2022 MLB Postseason

[TrueYankee26]

It would have been fascinating to see the Guardians win the World Series on the 1st season of their new nickname (same for the Commanders winning a Super Bowl on the same circumstances)

 

Just not at the expense of the Yankees of course

[Cujo]

26 minutes ago, TrueYankee26 said:

It would have been fascinating to see the Guardians win the World Series on the 1st season of their new nickname (same for the Commanders winning a Super Bowl on the same circumstances)

 

Just not at the expense of the Yankees of course

 

[Kooky01]

2 hours ago, Dynasty said:

 

What...? The Astros cheated again? 

 

(I'm assuming that's who you're referring to)

Maybe they meant the 1998 Yankees or the 1984 Tigers, the teams the Padres lost to in their previous appearances. 

[McCall]

9 hours ago, TrueYankee26 said:

It would have been fascinating to see the Guardians win the World Series on the 1st season of their new nickname (same for the Commanders winning a Super Bowl on the same circumstances)

 

Just not at the expense of the Yankees of course

That would've been the best part.

[Sport]

I think the handwringing over the playoff format resulting in the demise of the Braves, Dodgers, and Mets is both stupid and annoying, especially because the other league produced an LCS with 205 combined wins. I get that short series create a greater chance for randomness to factor in, but also the Dodgers and Mets shoulda just beat the Padres if they were so clearly superior. The Braves shoulda just beat the Phillies if they were so clearly superior. It's baseball and this has been going on since the advent of the LCS. Look at 1973 - the Mets won 82 games, would've been 4th in the NL West, and beat the 99 win Reds in a best of 5. Why's the stink about it been so loud this year? I'm just glad it wasn't some dog**** cardinals team full of boring rando plugs pulling off the upset like usual. At least the Mets got the chance to play more than one game. The 2015, 98 win Pirates didn't get that opportunity. Hell, the 1981 Reds had the best record in baseball and didn't make the playoffs. What I'm saying is all those teams had their chance on the field. 

 

Also, Padres and Phillies are two of the like 5 ballclubs who actually tried to improve their teams by spending money in the last few years. We should be encouraging that behavior, baseball media. And it's not like both squads aren't loaded with stars. That series is going to be a party, Yankees-Astros, on the other hand? I'm calling that the A***ole Bowl. I'd welcome another strain of COVID just to cancel that series before it gets started. 

 

 

[oldschoolvikings]

I'm disappointed theYankees pulled it out, but I'm looking forward to all the crybaby weeping and bitching when the Astros (hopefully) take them out. 

[Sec19Row53]

30 minutes ago, oldschoolvikings said:

I'm disappointed theYankees pulled it out, but I'm looking forward to all the crybaby weeping and bitching when the Astros (hopefully) take them out. 

Personally, I'm rooting for a meteor in that series, but I can't fault your statement!

[oldschoolvikings]

7 minutes ago, Sec19Row53 said:

Personally, I'm rooting for a meteor in that series, but I can't fault your statement!

 I’ve hated everything about the Yankees for 40 plus years.  Some random banging on a trash can isn’t going to overcome that. 

[McCall]

52 minutes ago, Sport said:

I think the handwringing over the playoff format resulting in the demise of the Braves, Dodgers, and Mets is both stupid and annoying, especially because the other league produced an LCS with 205 combined wins. I get that short series create a greater chance for randomness to factor in, but also the Dodgers and Mets shoulda just beat the Padres if they were so clearly superior. The Braves shoulda just beat the Phillies if they were so clearly superior. It's baseball and this has been going on since the advent of the LCS. Look at 1973 - the Mets won 82 games, would've been 4th in the NL West, and beat the 99 win Reds in a best of 5. Why's the stink about it been so loud this year? I'm just glad it wasn't some dog**** cardinals team full of boring rando plugs pulling off the upset like usual. At least the Mets got the chance to play more than one game. The 2015, 98 win Pirates didn't get that opportunity. Hell, the 1981 Reds had the best record in baseball and didn't make the playoffs. What I'm saying is all those teams had their chance on the field. 

