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MLB 2021 Season Thread


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8 hours ago, DG_ThenNowForever said:

I know I'm way behind everything, but why in the world is the division series best of 5?

 

Baseball makes no sense to me.

 

Because 3 out of 5 is plenty. The NBA was better when the early series were best of 5.

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I am admittedly shocked at this turn in the Red Sox fortunes. Didn’t really expect anything from them at the start of the year, the early good play was nice but predictably fell apart when this duct-taped roster showed itself in the second half of the year. I don’t know how they came back around to being a clutch, productive team (with adequate pitching!) considering how they nearly coughed it all up end of September.

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9 hours ago, DG_ThenNowForever said:

I know I'm way behind everything, but why in the world is the division series best of 5?

 

Baseball makes no sense to me.

Because any more is unnecessary for a 1st round playoff. Best of 5 series in the 1st round used to be the norm in the NBA until the early 2000s. In some ways, I think it should still be a best of 5. 

 

8 minutes ago, McCall said:

I agree. I'd maybe go 3, or even 2, for the Wild Card, but leave the rest as is.

I'd leave the Wild Card as a one game. I like the drama and intensity of a 1 game Wild Card.

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The NBA had a best-of-five first round because they have a four-round postseason.

 

MLB has a three-round postseason, and one of those rounds is one game.

 

It's incongruent. 82-game season for basketball followed by a long playoff. Baseball is 162 games, with the playoffs treated as an inconvenience you need to hurry up and get over with. Why the rush?

1 hour ago, ShutUpLutz! said:

and the drunken doodoobags jumping off the tops of SUV's/vans/RV's onto tables because, oh yeah, they are drunken drug abusing doodoobags

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33 minutes ago, DG_ThenNowForever said:

The NBA had a best-of-five first round because they have a four-round postseason.

 

MLB has a three-round postseason, and one of those rounds is one game.

 

It's incongruent. 82-game season for basketball followed by a long playoff. Baseball is 162 games, with the playoffs treated as an inconvenience you need to hurry up and get over with. Why the rush?

Or it's treated as "we just played 162 games, why do we need to play potentially 21 more?"

 

And for the record, I personally think the NBA and NHL playoffs are too long as well. Just my opinion.

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1 hour ago, insert name said:

Because any more is unnecessary for a 1st round playoff. Best of 5 series in the 1st round used to be the norm in the NBA until the early 2000s. In some ways, I think it should still be a best of 5. 

 

I'd leave the Wild Card as a one game. I like the drama and intensity of a 1 game Wild Card.

I used to, as well. But that's what kinda intrigues me about a "best of 2" scenario, where the top team only has to win 1 game, but the 2nd WC has to win 2.

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55 minutes ago, DG_ThenNowForever said:

It's incongruent. 82-game season for basketball followed by a long playoff. Baseball is 162 games, with the playoffs treated as an inconvenience you need to hurry up and get over with. Why the rush?

 

Shorter season means longer playoffs, longer season means shorter playoffs. Also November isn't a good month to be playing baseball outside

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1 hour ago, DG_ThenNowForever said:

The NBA had a best-of-five first round because they have a four-round postseason.

 

MLB has a three-round postseason, and one of those rounds is one game.

 

It's incongruent. 82-game season for basketball followed by a long playoff. Baseball is 162 games, with the playoffs treated as an inconvenience you need to hurry up and get over with. Why the rush?

Weather, for one thing. In places like New York, Chicago, Minnesota, Detroit, Cleveland, etc., the regular/postseason schedule is already probably too long for manageable weather.  In order to have a significantly longer postseason, they'll have to slash the regular season. Maybe one day they'll crunch some numbers and do just that. It would be a double-edged sword for things like ticket affordability, history/record books, etc. but would make regular season games more meaningful (at least in terms of their individual impact on the final W/L record) and keep just about every team alive for at least half the season.  But until they go down to something like 120 games, a significant lengthening of the playoffs isn't going to fit into the calendar.

