General Sports Talk

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the MLB playoff system which was adopted in 2022 is pretty complicated - wow

The MLB playoffs feature 12 teams (six per league) competing in a bracket-style tournament to determine the World Series champion. The format includes a best-of-three Wild Card Series, a best-of-five Division Series, a best-of-seven League Championship Series, and culminates in the best-of-seven World Series. Top-seeded teams receive a bye to the Division Series, while other teams compete in the Wild Card Series to advance.
Team Qualification
Six teams per league: The American League (AL) and National League (NL) each send six teams to the postseason.
Three division winners: The team with the best record in each division (East, Central, West) receives a playoff spot.
Three Wild Card teams: The three teams with the best regular-season records that did not win their division also qualify.
Seeding and Byes
Seeds 1-3: The three division winners are seeded 1 through 3 based on their regular-season winning percentages.
Seeds 4-6: The three Wild Card teams are seeded 4 through 6 based on their records.
First-round byes: Seeds 1 and 2 in each league automatically advance to the Division Series, bypassing the Wild Card Series.
Playoff Rounds
Wild Card Series (Best-of-Three):
Participants: The 3-seed faces the 6-seed, and the 4-seed plays the 5-seed.
Format: A best-of-three series.
Home-field: The higher-seeded team hosts all three games.
Division Series (Best-of-Five):
Participants: The two Wild Card Series winners advance to play the 1-seed and 2-seed division winners.
Format: A best-of-five series where the first team to win three games advances.
League Championship Series (Best-of-Seven):
Participants: The winners of the ALDS and NLDS.
Format: A best-of-seven series; the first team to win four games advances.
World Series (Best-of-Seven):
Participants: The champion of the American League Championship Series faces the champion of the National League Championship Series.
Format: The final best-of-seven series to determine the overall MLB champion.

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The only thing that really distinguishes it from other sports is that the Wild Card Series is played in one city, with the lower-rated team not getting a home playoff game. The playoff formats are essentially a product of television money, so they are becoming increasingly cookie-cutter.
I was only a fan for one year (1968) before baseball introduced the playoffs. That first year gave us the Miracle Mets, and I've been a fan of the less-is-more playoff system, but I've read baseball makes more money in October than during the regular season.

A week left in the regular season and the playoff standings are all up in the air.
The Yankees currently hold the #1 Wild Card spot, but are still in contention for the AL East Title and the #1 overall spot.
In the West, Seattle and Houston are battling it out for the Division, with the losing team possibly missing the playoffs.
The Tigers spent most of the season with the AL's best record, but fell apart in the last three weeks and may fall out of the tournament entirely.
The Texas Rangers made a mighty push for several weeks but ran out of steam. Their chances of making the playoffs is just above zero.
The Yankees conclude their schedule with ten games against the league's weakest teams. They took three out of four in Baltimore and now finish the season at home. Realistically, they need to win at least five of the last six games to catch Toronto for the #1 spot.

Playoff fever comes early this season.

In one of the most significant changes in MLB history, the league is adopting robo-strike zones. While a human umpire will still call balls and strikes, teams can appeal, and the robot has the final say.

As of this moment, Toronto is 100% to make the playoffs, while the Yankees are 99.9%. It seems the only way they miss the playoffs is if they lose their last six games and four teams win their last six games. Since two of those teams play each other, I'm not sure why the Yankees aren't also 100%

Cleveland faces Detroit in a three-game series that will go a long way towards determining which team wins their division and which team goes home. The Tigers have gone 1-9 over the last ten games, while the Guardians went 9-1 to get back into a race everyone had called weeks ago.

The Yankees came back in the bottom of the ninth to win and clinch the playoffs. With Toronto's loss, the Yankees are just one game behind, although the BJs own the tiebreaker. Indians beat the Tigers, who are now officially in freefall. The Mutts came from 6-1 down to win 9-7 but now no longer control their own destiny.

Quote: billryan

The Yankees came back in the bottom of the ninth to win and clinch the playoffs. With Toronto's loss, the Yankees are just one game behind, although the BJs own the tiebreaker. Indians beat the Tigers, who are now officially in freefall. The Mutts came from 6-1 down to win 9-7 but now no longer control their own destiny.
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Ummmmm…. Noooooo!

The Mets absolutely ‘control their own destiny’. If they win their remaining games they are guaranteed a playoff berth.

I’m actually interested in why you posted that? I’ve recently had some AI answers that were flat out wrong. Listed Vikings as being undefeated. Eagles as not being undefeated. Plenty more examples! Was your comment a parrot of an AI?

I actually wrote that when the Mutts were down 6-1 and appeared to be playing dead. After their amazing comeback I edited the comment but didn't do it properly.

