MLB News & Notes (other than Cubs or Sox)

[VanSlawAndCottoCheese]

I'm pitchin' a tent over here.

[nakedman1664]

And the Royals made it in tonight.

[Kid]

And the Royals made it in tonight.

 

They still have a shot at the division too.  1 back with 2 to play.

[rok]

Cards leading now 6-3 in the 8th.

[nakedman1664]

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="nakedman1664" data-cid="229722" data-time="1411786474">

And the Royals made it in tonight.

 

They still have a shot at the division too.  1 back with 2 to play.</blockquote>


I would love to see that. Stupid Tigers.

[Kid]

Everybody loses today.  Cardinals & Tigers both have 1 game leads going into tomorrow, so they've both clinched ties.  It'll be interesting to see if either goes to a game 163.  

[Kid]

Meanwhile Seattle wins & Oakland loses, so Seattle is just a game back for the 2nd wild card spot.  3 possibilities for a game 163.

[jstraw]

God help me, I've decided that I like the current WC format. I feel so impure.

[Kid]

The format's fine, the only thing I don't like is that it's just 1 game for the WC teams.  I'd rather it be best-of-3 though I acknowledge that makes it hard to fit into the rest of the playoffs.

[1060Ivy]

Agree that the 2nd Wildcard adds to the excitement playoff chase but the 1 game elimination is poor method to decide who moves to next round. 

 

Surprised that they haven't moved the wild card play in to be the best of 3 which would be more in line with most regular season series. 

 

My guess would be that they accommodate the timing of the playoffs by scheduling a couple of double headers into the regular season. 

 

Season would end a few days earlier but World Series and AL/NL playoff timing may remain consistent.  The MLB would most likely be able to bump up the number of games in the playoffs in negotiating the next baseball playoff TV contract.

[Kid]

I don't think the problem is so much in fitting the games into the calendar.  Rather, it's the downtime for the non-WC teams.  Under this format, it is inevitable that there is going to be a multiple-game tiebreaker, either because 2 teams from the same division first have to play a tiebreaker to see who wins the division with the losing team then playing a WC tiebreaker, or because more than 2 teams tie for WC spots.  It almost happened last year, as had the Indians lost on the last day, there would have been a 3-team tiebreaker for the 2 WC spots (instead the Indians got the #1 spot and Tampa Bay & Texas had to play a tiebreaker for the #2 spot).

 

So you get a couple of tiebreaker game days to be followed by up to 3 days for the WC series.  Assuming you make the WC series winner immediately go into the division series without any off-days, they're playing a team that has had 5 days off at that point (assuming weather doesn't cause any postponements).  That's a problem for a sport that is played every day.

 

I want it to be best-of-3.  I just don't know how to make it work.

[nakedman1664]

So...how about that catch to end Zimmerman's no hitter? That was crazy.

 

[VanSlawAndCottoCheese]

I don't think the problem is so much in fitting the games into the calendar.  Rather, it's the downtime for the non-WC teams.  Under this format, it is inevitable that there is going to be a multiple-game tiebreaker, either because 2 teams from the same division first have to play a tiebreaker to see who wins the division with the losing team then playing a WC tiebreaker, or because more than 2 teams tie for WC spots.  It almost happened last year, as had the Indians lost on the last day, there would have been a 3-team tiebreaker for the 2 WC spots (instead the Indians got the #1 spot and Tampa Bay & Texas had to play a tiebreaker for the #2 spot).

 

So you get a couple of tiebreaker game days to be followed by up to 3 days for the WC series.  Assuming you make the WC series winner immediately go into the division series without any off-days, they're playing a team that has had 5 days off at that point (assuming weather doesn't cause any postponements).  That's a problem for a sport that is played every day.

 

I want it to be best-of-3.  I just don't know how to make it work.

 

MLB would have to adopt a tiebreaker system like the other professional leagues.

[jstraw]

I'm fine with a one game play in for WC teams. I may actually prefer it to a three game series. One of the hurdles those teams face is deciding whether or not to burn their ace for the play-in game. If they pitch him, he may only pitch in the divisional series on short rest...or not at all. In a three game series they know that if he wins in the play-in, he's gonna get to pitch in divisional series on regular rest. I like keeping more teams in the hunt (what I had hated), but I still think the hurdles the WC teams should be as high as possible. And I don't think the rest of the post-season should be delayed by a longer WC series.

[nakedman1664]

You guys will love this.


http://deadspin.com/this-cardinals-fans-...1640119460