 

Also, Padres and Phillies are two of the like 5 ballclubs who actually tried to improve their teams by spending money in the last few years. We should be encouraging that behavior, baseball media. And it's not like both squads aren't loaded with stars. That series is going to be a party, Yankees-Astros, on the other hand? I'm calling that the A***ole Bowl. I'd welcome another strain of COVID just to cancel that series before it gets started. 

 

 

Other than the Cardinals remark (which is just unnecessarily mean and hurtful... hopefully everyone gets that that was sarcasm), I agree. The shorter series, AT HOME, gives the advantage to the better teams, so what's the fuss? Cardinals, Mets and Blue Jays had the clear advantage and couldn't get it done. Any team can be playing bad or good at anytime. You can't predict hot and cold spells so you set it up as best you can. Theoretically, the competition gets tougher the further you get into the playoffs, which is why there's more games in a series.

[Sport]

14 minutes ago, McCall said:

Other than the Cardinals remark (which is just unnecessarily mean and hurtful... hopefully everyone gets that that was sarcasm), I agree. The shorter series, AT HOME, gives the advantage to the better teams, so what's the fuss? Cardinals, Mets and Blue Jays had the clear advantage and couldn't get it done. Any team can be playing bad or good at anytime. You can't predict hot and cold spells so you set it up as best you can. Theoretically, the competition gets tougher the further you get into the playoffs, which is why there's more games in a series.

 

Some people were saying the bye was actually unfavorable to the higher seeds because they got rusty, but again, the Yankees and Astros pulled through so it worked for them in some way. The Dodgers got to play a team who had just played a 3 game series in New York, flew across the country, and got to set their rotation. They even won game 1 against the Padres. If they let the Dodgers pick their path to the LCS they would've likely chosen the Padres. The Padres just went out and beat them on the field and I bet every member of the Dodgers would tell you it's no one's fault except their own. The Bill Plaschkes of baseball media griping about it are the problem. 

 

The only way that would be perfectly fair to determine a champion is you Premier League it - Everyone plays the same schedule and the best record at the end of the season gets a trophy with no postseason. I know our man Ferdinand would love it, but it would be dreadfully boring for 27ish out of 30 fanbases in any given year. 

[DG_ThenNowForever]

4 minutes ago, Sport said:

The only way that would be perfectly fair to determine a champion is you Premier League it - Everyone plays the same schedule and the best record at the end of the season gets a trophy with no postseason. I know our man Ferdinand would love it, but it would be dreadfully boring for 27ish out of 30 fanbases in any given year. 

 

I think the Premier League comparison falls apart because, while the EPL is a big deal, the true price is Champions League. Champions League ends in a knockout tournament.

 

Playoffs are imperfect in a lot of ways, but you always end up there in the end.

[Sport]

46 minutes ago, DG_ThenNowForever said:

 

I think the Premier League comparison falls apart because, while the EPL is a big deal, the true price is Champions League. Champions League ends in a knockout tournament.

 

Playoffs are imperfect in a lot of ways, but you always end up there in the end.

 

I just meant a scenario where there's a single table, identical schedules, and the champion of the league is determined without a postseason would be the closest way to get to total fairness, which we don't really want. We like the unpredictability of postseasons - I saw the dang ass Bengals nearly win the dang ass Super Bowl. 

 

I'm not well-versed in the Premier League. Are teams built with the goal of winning the league or are they built with the goal of winning the Champions League? We have this argument a lot in hockey about the President's Trophy not meaning anything and my contention as always been that if that was the only determined prize at the beginning of the season then the regular season would play out much differently, teams would be built differently, games would be approached differently, etc. But since the playoffs and Stanley Cup are the main goal then the President's Trophy is almost always won accidentally and it's silly then to say something, like, "the 2019 Lightning were actually the league champions". 

[Discrim]

45 minutes ago, Sport said:

 

 

I'm not well-versed in the Premier League. Are teams built with the goal of winning the league or are they built with the goal of winning the Champions League? We have this argument a lot in hockey about the President's Trophy not meaning anything and my contention as always been that if that was the only determined prize at the beginning of the season then the regular season would play out much differently, teams would be built differently, games would be approached differently, etc.