Quote: billryan

I actually wrote that when the Mutts were down 6-1 and appeared to be playing dead. After their amazing comeback I edited the comment but didn't do it properly.
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Ok. I just placed a bet on them to make the playoffs. I have a season long bet on them to win the WS. I’m not spending that money….. if the Mets do advance, it will be on the arms of 3 pitchers whose combined age is around mine….

Quote: SOOPOO

Quote: billryan

I actually wrote that when the Mutts were down 6-1 and appeared to be playing dead. After their amazing comeback I edited the comment but didn't do it properly.
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Ok. I just placed a bet on them to make the playoffs. I have a season long bet on them to win the WS. I’m not spending that money….. if the Mets do advance, it will be on the arms of 3 pitchers whose combined age is around mine….
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I have not been a fan since the late 1970s and firmly believe raising your child as a Met fan is a form of child abuse. The Mets have a chance of going deep in the tournament. The Mutts will find a way to blow it. My money's on the Mutts. I also have a season-long bet. The Yankees or the Mets have the most Total points. Regular season wins are one point, playoff wins are two points, and a World Series trophy wins all. The loser buys dinner.

Aaron Judge hit two home runs tonight, including his 50th. He is now tied with Babe Ruth with four fifty-home run seasons.
He's also on the cusp of winning his first batting title. Only two players in MLB history have hit 50 home runs in a year in which they won the batting title. AJ may be the third.
The Yankees and BJs are tied for the best record in the AL, although Toronto holds the tiebreaker. Both play the last three games at home against teams going nowhere. The Yankees play one more game against the White Sox while the BJs take on Boston.

Quote: billryan

... Only two players in MLB history have hit 50 home runs in a year in which they won the batting title. ...

That's a good trivia question. I was pretty sure I knew one and I was right. The other one is a bit more obscure and had to do some digging. He won the batting title but not the HR title that year, despite hitting 50 HR.

I think Judge will make it. Late in the season for anyone to catch him.

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from the link:

Cal Raleigh, the slugging Seattle Mariners catcher known for his dangerous bat and his prominent posterior, hammered his 60th home run of the season to join an exclusive club populated by some of the greatest power hitters of all time.

With his historic home run Wednesday, which came on a four-seam fastball off Colorado Rockies reliever Angel Chivilli, Raleigh became just the seventh player in big league history to reach the 60 home run plateau. He joined the ranks of Roger Maris, Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, Aaron Judge and Babe Ruth.
Raleigh put himself on the brink of history earlier in the game when he launched his 59th homer into the upper deck.

With four regular-season games left to play for the Mariners, Raleigh is in position to make a run at the American League’s single-season home run mark, set by Judge in 2022 when his 62 homers surpassed the 61 hit in 1961 by Roger Maris.

McGwire and Sosa smashed through the 60-homer mark during their home run duel in the summer of 1998. Sosa and McGwire would eclipse 60 again the following season. And in 2001, Sosa hit 64 homers to reach the mark for the third time, though his total was overshadowed by the 73 homers launched that season by Bonds.
Those feats would face more scrutiny over the years, as part of an era that came to be defined by the sport’s reckoning with the use of performance enhancing drugs."


https://archive.ph/3HzU6#selection-741.0-745.164

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In 1988, rookie sensation Mark McGwire stunned the world with his power and had 49 home runs with a week to go in the regular season. His team had clinched their division and had nothing left to play for. Big Mac had a chance to be the first American League player to hit 50 homers in a season since 1961. Mac chose to leave the team, give up his quest for 50, and go home to be in the room when his first son was born.
Fifty home runs used to be extremely rare. Now there are several players hitting that mark each year. Is sixty the new fifty?

Isn't the real story that Cal Raleigh has become the 7th person to hit 60 home runs in a season?

Quote: gordonm888

Isn't the real story that Cal Raleigh has become the 7th person to hit 60 home runs in a season?
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I’d say yes. And even with that feat, any rational impartial observer should realize he’s the second most valuable player in the American League. It’s not really close.

WAR, or wins above replacement, is the all encompassing stat that is based on how your performance affects winning. Judge is 9.5, Raleigh 7.2. In that statistic, that’s what’s known as ‘not even close’. Judge gets walked a lot. His walks and hits totals exceed Raleigh by 60! That’s a lot. Judge will likely win the batting title. Batting .331. Raleigh is batting a paltry .248. EIGHTY THREE points lower. If Raleigh was to be compared to a batter trailing him we’d need to find a guy batting .165. They don’t remain in MLB. Judge scored 136 runs. Raleigh 109. That’s what an extra 60 hits/walks will do for you.
Raleigh will finish with around 6 more HR and 12 more RBI in around 10 more games. Raleigh as a catcher adds more value than Judge as an outfielder.
If his season was remotely close to Judge’s offensively, those things might matter.
We’ll see if Judge should change his name to Jokic.

