2022 MLB Postseason Thread

[gehringer_2]

4 minutes ago, Motor City Sonics said:

Back in 2006 we had the feeling that the Tigers long layoff hurt them.   2 teams that had almost a week off have faltered now and the Yankees could be the third today.   Maybe there really is something to it.  Kind of like a rhythm to it

I don't think you want to take pitchers out of their regular starting schedule or ever give an everyday hitter a week off, so it's a detriment on both sides of the ball. I don't think there is any doubt the long layoffs hurt. But that helps scramble the odds and randomize the outcomes, which increases the value of the last playoff spots, and overall the leagues probably like that.

[oblong]

The thing is any solution presents more problems. When top seeds get upset you try to give them a break with a bye and some time off. Then that is the reason they lose. 

[Motor City Sonics]

3 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

I don't think you want to take pitchers out of their regular starting schedule or ever give an everyday hitter a week off, so it's a detriment on both sides of the ball. I don't think there is any doubt the long layoffs hurt. But that helps scramble the odds and randomize the outcomes, which increases the value of the last playoff spots, and overall the leagues probably like that.

But if you win your division, shouldn't you get a big advantage, thus adding value to all the season-long slog to the finish?  Home and Away  2-1-2.    Sucks for the lower team, but you didn't win your division.    I love seeing the Padres (would have loved the Mariners too), but I kind of want to se the best vs. the best, if possible.  

[SoCalTiger]

6 minutes ago, Motor City Sonics said:

But if you win your division, shouldn't you get a big advantage, thus adding value to all the season-long slog to the finish?  Home and Away  2-1-2.    Sucks for the lower team, but you didn't win your division.    I love seeing the Padres (would have loved the Mariners too), but I kind of want to se the best vs. the best, if possible.  

Yes I was pulling hard for the Mariners.  Heartbreaking loss in game one and 18 innings yesterday. They got swept but it sure didn’t feel like a sweep. And their catcher playing with a broken thumb. This fans wow. 

[gehringer_2]

12 minutes ago, oblong said:

The thing is any solution presents more problems. When top seeds get upset you try to give them a break with a bye and some time off. Then that is the reason they lose. 

it just means you have to do away with an explicit wild card round and just have the highest seeds start playing the lowest seeds from the get go. The problem isn't really that however, it's that to do a balanced (no byes) schedule playoff requires 8 or 16 teams and the majors don't like either of those numbers. Just go ahead and do the inevitable and bump the playoff to 16 and the problem is solved - or not!

Edited October 16, 2022 by gehringer_2

[oblong]

The weather and a 162 game schedule with no doubleheaders are also the enemies.  Winner take alls are unfair. 3 game series with all games at the top seed produced 3 upsets this year.  If Cleveland wins today the top seeds will be 2-2. 
 

I guess I will say that if a lower seed winning is a problem then why even have playoffs?  You need a 7 or 9 game series to emulate any real advantage a 105 win team would have over 92 win team. Otherwise both teams are good and it can come down to a couple of plays per game. 

[gehringer_2]

29 minutes ago, oblong said:

why even have playoffs?

I've come to look at the playoffs as just another tournament. The only problem to me with the current playoffs that they make too big a deal out of the winner. If I ruled the world, the team in each league with the best record would get a diamond ring and a $1M per player 1st place prize, and 'tournament winner' would get the trophy - period - and of course all the media adulation they can stand...

Edited October 16, 2022 by gehringer_2

[casimir]

2 hours ago, SoCalTiger said:

Great Playoffs so far..too bad the Tigers aren't part of it. Gotta love the fans in Seattle-San Diego and Philly going crazy ! And gotta give it to ole' DD he took a team to the final four again. 

Seattle fans continuing to chant "Let's go Mariners" well after the final playoff eliminating out of an historical 6 1/2 hour odyssey for their home town team.  That was cool.

[mtutiger]

Stick to politics, Ross.

[TigerfanDave84]

I'm sympathetic to the regular season should matter argument and I not a huge fan of expanding the playoffs. Its been fun watching the playoffs this year though. I would hate it if they expand it anymore. Any more expansion of the playoffs will allow under .500 teams in, its possible now I believe but probably would be a rare event. I think they should have no divisions and a balanced schedule playing all other teams in your league 10 times with the rest inter league play. The top 4 teams in each league by record make the playoffs 1 plays 4 seed 2 plays 3 but make the first round best of 7 not 5.

[oblong]

11 minutes ago, mtutiger said:

Stick to politics, Ross.

In 1993 Ross would have been bitching that the 103 win Giants didn’t make the playoffs. 

[gehringer_2]

1 minute ago, TigerfanDave84 said:

I'm sympathetic to the regular season should matter argument and I not a huge fan of expanding the playoffs. Its been fun watching the playoffs this year though. I would hate it if they expand it anymore. Any more expansion of the playoffs will allow under .500 teams in, its possible now I believe but probably would be a rare event. I think they should have no divisions and a balanced schedule playing all other teams in your league 10 times with the rest inter league play. The top 4 teams in each league by record make the playoffs 1 plays 4 seed 2 plays 3 but make the first round best of 7 not 5.

this is how I would set up the post season tournament as wel. Puts it back to 8 teams so you get three full rounds. You still have some scheduling issues if one series goes 7 and the other goes 4, but that's not as bad as the current bye is. But practically speaking, they simply won't back down the number of playoff teams.

[gehringer_2]

Just now, oblong said:

In 1993 Ross would have been bitching that the 103 win Giants didn’t make the playoffs. 

Ross has gone off the deep end on pretty much everything. 'nuff said on him.

