2012 MLB Season

[Sport]

that 2nd Wild Card (which I still hate, despite all this

I think the fact that teams like the Brewers, Phillies and Pirates are still in it shows how much the second wild card spot has led to increased mediocrity for the playoff picture.

The Braves are probably going to win around 90 games, but because they happened to be in the same division as the Nationals who could win 100 games, they'll be stuck in a best of one series with some team that's probably going to be sporting an 85-77 record or there about.

There's only been a handful of teams in baseball history that I would consider mediocre that got into the playoffs and most of them were divisional winners coming out of weak divisions. Not Wild Card winners. This second Wild Card spot I think could add alot of teams to that list in a very short time frame.

I think the second wild card has been a bad idea since day one. The appeal of the baseball playoffs has always been how difficult it was to reach. Now teams can coast around .500 all season, play .600 baseball in September and then have a shot at the world championship. Call it, the St. Louis Cardinals model. The added wild card makes baseball no better than the NFL, NHL, and NBA where bad regular season teams make the playoffs annually.

I really hope Atlanta wins that game because out of them, St. Louis, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, LA, and Pittsburgh, they're the only ones who have proven all season long that they're a worthy playoff team.

[pmoehrin]

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that 2nd Wild Card (which I still hate, despite all this

<br /><br />I think the fact that teams like the Brewers, Phillies and Pirates are still in it shows how much the second wild card spot has led to increased mediocrity for the playoff picture.<The Braves are probably going to win around 90 games, but because they happened to be in the same division as the Nationals who could win 100 games, they'll be stuck in a best of one series with some team that's probably going to be sporting an 85-77 record or there about.<br /><br />There's only been a handful of teams in baseball history that I would consider mediocre that got into the playoffs and most of them were divisional winners coming out of weak divisions. Not Wild Card winners. This second Wild Card spot I think could add alot of teams to that list in a very short time frame.<br />

<br />I think the second wild card has been a bad idea since day one. The appeal of the baseball playoffs has always been how difficult it was to reach. Now teams can coast around .500 all season, play .600 baseball in September and then have a shot at the world championship. Call it, the St. Louis Cardinals model. The added wild card makes baseball no better than the NFL, NHL, and NBA where bad regular season teams make the playoffs annually. <br /><br />I really hope Atlanta wins that game because out of them, St. Louis, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, LA, and Pittsburgh, they're the only ones who have proven all season long that they're a worthy playoff team.

Well St. Louis won 90 games last year, so to throw them in with this bunch I think is a little unfair, but I see your point. Above average team gets a hot hand at just the right time and effectively throws out the previous five months of the season.

Its manufactured drama and for a sport that's been largely immune from that type of criticism, its depressing to see them finally succumb somewhat to the lure of increased revenue streams and media attention at the expense of doing what's probably more fair and just.

Also bad news for the Dodgers. Clayton Kershaw out indefinitely with hip inflammation which is usually code for done for the season. Even if LA somehow does win the Wild Card I don't see them getting far in the playoffs minus Kershaw, Billingsley and Lilly.

[Funky Bunky]

I hope the Phillies make the playoffs and run the table. It would be the most ridiculous bull ever.

[rams80]

I'm not crying for the poor 1st Wild Card team that got caught in a Division with another good team and failed to take proper advantage of the unbalanced schedule. You control your destiny from Day 1, and welp, you dicked the dog enough that you need to take an extra spin of the chance wheel. Next time consider beating the Division Champion a little more often.

[STL FANATIC]

All else being equal, I'd love to go old school. Two divisions per league, one playoff round before the WS. Hell, I'd even be a proponent of no playoffs and just a World Series like it was a long time ago. There's a reason you bother playing 162 games... it does the sorting already.

But I understand the reasons behind not doing that. It eliminates a lot of interest and excitement from a lot of the fan bases. It's not good business. And it's not like there aren't usually a couple more good teams. I thought the last system was a solid compromise. Three division champions and one wild card.

Sometimes that meant you had a team or two that just really didn't deserve a chance at a championship but got one anyways. But usually, under that system you'd have 4 pretty good teams. It was acceptable.

