2021 MLB Season

[jncuse]

MLB Network is now showing Sox/Nats but for the last half hour they were showing blowouts in SF and TOR while showing a million ads. Horrible.

In Canada we did not have that problem.

Rogers which owns the Jays, MLB rights, and multiple channels had no problem showing all 3 games on consecutive channels. So it made for an entertaining yet very frustrating afternoon after 5:30,

 

[donniesyracuse]

Talk to me when the yanks win 105 games and finish second and have to face a team with just one dominant pitcher. I hate the one game playoff. The Sox and the Yanks would have had a one game playoff under the old system so that works fine to me. But the dodgers shouldn't have to play in a one game playoff after the season they just had. Seems silly to me. Oh, and I am rooting for the Cards in that game.

I like the incentive to win the division, which was missing for years.

The Yankees won 100 in 2018 and had to play a wild card game. It’s not 105, but it’s a lot.

 

[Briancuse]

I like the incentive to win the division, which was missing for years.

The Yankees won 100 in 2018 and had to play a wild card game. It’s not 105, but it’s a lot.

You may never see anything like this ever again. Two teams in a divsion winning 106 and 107 games.

 

[JustPherU]

Is it fair the Blue Jays,Red Sox and Yankees played in a division that had four teams win at least 91 games? That is an incredible amount of games those teams had to play against good teams.

 

[OrangeDW]

So the wild card series would be Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday? Would all the games be in one ballpark?

Sure. Wildcard #1 is at home.

 

[jncuse]

Talk to me when the yanks win 105 games and finish second and have to face a team with just one dominant pitcher. I hate the one game playoff. The Sox and the Yanks would have had a one game playoff under the old system so that works fine to me. But the dodgers shouldn't have to play in a one game playoff after the season they just had. Seems silly to me. Oh, and I am rooting for the Cards in that game.

On one hand I like the fact that the system makes more good teams care in September.
But I also hate the one and done format.

Call me crazy but how about this format ( I am calling myself crazy as I type it out)

Instead of a 1 game series have it a 3 game series.
- The 3 games are played over two days (to limit the delays for other teams which is a big concerns)
- The 3 games are all 7 inning games.
- Day 1 is two 7 inning game.
- Day 2 is one 7 inning game.

Not sure if I like it or not. I like it more than one 9 inning game and it addresses certain problems.
But it is not real baseball either.

 

[OrangeDW]

On one hand I like the fact that the system makes more good teams care in September.
But I also hate the one and done format.

Call me crazy but how about this format ( I am calling myself crazy as I type it out)

Instead of a 1 game series have it a 3 game series.
- The 3 games are played over two days (to limit the delays for other teams which is a big concerns)
- The 3 games are all 7 inning games.
- Day 1 is two 7 inning game.
- Day 2 is one 7 inning game.

Not sure if I like it or not. I like it more than one 9 inning game and it addresses certain problems.
But it is not real baseball either.

yeah, I mean...I understood it last year. Time crunch, and trying to get more teams in the playoffs since the regular season was so short.

But it’s just so gimmicky. How do you play series’s all year long, and for the rest of the playoffs...but then have one random one off series?

 

[jncuse]

Espn got their dream wild card matchup.
Two games decided in the 9th inning.

They got their matchup, but imagine if the Jays had won, the Red Sox lost (which looked likely at one point) and the Rays won. That would have been a dream scenario for ESPN.

Red Sox vs Jays on Monday.
Red Sox / Jays loser vs Yankees on Tuesday
A combination of the three on Wednesday.

3 nights of Red Sox or Yankees in a row, including at least one matchup between the two.

 

[OrangeDW]

Win more games.

Lol. 106.

We can’t all play in BS divisions.

If my team wasn’t that good, I’d probably want the flukiest and most gimmicky setup possible.

 

[jncuse]

Having a 106 team play a one game series is tough.

But remember back in 1993 when the San Francisco Giants won 103 games and didn't even get a chance to play in the playoffs!

 

[JustPherU]

On one hand I like the fact that the system makes more good teams care in September.
But I also hate the one and done format.

Call me crazy but how about this format ( I am calling myself crazy as I type it out)

Instead of a 1 game series have it a 3 game series.
- The 3 games are played over two days (to limit the delays for other teams which is a big concerns)
- The 3 games are all 7 inning games.
- Day 1 is two 7 inning game.
- Day 2 is one 7 inning game.

Not sure if I like it or not. I like it more than one 9 inning game and it addresses certain problems.
But it is not real baseball either.

No thanks

 

[STEVEHOLT]

what are you talking about? Did you watch the games? The nats played hard all weekend. The Sox won all three games. the Nats didn't lose them. And it wasn't because of Jordy Mercer.

That error on fat boys grounded leading off the top of the 9th didn’t help Boston ?

his grounding into DP with the bases loaded didn’t help ?

 

[jncuse]

Some trivia as we will have some teams with strong records miss the playoffs.