Going into September, the MVP was the Judges to lose. He's been on base over half his plate appearances since then.
If Raleigh reaches 63, he'll have a stronger case. If he wins, I won't feel like Judge was robbed, but I think Judge deserves it.

The Mets had a big win today, but will need the Reds to lose at least one of the last two games.
The Yankees need to win, and the BJs need to lose to win the East and secure a bye. I'm not sure a week off is a good idea at this time. The team has been on fire the last two weeks.

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Michael Penix Jr. must have had to put up with a lot bad jokes and mockery when he was a kid and even later in life with a last name like that

it didn't stop him from becoming a great athlete

more power to him - respect

disgusting fan:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/LtVI7wzZzTg

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I’ve watched a good bunch of baseball this year. This is now the playoffs. No saving, protecting…. Except Aaron Boone. Max Fried hurling a shutout into the 7th inning. Gets first guy out. So Boone sees a magic number…. Fried has 100 pitches. Takes him out. Next pitcher…. walk. Hit. Hit. Old guys like me remember you’d take out a pitcher if he wasn’t pitching well, not on some random arbitrary pitch count. Nolan Ryan had an extra inning game where he kept striking out guys…. and he threw 235 pitches. He threw as hard as these guys do today.

As a Red Sox fan, Aaron Boone can keep making those moves the rest of the playoffs all he wants.

But, I hear you. Keep pitching until he isn't effective anymore.

Quote: SOOPOO

I’ve watched a good bunch of baseball this year. This is now the playoffs. No saving, protecting…. Except Aaron Boone. Max Fried hurling a shutout into the 7th inning. Gets first guy out. So Boone sees a magic number…. Fried has 100 pitches. Takes him out. Next pitcher…. walk. Hit. Hit. Old guys like me remember you’d take out a pitcher if he wasn’t pitching well, not on some random arbitrary pitch count. Nolan Ryan had an extra inning game where he kept striking out guys…. and he threw 235 pitches. He threw as hard as these guys do today.
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The game has changed. If the Yankees are to win the World Series, Max Fried will need to make six more starts. Fried's job all year was to get the team into the seventh inning and let the bullpen take over. Cashman brought in three All-Star relievers at the deadline.
Sometimes everything goes according to plan and it simply doesn't work out.
In what I believe is a first in MLB postseason history, the Yankees' 1-4 in the lineup were all former MVPs. In the ninth inning, down by two, the first three former MVPS each singled, but the tream didn't score.

Quote: SOOPOO

I’ve watched a good bunch of baseball this year. This is now the playoffs. No saving, protecting…. Except Aaron Boone. Max Fried hurling a shutout into the 7th inning. Gets first guy out. So Boone sees a magic number…. Fried has 100 pitches. Takes him out. Next pitcher…. walk. Hit. Hit. Old guys like me remember you’d take out a pitcher if he wasn’t pitching well, not on some random arbitrary pitch count. Nolan Ryan had an extra inning game where he kept striking out guys…. and he threw 235 pitches. He threw as hard as these guys do today.
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Nolan Ryan was a one in a billion guy. The guys of his era could throw as hard but they didn't, because they didn't have Tommy John surgery or reliable rotator cuff surgery and when you blew your arm out you were done, forever. Ryan was able to throw as hard as he did for so long with very little time on the disabled list just for anatomical reasons. Guys today plan on needing Tommy John and half of them will. I don't like it, I don't think a debilitating injury should be an accepted part of sport.

The first reason they take you out after 100 pitches now isn't that you're not effective, but that you're now not as effective as the best guy in the bullpen. In the old days relief pitchers were the ones who weren't good enough to be starters and that's how it got to be called the bullpen. They were bulls to the slaughter. A second string. Now they are excellent pitchers but trained for a different role.

The other reason they take you out is the batters have seen your stuff. Every pitcher gets less effective the more times he is seen and that's independent of his pitch count, it's that the batters are timing your motion and seeing the way your pitches break. So switching pitchers and especially going from lefty to righty or vice versa makes it harder on the batters. That's another reason why a pitcher might be in the bullpen- hard to hit the first time around but once the batters get a look at what he's throwing he gets shelled, so they put him in a role where they will only see him once. Fried had already gone through the order almost 3 full times, there was a right hand batter coming up so that was as good a time as any to bring in the righty setup man. And as in card games- expectations do not always match outcomes.