But this extra wild card? What a disaster. I mean, Bud's looking at ticket sales and TV ratings and thinking it's a great success. But one of the Cardinals, Dodgers, Brewers, Pirates, Phillies, or Padres is going to make the playoffs? Ugh. It's mediocre baseball at it's finest. They really have no business having a chance at a championship.

But when you're rewarding someone for being 2nd 2nd best, that's what you get.

[rams80]

The playoffs are a crap shoot anyway (which is good, since that's about the only "competitive balance" thing baseball has going). Why not let a few more teams have a roll of the dice.

[Norva]

The playoffs are a crap shoot anyway (which is good, since that's about the only "competitive balance" thing baseball has going). Why not let a few more teams have a roll of the dice.

This. Plus I like that the one game WC playoff puts more meaning on a division title. If you win your division you don't have to worry about a literal one-and-done situation.

[The_Admiral]

Four playoff teams would be just fine with me, but Major League Baseball is in the entertainment business, not the competition business, and so without the relative fiscal/competitive parity baseball enjoyed in the '70s and '80s, we have to cook up these fake wild card chases so that we don't salt the earth in sixteen to twenty markets. C'est la vie, I guess, but I don't like it. All that being said, I still hope the wild-card Oakland A's win the World Series.

[pmoehrin]

My playoff system would be very simple.

No divisions, just if you win 90 games your in. If only one or less teams win 90 games then its just the top two teams going at it in the LCS. I understand every year the playoff system would be different, but in my opinion that's the break even point between teams that should have a chance at winning the World Series and those that shouldn't.

I understand something like that would/will never happen, but that's what I would do if you made me dictator of Major League Baseball.

[Eye]

The playoffs are a crap shoot anyway (which is good, since that's about the only "competitive balance" thing baseball has going). Why not let a few more teams have a roll of the dice.

No, because the reason a 162 game schedule is played is to weed out the anomalies within the game which factor into pretenders still having a decent record around the all star break or even later into the season. Survival of the fittest for a 162 game schedule.

[maz]

Be a Pirates fan, or a fan of any other small-market team that rarely-if-ever makes the playoffs, and then complain about how there are too many playoff spots. They only added two. Yeah, you can say 162 games weeds out the weaklings who don't deserve it, but that's actually all the more reason to have more teams, and ten teams is a perfectly okay amount. If you can be one of the ten best teams in baseball after 162 games, you deserve a shot, especially considering how baseball pretty much awards teams and punishes them based on the size of their market. But since baseball seems content with that, more playoff spots is about the best thing in terms of competitiveness they can do until they decide to actually fix things.

[pmoehrin]

Baseball pretty much awards teams and punishes them based on the size of their market.

Ten years ago I would agree with that because there was a pretty high correlation between market size and win total, but I don't know if that's the case anymore.

Its not a death sentence to be in a small market anymore as it was in the late 90's-mid 2000's. I think teams are much smarter with how they spend money, (mainly giving big contracts to younger players, instead of high priced free agents) the revenue sharing model is much better and you have the luxury tax which I think has been effective in limiting how much big market teams can spend.

I think to bring up team like the Pirates never making it is a good point to bring up, but I don't think this is the answer.

[The Six]

The Pirates haven't missed the playoffs because they're small market. They've missed because they've been a terribly-run franchise.

[STL FANATIC]

The playoffs are a crap shoot anyway (which is good, since that's about the only "competitive balance" thing baseball has going). Why not let a few more teams have a roll of the dice.

That's exactly why you don't do it.

They're already a crapshoot due to small sample size and baseball's randomness by nature, so why not at least limit the "tournament" to good teams?

[rams80]

The playoffs are a crap shoot anyway (which is good, since that's about the only "competitive balance" thing baseball has going). Why not let a few more teams have a roll of the dice.

That's exactly why you don't do it.

They're already a crapshoot due to small sample size and baseball's randomness by nature, so why not at least limit the "tournament" to good teams?

Because the difference between a "good" 90 win team and a "mediocre" low-80s win team is pretty much 1 bad week in a 6 month season. Because this is a business, and anything that keeps more fanbases interested in the season is good for business. And hell, the unbalanced schedule is variable enough that even a 7-10 game spread is well within the strength of schedule variable.