The clubs you've heard of are trying to win the league and qualify for the Champions League (and also win the CL if they're in this year's edition); the weaker clubs and those that just got promoted, their main aim is to avoid relegation (notably, unlike here where a team that's out of it usually sends out younger players when they're playing out the string, a team staving off relegation tends to load up on cheap veterans, and there are even managers considered relegation specialists)...the clubs in the middle are trying to qualify for the Europa League, or the CL if they're lucky.

[DG_ThenNowForever]

1 hour ago, Sport said:

I'm not well-versed in the Premier League. Are teams built with the goal of winning the league or are they built with the goal of winning the Champions League?

 

Discrim answered this well. It depends on the team, and for the top teams -- across European leagues -- they're absolutely focused on building a CL contender. This is true in MLS as well, where the Sounders sacrificed their MLS season to win CCL (which was worth it).

 

So, basically, comparing single-table leagues to American playoff systems is apples and oranges, because the motivations are very, very different.

[BBTV]

I totally understand any dissatisfaction with the new MLB post season format, but another way to look at it is that teams know going into the season that they don't have to exert themselves to win 115 games in order to make the playoffs - they just have to be in the top 6 in their league, and if they're a 115 win team in disguise, then they have a great advantage over a team that just snuck in.  Also, if having the bye turns into a disadvantage, then a team can ensure they don't get it.

 

I'm not in any way advocating that a team tank to avoid the bye, or that great teams took their foot off the gas to save themselves for the playoffs, but it's also not necessarily fair to assume that since a team is a 5 or 6 seed that they aren't worthy.  That being said, the Phillies have been incredibly fortunate to be able to line up Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola to start each of their series' so far - and that's something that the format was supposed to make harder on the lower seeds, since they'd just be continuing to play the whole time.  It just happened to work out for them.

[BBTV]

OMG please bring on the robo umps immediately.  When even a pitcher is laughing out loud at the calls he's getting, there's a problem.  To hell with purists that think that a game needs rules, but that it's perfectly fine for them to be subjective at best, but mostly arbitrary.

 

Home plate umpiring in baseball isn't much different than throwing a roughing-the-QB flag in the NFL.  It costs teams drives and possibly games, and is at times completely subject to the whims of the person throwing the flag or calling the strike.

[rainmaker17]

12 hours ago, oldschoolvikings said:

 I’ve hated everything about the Yankees for 40 plus years.  Some random banging on a trash can isn’t going to overcome that. 

You've never met the majority of Astros fans

[oldschoolvikings]

6 hours ago, rainmaker17 said:

You've never met the majority of Astros fans

  
Im not sure I’ve ever met any Astros fan.  
 

 

Don’t care. 

[gosioux76]

19 hours ago, Discrim said:

The clubs you've heard of are trying to win the league and qualify for the Champions League (and also win the CL if they're in this year's edition); the weaker clubs and those that just got promoted, their main aim is to avoid relegation (notably, unlike here where a team that's out of it usually sends out younger players when they're playing out the string, a team staving off relegation tends to load up on cheap veterans, and there are even managers considered relegation specialists)...the clubs in the middle are trying to qualify for the Europa League, or the CL if they're lucky.

 

This hits all the points. In essence, there's something to compete for at every level of the EPL: The league, winning the Champions League, qualifying for the Champions League, winning the FA Cup, avoiding relegation, making progress up the table. 

 

In baseball, there remains only one prize. And for 50-or-so years now, MLB has been expanding the playoffs in an effort to give more teams a chance at winning that prize and, therefore, enable more markets to retain interest longer into the year. 

 

So any complaints about the playoff structure being somehow unfair to these 100+ win teams needs to take into account that this format was borne out of a need to keep the sport relevant to more people at a time when there are a lot more things to take their attention. 

 

If anything, any frustration should be limited to the fans of those teams who missed out years ago because the playoff format wasn't as inclusive. I'll never forget watching the '88 Twins as a kid. They won 91 games with a lineup that kept the prior year's championship team mostly intact, but ended the season 13-games behind the brutal Bash Bros. A's. I'd have liked to have seen that Twins team have a shot at a divisional series or Wild Card. 

[Kooky01]

Commanding 2-0 lead headed to the Bronx baby! Can't wait to see all those crybabies/bandwagons weep as they have every year since 2010 (and all of the past 21 or so except 2009).