Series would mean the death of Major League Baseball.

And, as this post season proved, would reward teams that wouldn't deserve those berths.

+1

And I'm sick of hear the excuse "the Stanley Cup playoffs are like a whole new season". Well if that were the case then why have a regular season at all? Just have all 30 teams play 7 game series, knocking each other out until you get to the Stanley Cup finals

[DarkJourney]

Last night was the Giants 100th win of the season. Well there you go for all you curmudgeons.

[kewp80]

I'm beating a really dead horse at this point...

The Angels and Nationals were better teams over the course of six months. The Royals and Giants were better teams over the course of four days. If this is how people like their championship teams decided, well, more power to you. It's not like my protestations are going to change anything; it's just blubber from a perpetual malcontent with a deadset agenda on this topic.

And the New York Giants were "better" than the New England Patriots for one game. Go find a new horse I guess.

[Kramerica Industries]

So is this a rant about the wild card spots, or a rant about the salary cap keeping things more competitive?

It's a rant against the playoff structure. It has always been a rant against the playoff structure.

[TheOldRoman]

No team won more than 100 games this year. In fact, let's step backwards through time:

2005: -

Slight correction - the Cardinals won 100 games in 2005.

[IceCap]

The Angels and Nationals were better teams over the course of six months. The Royals and Giants were better teams over the course of four days. If this is how people like their championship teams decided, well, more power to you.

That's the way the World Series is decided because, I repeate, giving the best regular season AL team and the best regular season NL team automatic World Series bids would result in the death of Major League Baseball. It's a 162 game season. You need to give fans a reason to care over the course or that marathon of a season. You have your preferences, sure, but you have to admit that the dual table system just isn't viable in this day and age.

As for the "well the Angles and Nationals were the best teams over six months..." well welcome to pro sports. No one expects the best regular season teams in the NHL, NBA, or NFL to get automatic bids in the championship game/series. Why is that something some people expect from MLB?

As far as I'm concerned? If the Angels and Nats were truly that good they should have been able to best the Royals and Giants.

SSS and all of that, but that's why I hate the SABR fawning in the first place. It reduces a playoff series to a series of statistics. The wild card teams won in those series because they, when it mattered, proved they were the better baseball teams. We don't all freak out when an eight seed beats a one seed in the NHL playoffs. So why is the Royals sweeping the Angeles some crime that needs to be rectified?

[TheOldRoman]

I'm beating a really dead horse at this point...

The Angels and Nationals were better teams over the course of six months. The Royals and Giants were better teams over the course of four days. If this is how people like their championship teams decided, well, more power to you. It's not like my protestations are going to change anything; it's just blubber from a perpetual malcontent with a deadset agenda on this topic.

Every major North American sport decides its champion by tournament. Even college football now had a playoff system. I have no idea why people are raging against baseball for doing a scaled-down version of what every single other sport does. And it seems like almost everyone on here wanting baseball to go back to 1968 was born well after that time. It's been long established that you need to 1) be good enough to get to the postseason, and 2) be good enough (and I guess lucky enough) to win a short series. It's not like the Angels were taken by surprise when they found out they didn't clinch a World Series berth in September.

[smzimbabwe]

Apparently, my disgust at the playoff structure and wild cards triumphs my love for the Giants (fan since 1982) because I felt no joy after last night, at least not at the level I had after 2010 and 2012. This just doesn't seem like a legitimate title to me..

[Kramerica Industries]

I concede one thing to you, and that's the economic aspect of this. My point of view is rooted in extreme idealism, with the full realization that it's not really feasible in this day and age*. I think, at the end of the day, the thing that grates me more than any other thing is the best-of-5 opening round. I've fixated on the POV that mentions 100+ win teams. Well, since 2001, we've had 14 teams do that, and eight of them lost in the opening round. happens in a best-of-5 series. Since 2006, five of the nine AL #1 seeds were one-and-dones. In that same time span, four of the nine NL #1 seeds were one-and-dones. It really does a remarkable job of making the regular season feel like a very-needlessly overdone practice.

*This is also why I have conceded that a playoff structure based on the following would be enough for me to shut up on this topic forever:

1) Scrap divisions

2) Balance schedule and kill interleague

3) Top four teams from each league go to playoffs

4) All three rounds are best-of-7

Any tiebreakers for the last playoff spot contested as deemed necessary.

You would have to go back to the 14/16 format, and I couldn't care less which league has which number of teams, but we survived for 15 years with that imbalance just fine so I don't think going back to that would hurt anything.

I swear, even though that system still has three playoff rounds, I would never talk about this subject ever again. It would be a compromise that solves everything for me.

(P.S. - I might follow sabermetrics but my opinion on this subject has zero to do with sabermetric beliefs.)