[Epiphanic]

Because the difference between a "good" 90 win team and a "mediocre" low-80s win team is pretty much 1 bad week in a 6 month season. Because this is a business, and anything that keeps more fanbases interested in the season is good for business. And hell, the unbalanced schedule is variable enough that even a 7-10 game spread is well within the strength of schedule variable.

Not really. The unbalanced schedule is responsible for maybe 1 game one way or another at most.

[STL FANATIC]

The playoffs are a crap shoot anyway (which is good, since that's about the only "competitive balance" thing baseball has going). Why not let a few more teams have a roll of the dice.

That's exactly why you don't do it.

They're already a crapshoot due to small sample size and baseball's randomness by nature, so why not at least limit the "tournament" to good teams?

Because the difference between a "good" 90 win team and a "mediocre" low-80s win team is pretty much 1 bad week in a 6 month season. Because this is a business, and anything that keeps more fanbases interested in the season is good for business. And hell, the unbalanced schedule is variable enough that even a 7-10 game spread is well within the strength of schedule variable.

But you play 162 games to reward the teams that have the least bad weeks.

The business argument is valid and in fact the entire reason it was done. But that doesn't mean I have to like it.

The top 3 leagues--the NFL, MLB, and NBA--can basically do this stuff, though. They're nearly too big to fail, so they can make these changes to extort more money out of us knowing that we're not really going to turn our back on the game. That's the way it goes, unfortunately.

[cmm]

Be a Pirates fan, or a fan of any other small-market team that rarely-if-ever makes the playoffs, and then complain about how there are too many playoff spots. They only added two. Yeah, you can say 162 games weeds out the weaklings who don't deserve it, but that's actually all the more reason to have more teams, and ten teams is a perfectly okay amount. If you can be one of the ten best teams in baseball after 162 games, you deserve a shot, especially considering how baseball pretty much awards teams and punishes them based on the size of their market. But since baseball seems content with that, more playoff spots is about the best thing in terms of competitiveness they can do until they decide to actually fix things.

Only 5 teams haven't made the playoffs since 2000, and one (Washington/Montreal-1981) and maybe two (Baltimore-1997) will end their drought this year.

[Sport]

Warning: Reel Line Mint

Here's what I'd do: go back to two divisions per league, top 2 teams in each division play each other in a true divisional championship series, division champions meet for the league championship, and so on and so forth. Balances the schedule, and you don't have teams fighting for the same playoff spot while playing wildly different schedules.

Anyways, I want to be there when the Reds clinch the central, but I'm not going to go to Chicago this week so I'm hoping it happens this weekend at home against the Dodgers. The Reds magic number is 5. They and the Cardinals both have off days today. The Cardinals have 3 against the Astros, which you figure should be at least 2 wins. Because of the way the Astros have been playing lately, I'll give them a game so the magic number's down to 4. I figure the Reds will likely take two out of three against the Cubs and that drops the magic number to two heading into this weekend. Best case scenario, the Reds clinch on Sunday Night Baseball to which I have tickets. Worst case scenario, the Reds clinch because of a Cardinals loss to the Cubs during the day and the celebration is a lame batting practice handshake. Either way, first place problems.

[WSU151]

But this extra wild card? What a disaster. I mean, Bud's looking at ticket sales and TV ratings and thinking it's a great success. But one of the Cardinals, Dodgers, Brewers, Pirates, Phillies, or Padres is going to make the playoffs? Ugh. It's mediocre baseball at it's finest. They really have no business having a chance at a championship.

But when you're rewarding someone for being 2nd 2nd best, that's what you get.

Truly, baseball's been pretty mediocre since the 90s. There isn't one WS champion from 2001-2012 that will be looked upon with the fondness that the Yankee dynasties have. The 96-2000 Yankees are the last dominant baseball team. The 90s Braves were dominant, but only won one championship. No one's going to look back at the 2005 White Sox or 2006 Cardinals and think "Yeah, that's one of the best teams we've ever seen". World Series championships really aren't what they used to be.

I'm all for the 2nd Wild Card. If it keeps more people talking about baseball past NFL training camp, it's good for business. The last thing you want to do is take on some "elitist" status, minimize playoff berths, and eliminate 90% of the fan base by July.