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2015 MLB Season Thread with Postseason Discussion


Gary

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A's 3B coach Mike Gallego dismissed; Ron Washington to replace him.

Talk about full circle.

One quarter through the 2016 season

Billy Beane press conference: " I would like to wish Bob Melvin good luck on his future endeavors and now I would like to introduce the new manager of the Oakland Athletics: Ron Washington"

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As optimistic as I am, I'm about to stick a pitchfork in the Giants. Too many damn injuries and other than Bumgarner, the pitching is blah. The Dodgers or Mets are guaranteed a spot in the NLCS while the Cards, Pirates and Cubs tear each other apart in the other side of the bracket.

I just noticed this the other day.

The 2nd- and 3rd-best teams will play a one game play-in game and the winner gets the top seed, while the 4th- and 5th-best teams will be playing each other. And the Cardinals (assuming they stay the 1-seed) will get to play a team that's likely used their top starting pitcher and perhaps a used bullpen. How does a franchise catch so many breaks?

The NL East and West winners are the ones catching a break this year. The Cardinals have been the best team by far this season and are about to get rewarded by playing the 2nd or 3rd best team in the NL.

I'm just hoping that somehow the Pirates or Cubs catch the Cardinals, but they just never lose.

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It also means there's a very plausible scenario where-in the #2 team in baseball, record-wise, will effectively miss the playoffs. Bonus points if that team wins 100 games or more this season. I've left my ranting on this subject mostly back in 2014, but everything I said then would apply now as well.

Bud Selig may be gone, but his staining mark on this sport will remain until the sport gets rid of the monstrosity known as the wild card game. Damaging the integrity of the regular season all in the name of manufactured chaos "entertainment". What a joke.

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It also means there's a very plausible scenario where-in the #2 team in baseball, record-wise, will effectively miss the playoffs. Bonus points if that team wins 100 games or more this season. I've left my ranting on this subject mostly back in 2014, but everything I said then would apply now as well.

Bud Selig may be gone, but his staining mark on this sport will remain until the sport gets rid of the monstrosity known as the wild card game. Damaging the integrity of the regular season all in the name of manufactured chaos "entertainment". What a joke.

Everybody's gotta die sometime Red. What's the problem?

On 8/1/2010 at 4:01 PM, winters in buffalo said:
You manage to balance agitation with just enough salient points to keep things interesting. Kind of a low-rent DG_Now.
On 1/2/2011 at 9:07 PM, Sodboy13 said:
Today, we are all otaku.

"The city of Peoria was once the site of the largest distillery in the world and later became the site for mass production of penicillin. So it is safe to assume that present-day Peorians are descended from syphilitic boozehounds."-Stephen Colbert

POTD: February 15, 2010, June 20, 2010

The Glorious Bloom State Penguins (NCFAF) 2014: 2-9, 2015: 7-5 (L Pineapple Bowl), 2016: 1-0 (NCFAB) 2014-15: 10-8, 2015-16: 14-5 (SMC Champs, L 1st Round February Frenzy)

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It also means there's a very plausible scenario where-in the #2 team in baseball, record-wise, will effectively miss the playoffs. Bonus points if that team wins 100 games or more this season. I've left my ranting on this subject mostly back in 2014, but everything I said then would apply now as well.

Bud Selig may be gone, but his staining mark on this sport will remain until the sport gets rid of the monstrosity known as the wild card game. Damaging the integrity of the regular season all in the name of manufactured chaos "entertainment". What a joke.

I was skeptical of the play In game at first, but watching the 2014 Giants become the first team to win the World Series as the final seed basically erased any skepticism I had.

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On 11/19/2012 at 7:23 PM, oldschoolvikings said:
She’s still half convinced “Chris Creamer” is a porn site.)
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I can't in good conscience hate the play-in game after the amazing AL 2014 one. Best game I've ever watched in my young life.

GO OILERS-GO BLUE JAYS-GO ESKIMOS-GO COLTS

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That was a good game, but that's been the exception so far. The other 5 have been so-so to straight up dull.

The wildcard game also gave us the 2012 Cardinals who shouldn't have been in the playoffs at all and the rarely called infield fly 100 feet into the outfield. So I still vote no on the play in game.

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I can't in good conscience hate the play-in game after the amazing AL 2014 one. Best game I've ever watched in my young life.

Any game can be a good game. That's not the issue.

Last year's games featured teams with similar records, neither team having a blatant claim as better than the other. No harm no foul (even though both winners ended up in the WS)

But some day you'll get scenario in which the 2nd WC team is 8 games behind the first WC team (even worse if they are in the same division). People were already projecting a nightmare scenario last July. If you recall, the Angels were leading the AL west. The A's were comfortably in second, several games ahead of Seattle. The following scenario was suggested: The A's fighting for the key division title end up a game behind the Angels and 7 games ahead of WC#2 Seattle. After fighting to the end for the division title (which is what they are supposed to be doing per this new format), they are onto whatever starter they have available for a one-game "playoff" vs. Seattle, who has known its its spot for weeks and has set up the rotation so Felix Hernandez can pitch the WC game. In that scenario, the team that clearly had the better year, through the circumstances created by their better (and Seattle's lesser) year would have had home field but otherwise come in at a disadvantage. Yes, the A's went down in flames. That's not the point; the point is that something like that will eventually happen. The better WC team should not have to decide whether to "go for it" at the end of the year or set up for a 1-game playoff. It's nice for the division title to mean something but it's at the expense of the integrity of getting the appropriate non-division-winner into the Divisional Series.

