04/16/24
October 07, 2022
MLB's New Playoff Format Debuts Today: The 12-team postseason in Major League Baseball begins today. Gone is the potential heartbreak of playoff elimination after a single game. There's now four three-game wild card series. But there's a new heartbreak: The four lower-ranked wild card teams get no home games in the round. The playoffs also drop the man-on-second extra inning rule.
Eh, if the Padres are going to get swept, I'd almost prefer it happen someplace else.
posted by LionIndex at 10:12 AM on October 07, 2022
I'll cop to making a bit of a surprised grunt when I saw the announcement of the game dates/times for the Cards/Phillies series. It never really made any sense for a league that is as relentlessly long as MLB and puts so much emphasis on intra-series strategy to try to blow past the WC as quickly as they had been. Seems like a positive step.
posted by Ufez Jones at 10:58 AM on October 07, 2022
Big night for former Rangers-turned-Padres. It didn't wind up being the pitchers duel that was expected, but damn do I love watching Yu Darvish pitch.
posted by Ufez Jones at 10:09 PM on October 07, 2022
Eh, if the Padres are going to go 1-2, I'd almost prefer it happen someplace else.
posted by LionIndex at 12:08 AM on October 08, 2022
As a Reds fan it's nice to see the Reds, err I mean former Reds players in the playoffs. Let's see there's Castellanos in Philly, Drury in San Diego, Naquin and Givens in New York, Winker, Saurez, Casalli, and Castillo in Seattle (affectionally, know as Cincinnati West/ LOL). And that's just players who played last year or this year with the Reds. Others from recent years: Braves have Duvall, Iglesias, and Stephens. Yankees have Chapman and Peralta. Blue Jays have Gausman. Rays have Raley. And for coaches and Managers: Phillies: Cotham, Padres: Price, Cardinals: Schumaker and Ward, Mariners: Negron, Yankees: Boone, Astros: Baker, Indians: (err, Guardians) Francona, Valiaka, Wilis, Blue Jays: Budzinski, Rays: Mottola. I get most teams can list quite a few, but man, that's a lot of leadership gone and a lot of good players in a short period of time. No wonder they went 62-100 this year.
posted by jagsnumberone at 01:08 AM on October 08, 2022
I'm trying to remember off the top of my head the last time the Reds were good. Surely it doesn't go all the way back to the Big Red Machine?
I just looked on Baseball Reference and it does not. There was one World Series win, but it was before the World Wide Web existed.
posted by rcade at 10:30 AM on October 09, 2022
Eh, if the Padres are going to dominate, Lion is almost OK with it happening on the biggest stage the East Coast has to offer.
posted by beaverboard at 11:33 PM on October 09, 2022
I'm pretty busy re-reading ESPN's predictions where 27 of 31 experts picked the Mets to advance.
posted by LionIndex at 11:53 PM on October 09, 2022
Looking for the Padres to make for a competitive series against the Dodgers with no coast to coast travel factoring in.
posted by beaverboard at 10:56 AM on October 10, 2022
That 1990 Reds World Series win seemed to come out of nowhere. It was another strange chapter in the saga of LaRussa's tenure with the A's. His team got handled by the overachieving Dodgers in 1988, totally dominated the Giants in 1989 (earthquake and all), then got swept by the Reds the following year.
And the tone for both the 1988 and 1990 Series was set early on, starting with Kirk Gibson's epic pinch hit homer off Eckersley with the legendary Vin Scully game call.
The 1990 Reds were not universally admired because...owner Marge Schott. But they were a beast in the post season.
Interestingly, a TV crew interviewed notorious former A's owner Charlie O. Finley in the stands after the Reds won Game 1. It seemed to be a big deal that he was in attendance. (Better to put him on camera than Schott; that's how bad she was). He was asked what he thought of the opening game. He said right then and there that he thought the Reds would sweep the Series.
Charlie O. may have run the A's like a plantation, but he knew a little something about the game.
posted by beaverboard at 11:17 AM on October 10, 2022
Looking for the Padres to make for a competitive series against the Dodgers with no coast to coast travel factoring in.
Sure, but the Pads have put together a 5-14 record against the Dodgers over the course of the season without travel issues so...
Having watched the Pads play the Dodgers over the last few years, it's really just amazing how stressful it is - like, for the whole game, it's "OK, we got Betts out, who's up next? Oh, fuck, this guy?" "OK, we chased Kershaw and they're bringing in a guy from the bullpen, who is it? Oh, fuck, this guy?" I felt pretty comfortable against the Mets last night going into the later innings with even just a 4-0 lead, knowing what we had available in the bullpen, but I haven't felt like that playing the Dodgers for a long time with almost any lead.
posted by LionIndex at 12:02 PM on October 10, 2022
As someone who hated the one-game wild card playoff enough to gafiate for a while, I'm glad it was dropped. But as a Rangers fan I am affected by these things only in theory.