 

I freely admit to being one of those traditionalists that is ruining the game. But I also recognize that sports/fandom are changing and many fans don't have the attention span to follow MLB as it's always been constructed. So does something radical have to happen? Maybe. If I were commissioner, I'd cut it down to 154 (I think that was the number prior to 1960/61 expansion) for next season simply to create more off days and/or bump the start or finish of the season by a few days. That probably would not help expand the playoffs, though. In the meantime, I'd probably have to explore something that allows for more teams at the expense of the regular season.

 

Any playoff expansion needs, in my opinion:

  • Series of at least five games. It keeps baseball being baseball, if you will.
  • No byes. Byes are just too likely to disadvantage the team they're meant to reward. 

The only potential use of byes is for a one-game playoff. And while I think it's silly that the 106-win Dodgers played in one vs. the 90-win Cardinals, I could live with it if the one-gamers were to weed out more marginal teams. Maybe something like three division champs and one wild card and then four more teams playing to into two of LDS series? I

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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Yeah, I get the weather thing. Baseball is incompatible with snow. (And in a climate-changing world, baseball is going to be increasingly incompatible with pretty much every season outside of a few nice days in June.)

 

I think 154 is a fine number. I also think I'm not swayed by any affordability arguments, considering most baseball stadiums are sitting at 50% capacity at best throughout the season, and 154 is just 5 percent fewer games than 162.

 

My perfect answer is:

- 154 games

- More double headers to keep the season shorter

- 8 teams from each league make the playoffs

- Best of 3 or 5 in the first round, then best of 7 thereafter

- Success for everyone!

 

This answer is to the question of how do you improve competition in baseball? You make more games matter longer, and you create more rewards for competing. One extra playoff slot isn't enough.

1 hour ago, ShutUpLutz! said:

and the drunken doodoobags jumping off the tops of SUV's/vans/RV's onto tables because, oh yeah, they are drunken drug abusing doodoobags

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4 hours ago, Digby said:

I am admittedly shocked at this turn in the Red Sox fortunes. Didn’t really expect anything from them at the start of the year, the early good play was nice but predictably fell apart when this duct-taped roster showed itself in the second half of the year. I don’t know how they came back around to being a clutch, productive team (with adequate pitching!) considering how they nearly coughed it all up end of September.

Because the team really only fell apart due to COVID. Once the team came back from that they were just as good as anyone

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1 hour ago, DG_ThenNowForever said:

Yeah, I get the weather thing. Baseball is incompatible with snow. (And in a climate-changing world, baseball is going to be increasingly incompatible with pretty much every season outside of a few nice days in June.)

 

I think 154 is a fine number. I also think I'm not swayed by any affordability arguments, considering most baseball stadiums are sitting at 50% capacity at best throughout the season, and 154 is just 5 percent fewer games than 162.

 

My perfect answer is:

- 154 games

- More double headers to keep the season shorter

- 8 teams from each league make the playoffs

- Best of 3 or 5 in the first round, then best of 7 thereafter

- Success for everyone!

 

This answer is to the question of how do you improve competition in baseball? You make more games matter longer, and you create more rewards for competing. One extra playoff slot isn't enough.

I can tell you right now, if they dropped the season back to 154 games, the Players Union would want the same schedule footprint (opening day to final day of regular season) to remain the same just with more off days sprinkled throughout. And they would also nix in scheduled doubleheaders, especially multiple ones.

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I don't know what I was expecing the Sox machine to due this upcoming postseason. So many people I read and heard were going on about the pitching and how that was supposed to carry the them. However the dissenters, like myself, knew this bullpen was suspect and Houston's clutch hitting is just exacerbating that fact. I mean, this state line is absurd: From the start of the series to halfway through game 4, the Astros are 7 of 16 with 2 outs and RISP, including 3 doubles, a home run and 12 RBIs. Straight up, it would take a Herculean effort to overcome that kind of clutch performance and this White Sox team just doesn't have that kind of talent or luck. 

 

Regardless of that, I'm happy to see playoff baseball again for my team and hope this will lead to several more appearances come this decade. 

"And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain and I can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life... You have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm sure. But don't worry... you will someday." 

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