[mtutiger]

What I find interesting about this mini-freakout over the Padres-Phils is that, between the two of them, they have the same amount of wins averaged out as the '21 Braves.

And I dont recall any freakout over the "integrity of the playoffs" during last years postseason.

Edited October 16, 2022 by mtutiger

[oblong]

There’s no way they are going to go from potentially 53 postseason games back to a max of 35. That’s like $50M in direct revenue alone.   This is what the owners want. It’s what the players want.  Why is more baseball games a bad thing?  Because the Dodgers felt entitled?  I have enjoyed this playoff season more than any other that didn’t involve the Tigers in a very long time. 

[casimir]

20 minutes ago, oblong said:

In 1993 Ross would have been bitching that the 103 win Giants didn’t make the playoffs. 

I think that’s a valid argument.

[mtutiger]

5 minutes ago, oblong said:

There’s no way they are going to go from potentially 53 postseason games back to a max of 35. That’s like $50M in direct revenue alone.   This is what the owners want. It’s what the players want.  Why is more baseball games a bad thing?  Because the Dodgers felt entitled?  I have enjoyed this playoff season more than any other that didn’t involve the Tigers in a very long time. 

Same.

I'd go as far as to say the quality of the product on the field is higher than anything happening in the NFL right now (at least outside of Buffalo). And more than anything else *that* is why LA was knocked out.

[Tenacious D]

I’ll be sick if the Guardians make the WS.

[casimir]

Guardians playing a rookie at 1B who has all of 92 innings of professional experience there.  He misplayed a throw in the dirt (eventually ruled E6), and now the Yankees have a bit of something going after a walk behind that.

[casimir]

Just now, casimir said:

Guardians playing a rookie at 1B who has all of 92 innings of professional experience there.  He misplayed a throw in the dirt (eventually ruled E6), and now the Yankees have a bit of something going after a walk behind that.

And just like that, Jose Ramirez starts a fantastic double play to get the Cs out of the inning.

[oblong]

Tonight’s game 5 in jeopardy. Will reassess at 7. Radar shows a thin strip but it’s going north and north west right over the Bronx for a few hours according to the prediction. 

[JackPine]

13 minutes ago, oblong said:

Tonight’s game 5 in jeopardy. Will reassess at 7. Radar shows a thin strip but it’s going north and north west right over the Bronx for a few hours according to the prediction. 

If that happens, do you think Bieber would start on 3 days rest tomorrow?

[IdahoBert]

Since we’re talking about postseason here this photo came up on my Facebook memories feed from 10 years ago today after the Tigers defeated the Yankees 8-1 and then moved on to be humiliated by the San Francisco Giants in the WS. Wow, it was really that long ago. 

[sabretooth]

4 hours ago, IdahoBert said:

Since we’re talking about postseason here this photo came up on my Facebook memories feed from 10 years ago today after the Tigers defeated the Yankees 8-1 and then moved on to be humiliated by the San Francisco Giants in the WS. Wow, it was really that long ago. 

I reflect often on the fact that the man on the left (I assume that's Mike I) fired his GM in 2015, who then went on to win four straight years with three playoffs and a WS with BOS and has his PHI team in the playoffs in year 2 after a lost decade before his arrival.

And the GM that the man on the left hired in 2015 (AA) went on to lose 6 out of 7 seasons (all of the losing seasons happened after Mike I died), with a 427-672 record and a .388 win-pct, with no playoff appearances (and I think Chas said that we've had a bottom 5% 6-year run in MLB history?). 

And after Mike I's death, AA traded away every good player on the team, including 2 no-doubt HoFers for basically nothing...

.....as well as JD and other good players, also for basically nothing.

And nobody here seems to want to project this team to be a winner for at least a couple of years, meaning that we could realistically commemorate the 10 year anniversary of DD's firing in 2025 about the time we are a winning/playoff team again?  10 years???

....nobody can reasonably support a 10 year hiatus from competitiveness, not for any reason.

I am not saying that if DD stayed that we would definitely have been a good team most of the time, but we could not possibly have done any worse than we have, and my guess is that we would have at least have been a decent team, maybe better, and we could have been just as profitable as we were as a horrible team.

Edited October 19, 2022 by sabretooth

[SoCalTiger]

14 minutes ago, sabretooth said:

I reflect often on the fact that the man on the left (I assume that's Mike I) fired his GM in 2015, who then went on to win four straight years with three playoffs and a WS with BOS and has his PHI team in the playoffs in year 2 after a lost decade before his arrival.

And the GM that the man on the left hired in 2015 (AA) went on to lose 6 out of 7 seasons (all of the losing seasons happened after Mike I died), with a 427-672 record and a .388 win-pct, with no playoff appearances (and I think Chas said that we've had a bottom 5% 6-year run in MLB history?). 

And after Mike I's death, AA traded away every good player on the team, including 2 no-doubt HoFers for basically nothing...

.....as well as JD and other good players, also for basically nothing.

And nobody here seems to want to project this team to be a winner for at least a couple of years, meaning that we could realistically commemorate the 10 year anniversary of DD's firing in 2025 about the time we are a winning/playoff team again?  10 years???

....nobody can reasonably support a 10 year hiatus from competitiveness, not for any reason.

I am not saying that if DD stayed that we would definitely have been a good team most of the time, but we could not possibly have done any worse than we have, and my guess is that we would have at least have been a decent team, maybe better, and we could have been just as profitable as we were as a horrible team.

Mr. I’s last few decisions were not good and perhaps made with the heart and emotions instead of the sound business thinking of his career. Over paying Miggy and firing DD instead of competing to retain him. And I think the emotion of his loss carried over to Chris over relying on the guy who was always there Al Avila who I bet was very adept at working his new boss over in the realm of office politics.