The 2022 MLB Postseason Thread

[LVTwinsfan]

2 hours ago, Aggies7 said:

Because it’s a “who’s hot this week/month” tournament. Why play for 6 months and then cram the most important part of the season into 3-4 weeks? It seems wacky.

And baseball, seemingly more than any other sport, is a sport of streakiness due to the complexities of hitting a baseball (also some arguments are being made about the layoff for bye teams this year and what that did to the hitters). Twins looked like legitimate contenders for April and most of May and then were the worst team in the AL the final four months. The dodgers win 111 games over 6 months and the offense slumped over the 4 games with SD. Yet, those two teams played 19 times at various points during the season and LA won FIFTEEN times. It’s just simply not a sport that lends itself to a reasonable postseason.

Games need to be shaved off of the regular season regardless. The season should end on Labor Day weekend. That would free up more space to have longer series, but then teams would play eachother less.

I think part of the angst about the playoffs comes from the added teams. I think it was fine with 4 per league. Now it’s just too many.

The best teams make it most of the time, the AL has the two best, I’m not sure if that’s a better or more meaningful series than the Padres/Phillies though. There’s no turning back to the 60’s when the best records won the pennant and that’s your World Series. I don’t miss it,

I do think the season could lose about 40 games,  not enough summer for 162 games and 19 or 22 playoff games

[Aggies7]

16 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

The only league that achieves that more often than not is the NBA. Personally I find that league extremely boring. Part of it is because of the sport itself. The other part is because stars play such a pivotal role in the league where if you don’t have 3 or more stars on your team, you have no chance. These days I could name 15-20 NBA players total. Yet I know if Steph Curry is healthy, the Warriors will make the NBA finals and likely win it all again. 

Baseball has been more of a crapshoot though as far as payrolls go. 3 of the top 10 payrolls didn’t even qualify for the postseason this year. The Yankees haven’t been to a series in over 10 years. The NBA is unwatchable for many reasons. Don’t their playoffs go like almost 2 months too? Their regular season is pretty much irrelevant 

[Aggies7]

8 minutes ago, LVTwinsfan said:

The best teams make it most of the time, the AL has the two best, I’m not sure if that’s a better or more meaningful series than the Padres/Phillies though. There’s no turning back to the 60’s when the best records won the pennant and that’s your World Series. I don’t miss it,

I do think the season could lose about 40 games,  not enough summer for 162 games and 19 or 22 playoff games

The fan in me loves the postseason for the drama. I just want a more balanced schedule, fewer games and fewer teams in the postseason. I think it’s becoming a bit watered down. Just my 2cents

[Vanimal46]

3 minutes ago, Aggies7 said:

Baseball has been more of a crapshoot though as far as payrolls go. 3 of the top 10 payrolls didn’t even qualify for the postseason this year. The Yankees haven’t been to a series in over 10 years. The NBA is unwatchable for many reasons. Don’t their playoffs go like almost 2 months too? Their regular season is pretty much irrelevant 

Baseball is definitely the most random sport in their playoffs. Hockey is a close 2nd because if you have a hot goalie, you can win it all. You’re asking the wrong guy about basketball stuff. I hopped on the T Wolves bandwagon last year for fun. I prefer chaos over a predictable result like NBA. 

[mnfireman]

The NBA and NHL champion could play 28 playoff games, or 34% of their regular season schedule. The MLB champion could play 24 playoff games, or 15% of their regular season schedule.

I could live with MLB cutting 2 weeks off the schedule, 148 games, with the added wild card round. MLB still only has 6 play off teams per league/conference, whereas NBA & NHL have 8 and the NFL 7.

[Aggies7]

14 minutes ago, mnfireman said:

The NBA and NHL champion could play 28 playoff games, or 34% of their regular season schedule. The MLB champion could play 24 playoff games, or 15% of their regular season schedule.

I could live with MLB cutting 2 weeks off the schedule, 148 games, with the added wild card round. MLB still only has 6 play off teams per league/conference, whereas NBA & NHL have 8 and the NFL 7.

I think a small step would be to do away with divisions, have every team in each league play eachother an equal number of times and have one series against a team from the other league. Take the top 4 or 5 teams from each league and run the playoffs

twins would play 7 games against the other 14 AL teams (4 and 3 game series) for a total of 98 games. Then you could play 3 or 4 games against every NL team (45 games or 60 games)

[bighat]

8 hours ago, Vanimal46 said:

The only league that achieves that more often than not is the NBA. Personally I find that league extremely boring. Part of it is because of the sport itself. The other part is because stars play such a pivotal role in the league where if you don’t have 3 or more stars on your team, you have no chance. These days I could name 15-20 NBA players total. Yet I know if Steph Curry is healthy, the Warriors will make the NBA finals and likely win it all again. 

 

I loved the NBA when I was younger, especially when the T-Wolves came to MN (Pooh Richardson, Tyrone Corbin, Tony Campbell, Sam Mitchell, Randy Breuer).....but as an adult it's just lost almost all appeal. It's clearly designed to engage 14 year-olds, and to me it feels like I'm watching cartoons or playing video games....it's just an activity for a different demographic.

 

[AceWrigley]

Article over at FanGraphs entitled: 

Yes, the Playoffs Are Still a Crapshoot  Well, unless you're playing the Twins.