Question 1 - There will be 2 teams missing the playoffs in the AL with 90 wins which is very odd for the wildcard era. When was the last year the AL had two teams with 90 or more wins miss the playoffs?

Question 2 - What are names of the last 3 teams to miss the playoffs with 94 or more wins?

And here are the answers to the questions. The main reason I posted the questions was to name drop the Montreal Expos.

#1. 1992.
#2. The Cincinnati Reds (96 wins in 1999), The San Francisco Giants (103 wins in 1993), the Montreal Expos (94 wins in 1993).

That Cincinnati team holds the record for most wins/missing playoffs in the wild-card era.

 

[jncuse]

Let's go Montampa Bay Rayspos!

I think the follow win the World Series this year.

 

[STEVEHOLT]

Having a 106 team play a one game series is tough.

But remember back in 1993 when the San Francisco Giants won 103 games and didn't even get a chance to play in the playoffs!

What about a division where the 4th place team won 91 games ?

 

[jncuse]

What about a division where the 4th place team won 91 games ?

I am not against going to 12 teams in the playoffs, but my preference is the status quo with a 3 game wildcard round.
.
Let's remember in the 10 playoff team era we had an 82 or 83 team win a Wildcard - Minnesota.

So yes there will occasionally be a 91 win team getting shafted. But it is rare. If the solution is to add a team you will more often be adding an 84-85 win team to the playoff mix, which to me is a bigger problem than having the odd year where a 91 win team misses it.. .

 

[donniesyracuse]

But the dodgers shouldn't have to play in a one game playoff after the season they just had. Seems silly to me.

I get it. On the other hand, postseason baseball, even with seven-game series, is pretty random. Being the best team doesn’t seem to be that big of a factor.

 

[jncuse]

The other thing to consider with the AL this year is they had a record 7 teams win 90 games.

Were all those teams really good, typical 90 win quality teams?

Or was it the fact that the AL had more bad teams than normal which made the playoff borderline teams look better than they actually were. It's a bit of a chicken and egg thing. Not sure what is the right answer. Was it the amount of really good teams that led to the higher than normal bad teams... or vice versa.

 

[STEVEHOLT]

I am not against going to 12 teams in the playoffs, but my preference is the status quo with a 3 game wildcard round.
.
Let's remember in the 10 playoff team era we had an 82 or 83 team win a Wildcard - Minnesota.

So yes there will occasionally be a 91 win team getting shafted. But it is rare. If the solution is to add a team you will more often be adding an 84-85 win team to the playoff mix, which to me is a bigger problem than having the odd year where a 91 win team misses it.. .

I think they should balance the schedule .. keep same number of playoff teams . But wild card round 2/3

 

[jncuse]

I get it. On the other hand, postseason baseball, even with seven-game series, is pretty random. Being the best team doesn’t seem to be that big of a factor.

As a Montreal Expos fan in 1994 I have often had that discussion with fellow fans who reminisce about that year.

They say we would have won the World Series that year. I always end up disagreeing.

While I will agree with them that the Expos were the best team that year (ended the year 70-30), they had no better than a 20% chance (25% max) in an 8 team playoff that always has random elements.

 

[Day2]

Lol. 106.

We can’t all play in BS divisions.

If my team wasn’t that good, I’d probably want the flukiest and most gimmicky setup possible.

There might be 106 logical fallacies in that one post.

 

[JustPherU]

AL East teams played over 90 games against .500 teams while San Fran played 63. All records aren’t created equally.

 

[jncuse]

I think they should balance the schedule .. keep same number of playoff teams . But wild card round 2/3

I think they should balance the schedule .. keep same number of playoff teams . But wild card round 2/3

Not a bad idea.

How about going back to two divisions in each league and even it is 100% not balanced. make the schedule much more balanced than it is now. Then take the 3 best wildcard teams regardless of division, but give clear playoff advantages to the two division winners.

I can understand why ESPN/Fox wants more Red Sox/Yankees games but there is so many of them that they really are not that special to fans outside of those markets. They also average about 4 hours!! You also create some new rivalries again.

 

[STEVEHOLT]

Z

Not a bad idea.

How about going back to two divisions in each league and even it is 100% not balanced. make the schedule much more balanced then it is now. Then take the 3 best wildcard teams regardless of division?

or no divisions .. true round Robbin..take the top 6..top 2 have byes

 

[donniesyracuse]

Not a bad idea.

How about going back to two divisions in each league and even it is 100% not balanced. make the schedule much more balanced than it is now. Then take the 3 best wildcard teams regardless of division, but give clear playoff advantages to the two division winners.

I can understand why ESPN/Fox wants more Red Sox/Yankees games but there is so many of them that they really are not that special to fans outside of those markets. They also average about 4 hours!! You also create some new rivalries again.

If the DH goes away, sh!tcan the separate leagues and have three divisions total.