Quote: AutomaticMonkey

Quote: SOOPOO

I’ve watched a good bunch of baseball this year. This is now the playoffs. No saving, protecting…. Except Aaron Boone. Max Fried hurling a shutout into the 7th inning. Gets first guy out. So Boone sees a magic number…. Fried has 100 pitches. Takes him out. Next pitcher…. walk. Hit. Hit. Old guys like me remember you’d take out a pitcher if he wasn’t pitching well, not on some random arbitrary pitch count. Nolan Ryan had an extra inning game where he kept striking out guys…. and he threw 235 pitches. He threw as hard as these guys do today.
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Nolan Ryan was a one in a billion guy. The guys of his era could throw as hard but they didn't, because they didn't have Tommy John surgery or reliable rotator cuff surgery and when you blew your arm out you were done, forever. Ryan was able to throw as hard as he did for so long with very little time on the disabled list just for anatomical reasons. Guys today plan on needing Tommy John and half of them will. I don't like it, I don't think a debilitating injury should be an accepted part of sport.

The first reason they take you out after 100 pitches now isn't that you're not effective, but that you're now not as effective as the best guy in the bullpen. In the old days relief pitchers were the ones who weren't good enough to be starters and that's how it got to be called the bullpen. They were bulls to the slaughter. A second string. Now they are excellent pitchers but trained for a different role.

The other reason they take you out is the batters have seen your stuff. Every pitcher gets less effective the more times he is seen and that's independent of his pitch count, it's that the batters are timing your motion and seeing the way your pitches break. So switching pitchers and especially going from lefty to righty or vice versa makes it harder on the batters. That's another reason why a pitcher might be in the bullpen- hard to hit the first time around but once the batters get a look at what he's throwing he gets shelled, so they put him in a role where they will only see him once. Fried had already gone through the order almost 3 full times, there was a right hand batter coming up so that was as good a time as any to bring in the righty setup man. And as in card games- expectations do not always match outcomes.
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Of course you are generally correct. Except I’ll argue a guy who has shut you down for 7 1/3 innings is not the same as a guy who has given up 8 hits and 3 runs over those 7 1:3 innings. When he made the move I thought it was the usual ‘overthinking’. Of course the result doesn’t prove me right. (But I can think it does!).

Quote: lilredrooster

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Michael Penix Jr. must have had to put up with a lot bad jokes and mockery when he was a kid and even later in life with a last name like that

it didn't stop him from becoming a great athlete

more power to him - respect

disgusting fan:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/LtVI7wzZzTg

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link to original post

The tennis player Ryan Peniston has already been mentioned in this thread. But being British I am sure it is pronounced in a way devoid of amusement. Either "penny stone" or rhyming with "tennis win," which could be auspicious for one in that profession.

The Yankees win a nailbiter in the Bronx,4-3, to force a Game 3.

Quote: billryan

The Yankees win a nailbiter in the Bronx,4-3, to force a Game 3.
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I was unaware that all 3 games are played in one stadium! I’m betting the home teams in game 3’s.

I’ve been whining about managerial pitching decisions.
Cubs manager doesn’t start his ‘starter’ (Imanaga). Uses a reliever for favorable L/R matchup for 1 inning. Not saying it’s not good strategy, but it doesn’t resemble the regular season. Playoff basketball, hockey, football, soccer, etc.. resembles their regular season games.

Must be hard being a GM in MLB now. Mets used nearly FORTY pitchers this year!

There is going to be a ‘catchweight’ fight at 195 pounds.
Tank Davis versus Jake Paul. Davis is a real champion…. at 135 pounds! You all know about Jake Paul. He usually boxes at around 200 pounds. I’m no boxing expert, but I don’t think Davis’ far superior skills will be enough to overcome the huge size disparity. Paul is not an out of shape 200. It’s possible it will be the most boring fight in history, if Davis is too fast for Paul to catch, and doesn’t engage him.

Won’t be easy to root for Davis. His rap sheet is detailed on Wikipedia. I lost track of how many arrests for various violent crimes….

The Yankees have 750 million dollars worth of starting pitching, but are starting a rookie making the MLB minimum. The Sawx are actually in worse shape as they are starting a rookie who made only four starts.

Quote: billryan

The Yankees have 750 million dollars worth of starting pitching, but are starting a rookie making the MLB minimum. The Sawx are actually in worse shape as they are starting a rookie who made only four starts.
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Now half of that starting pitching is out with Tommy John. Schlittler performed well enough to get the call and it looks like he's doing it again, as of this posting.

The Red Sox pitcher, he left Early. Came into the game the same way.