Welcome to Rodney Dangerville.

[wsnydes]

13 hours ago, Hosken Bombo Disco said:

I wanted both those guys, and said so. Do you know how hard it is to wait 4-plus years to feel vindicated for my take on Darvish?  

Hosken, always playing the long game!

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

Padres on the ropes this afternoon but battled their tails off and rallied to win. We even had a Kyle Gibson sighting!

[tony&rodney]

On 10/18/2022 at 7:03 PM, LVTwinsfan said:

the season could lose about 40 games,  not enough summer for 162 games and 19 or 22 playoff games

Just curious - do you think the NFL should go back to 12 games?

I only wonder if folks generally believe that sports seasons are too long.  

[tony&rodney]

16 hours ago, bighat said:

it's just an activity for a different demographic.

The NBA and basketball, along with soccer (futball) are competing at a global level. Basketball (NBA) is huge around the world. I think the NBA is also big in cities. Because I only follow baseball, my impressions are just from observations and listening.

[USAFChief]

It ****** me off to no end watching Pressley pitch for the Astros.  

[Vanimal46]

12 hours ago, tony&rodney said:

Just curious - do you think the NFL should go back to 12 games?

I only wonder if folks generally believe that sports seasons are too long.  

I think the NFL has an ideal schedule. 17 regular season games is strange - it won’t be long and they’ll push it to 18. Starting in early September and ending in early February. There’s enough time away from real games to make you miss it and excited when the new season starts. 

I think MLB, NHL, and NBA seasons are way too long. NHL and NBA could cut their regular season from 82 games to 60. MLB could cut it down from 162 to 120. 

[tony&rodney]

47 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

I think the NFL has an ideal schedule. 17 regular season games is strange - it won’t be long and they’ll push it to 18. Starting in early September and ending in early February. There’s enough time away from real games to make you miss it and excited when the new season starts. 

I think MLB, NHL, and NBA seasons are way too long. NHL and NBA could cut their regular season from 82 games to 60. MLB could cut it down from 162 to 120. 

Thank you. That gives me an idea of what someone thinks about the length of sports seasons.

I'm a baseball fan and haven't watched a football game in over 40 years. Sometimes a game is on at someone's house or at a bar/restaurant where I'm not paying attention but do see a play or two. I couldn't name any players. For some reason I never found football or rugby remotely interesting. I played in high school but was bored when I only played on offense my last year. Folks have different thoughts. I have understood the discussion of weather in regards to the baseball season. It was 29 degrees F and sleeting when the Twins played Game 163 versus Detroit in the Metrodome and I was pretty comfortable in my 2nd row seat above the dugout. 

[Mike Sixel]

On 10/18/2022 at 11:57 AM, Vanimal46 said:

If I were Rob Manfred, I’d trim down the regular season to 110-120 games starting mid-April and ending on August 31. Then have a March Madness style playoff tournament for the entire month of September. Baseball ending in early November is way too late in the year. 

I have such a plan on my website. Two different versions, actually. 

https://mikesixel.com/bracket-style-mlb-playoffs/

 

[Nine of twelve]

On 10/18/2022 at 8:52 PM, Vanimal46 said:

The only league that achieves that more often than not is the NBA.

In the NBA the better of two teams almost always wins individual games, and that's even more true for winning a playoff series. That's because there is a huge number of scoring opportunities in an NBA game. It would be comparable to every baseball game being 25 innings.

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

Horrible call on the check swing (in this baseball fan’s opinion)

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

Umpires need to be loved too 

[Danchat]

Just now, Hosken Bombo Disco said:

Horrible call on the check swing (in this fan’s opinion)

It looked 50-50 to me, I don’t blame the ump on that one. 

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

1 minute ago, Danchat said:

It looked 50-50 to me, I don’t blame the ump on that one. 

I’d put it up closer to 75-25 batter gets that call at least 3 of 4 times. I’m not a conspiracist (I hope) but I do think umps get caught up in the moment. Not sure if that’s what happened there but most likely that’s just how he saw it—batter didn’t hold up his swing.

FWIW my bartender agrees with you  

It also wouldn’t surprise me if umpires have check swing appeal data we can look up. 

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

Astros now up 3 games to 0 over the Yankees. 

yay?

[RpR]

14 minutes ago, Hosken Bombo Disco said:

Astros now up 3 games to 0 over the Yankees. 

yay?

?

[Nine of twelve]

2 hours ago, Hosken Bombo Disco said:

Astros now up 3 games to 0 over the Yankees. 

yay?

My second least favorite AL team is leading my least favorite AL team. yay

[ashbury]

19 minutes ago, Nine of twelve said:

My second least favorite AL team is leading my least favorite AL team. yay

We'll mark you down for 'yay' then.

[Game7-91]

4 hours ago, Hosken Bombo Disco said:

Astros now up 3 games to 0 over the Yankees. 

yay?

I'm with Snoopy, just chillin on top of the house, just fill my food bowl and scratch my ears once in awhile ....

[Game7-91]

On 10/19/2022 at 10:02 PM, USAFChief said:

It ****** me off to no end watching Pressley pitch for the Astros.  

Yes, but we didnt need him Chief, what with that talent-laden BP.....

[ashbury]

[Vanimal46]

 

[Craig Arko]

Go, Phillies!