Now I know we've had 85-win World Series champs before and that one could argue that we have no problem giving a team like the 1987 Twins (85 wins) and the 2006 Cardinals (83 wins) a chance against teams with better seasons. But there is a difference between a one-game playoff and a 5- or 7-game series, particularly in baseball where a how good a team is depends in large part on that team's starting pitcher that day. Giving a "lesser" team a shot in a best-of-seven kinda makes the "better" team have to "prove it." But one game? One baseball game indicates nothing.

If the season ended today, the Twins, in a weaker division, would be the WC#2 vs. the Yankees, who are 4 games ahead in a tougher division (actually, further review indicates that the AL East is probably a bit tougher but not tons). Of course, I'd be pulling for the Twins in that game but if they manage to take one game at Yankee Stadium* that does not really make them more deserving than the Yankees to move on. At least in a best-of-five, they'd have to show that they can do it a few times.

*of course this is the only matchup in MLB where that is impossible. The Twins will never win a game at Yankee Stadium again, though they'll have plenty of leads in the 7th.

Disclaimer: If this comment is about an NBA uniform from 2017-2018 or later, do not constitute a lack of acknowledgement of the corporate logo to mean anything other than "the corporate logo is terrible and makes the uniform significantly worse."

 

BADGERS TWINS VIKINGS TIMBERWOLVES WILD

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The wildcard game also gave us the 2012 Cardinals who shouldn't have been in the playoffs at all and the rarely called infield fly 100 feet into the outfield.

Yeah, that was a time that everyone was right to throw garbage on the field. Vendors should have been helping the cause.

♫ oh yeah, board goes on, long after the thrill of postin' is gone ♫

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[Excellent comment]

Pretty much wrote that same thing myself last July; nice to see it again. I'll just add this little note to that - I first heard the suggestion for the two wild card system back in September 2010, probably because the Red Sox were going to miss the playoffs and g-d forbid that ever happen, right? If it had existed that year, that exact scenario would've ensued - Rays and Yankees fighting like hell to win the East despite having held the two best records in the AL the entire season, while the Red Sox were rather-coasting to the second wild card position. They would've been able to align Jon Lester for that game. The second-place team between the Yankees and Rays? Lets just say C.C. Sabathia nor David Price would've been able to align, in all likelihood, and, thus, a scenario where being in 3rd place all year would've essentially become an advantage compared to being in 1st or 2nd place. Talk about purpose defeating, right?

Besides, this system is designed to punish wild cards, right? Sure didn't prevent that awful World Series matchup last year.

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That was a good game, but that's been the exception so far. The other 5 have been so-so to straight up dull.

The wildcard game also gave us the 2012 Cardinals who shouldn't have been in the playoffs at all and the rarely called infield fly 100 feet into the outfield. So I still vote no on the play in game.

That play was hilarious only because it benefitted the Cardinals. I mean, what can you say? That would ONLY go their way. The Yankees always win, but they generally do so by buying top-shelf talent. The Cardinals produce a few superstars and also a bunch of scrappy do-gooders short on talent who come up huge in big moments. And seemingly every break goes their way, except for when they face the Giants in the playoffs. It's funny because I know how furious it would have made me had I been a fan of one of their division rivals. Seriously, if I were a Cubs fans I would have been smashing things.

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[Excellent comment]

Pretty much wrote that same thing myself last July; nice to see it again. I'll just add this little note to that - I first heard the suggestion for the two wild card system back in September 2010, probably because the Red Sox were going to miss the playoffs and g-d forbid that ever happen, right? If it had existed that year, that exact scenario would've ensued - Rays and Yankees fighting like hell to win the East despite having held the two best records in the AL the entire season, while the Red Sox were rather-coasting to the second wild card position. They would've been able to align Jon Lester for that game. The second-place team between the Yankees and Rays? Lets just say C.C. Sabathia nor David Price would've been able to align, in all likelihood, and, thus, a scenario where being in 3rd place all year would've essentially become an advantage compared to being in 1st or 2nd place. Talk about purpose defeating, right?

Besides, this system is designed to punish wild cards, right? Sure didn't prevent that awful World Series matchup last year.

Yeah...I pretty much copied it...though did not remember who wrote it.

Disclaimer: If this comment is about an NBA uniform from 2017-2018 or later, do not constitute a lack of acknowledgement of the corporate logo to mean anything other than "the corporate logo is terrible and makes the uniform significantly worse."

 

BADGERS TWINS VIKINGS TIMBERWOLVES WILD

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That play was hilarious only because it benefitted the Cardinals.

It was also hilarious because it involved the Braves, a longtime running gag being that Skip Caray used to answer viewer mail/calls and always had to explain, with increasing grouchiness, what the infield fly rule was. It was not for naught, because the Braves faithful finally knew what the infield fly rule was AND THAT WAS NOT A :censored:ING INFIELD FLY.

♫ oh yeah, board goes on, long after the thrill of postin' is gone ♫

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Keeping to the uni theme... those Mets unis have to be their greatest of all time. Love the colour + finish on those numbers & letters.

Haters gonna hate, yet they have a near 3D vibe to them.

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@2001mark

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