MLB is Finally Adding Another Wild Card Team to each League.
I’m totally fine with this. In fact, there should ALWAYS have been 2 wild card teams in the playoffs (in each league). At least there should have been the year they added the first one. Force those 2 to play each other and after the dust settles that *winner* has to play a REAL winner when they face the division winner in the next round.
I’m tired of the wild card teams sneaking into the playoffs and winning the World Series. I’m not against it, I just don’t think the regular season records reward the teams with the best records the way they should reward them. You win 100 games and your *reward* for that is a single home game in your favor. In a 5 game series, that just doesn’t seem like enough. There are too many examples in recent years of wild card teams (see: the cardinals) getting hot in the last week or two of the season and going on to win the world series. I think what you do for 162 games should count for something, certainly more than a lucky team that gets hot for a week (or even a couple of games as ANY baseball team can do)…..
Baseball is different than other sports, at least in terms of *home field advantage*. In baseball, pretty much any road team can beat any home team on a given day. That’s not the case in football and basketball. I’m not saying it can’t be done in those sports, but if the worst NFL team plays the best NFL team in their house they will almost ALWAYS lose. But in baseball, the Royals or the Orioles can roll into Yankee Stadium on any given Saturday afternoon, beat them, and it’s not a jaw-dropping surprise. That’s why I think the division winner deserves a little more of a *reward* for winning their division……..
My idea: If a division winner in the first round is facing a wild card team in a 5 game playoff, they get 4 home games. Division winner gets the first 2, then they go to the WC, then they get the last 2. I think it’s idiotic to win 100 games, then host Game 1 of the N(A)LDS vs the WC team and lose Game 1 thus negating your earned home field advantage to a team that has 12 (or so) less wins than you had in the regular season (and who didn’t win their division).
Baseball is a grind. It’s 162 games. You should get something valuable for persevering through the longest season in all of sports and winning your division. It’s dumb to take that all away be losing a single game to open the playoffs. Beyond dumb, actually……..
The only negative with this move is that the first year will be a challenge from a scheduling perspective. The schedule was made before this change was agreed upon in the CBA so there are some travel considerations to sort out in 2012.
This is a great idea that’s good for baseball. A one game playoff for all the marbles? Who doesn’t love a Game 7? And it’s between the Wild Card teams so it’s another hurdle they will have to climb to win the world series—something I think they should have to do. Climb more hurdles than they have to now.
And this has nothing to do with ensuring the Yankees and the Red Sox making the playoffs every year. They usually do that anyway. If anything, this ends up hurting one of them. The team that loses the division very likely has to play in a 1 game sudden death against a new wild card team. Who wouldn’t enjoy seeing the Yankees going all out and 10 deep into the pitching staff to *maybe* live to see another game? Or how about this one: Toronto win the AL East and the 2 wild card teams are the Yankees and the Red Sox. A Game 7 with those 2 facing off to start the playoffs? Sign me up……..
Since it’s unlikely that MLB will ever get around to my playoff structure modification, this is at least in the ballpark of what I think should happen to more properly reward a divisional winner. You don’t win your division? Ok, go to a Game 7 sudden death match. You burn through all your best pitchers to win that one? Ok, now you are REALLY gonna have to earn that NLDS win. And that’s how I think it should be in baseball.
And this post isn’t a slam against small market teams. You can compete for the world series without being a big market team. And I’m not talking about the dumb *Tampa Bay* example that so many people always use. You don’t have to look any further than our San Francisco Giants to see how it’s done. True, they had a 96 million dollar payroll in 2010—in the top third of baseball, but not obscene. But 2 of their biggest contracts contributed almost nothing to that season–Zito at 19 mil and Rowand at 12 mil. Take 31 million off that number and you’re at 65 million.
The A’s ’06–’10 payroll averaged 62 million a year……..
So you can win a world series without being the highest payroll team. And I’ve got zero sympathy for the teams in the lower 1/3 of baseball (in terms of team salary). Revenue sharing is nothing more than disguised socialism benefiting some of the richest men in the world. You want to own a baseball team? Then figure your finances out and decide whether or not you want to pony up the dough to be successful. Owning a baseball team isn’t just about your ego……
End of rant……….
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Playing 162 games and then facing possible elimination in one game is just wrong, and it’s been wrong when it’s occurred. It goes against the very spirit of baseball.
Agreed, especially if you’re the visiting team in the “play in”.
It has gimmick written all over it…
Schulman is FOS as usual. He’s acting like being the WC is some God given baseball right. Fuck that. The baseball world existed just fine without the WC. As my cogent argument clearly shows, there is simply not enough of a reward for the divisional winner. The entire 162 games season that they worked for and WON SOMETHING from is rendered meaningless by losing the first game of the division series to the WC. Dumb.
Huh? You lose games, you get bounced from the playoffs. An additional feel-good WC game doesn’t change that fact.
by your point, we should just skip the entire concept of a divisional winner. How about a long list of 30 team and the top *something-or-other* make the playoffs……..Fuck that.
That’s going to happen in 5 years.
My point being, don’t lose the first game. 4 out of 5 home games for the div winner is WAY too biased toward the div winner. They should have just gone ahead and made the first round 7 games. Fuck the one game in/extra WC thing.
All of the exciting playoff runs last year would have been rendered moot with the additional playoff spot. It’s crap. As is the full time interleague schedule.
It’s more hokum from used-car Bud.
Schulman’s argument is reasonable , you should really save your animus for Snarkk, who essentially agrees with it..
If Snarkk agrees with it then aren’t you automatically forced to disagree with it?
Shit, the day you disagree with something that half-baked beat writer says is the first time you’ll have ever done it……….
And aren’t you automatically forced to agree with Snarkk? The man who brought down Forbes Magazine?
absolutely not, as this post proves. I base my opinions on my opinions not on who said something before or after I did.
Your opinion on almost anything (notice I said *almost*) is nearly as predicable as the sunrise. You agree with all the beat writers, you agree with Bochy and Sabean, you support all the veteran players until it’s not sanely possible to do so anymore and you take the exact opposite opinion of the popular view on every particular topic. For 4 years, it’s been like clockwork…….
And you learnred everything you know from me.
Totally agree we don’t need another WC team.WTF soon itwill turn into basketball with every team except the Dubs of course making the playoffs.And screw the idea of a divisonal winner getting 4 home games,it’s fuckin baseball if they can’t handle a WC team after a 100 win season then they don’t deserve to move on to the next round.
baseball, more than any other sport, is played by teams who could beat each other on any given day. Can the Royals beat the Yanks in Yankee stadium on a Sat afternoon? Absolutely, it happens all the time. Can the worst team in the NBA or the NFL walk into the best team’s house and beat them? That almost never happens. It’s beyond idiotic to give a sneak-in wild card team a change to take away, in a single game, what a divisional winner spent 162 games earning………
“It’s beyond idiotic to give a sneak-in wild card team a change to take away, in a single game, what a divisional winner spent 162 games earning………” Where is that proposed? No where. Under Schulman’s proposal, there is no situation where a division winner would face a WC team in a one game playoff. Nore does Selig propose it.
Schulman proposed 2 best of 3 series for the WCs, no one proposes a format that you say- where a division winner would play a WC in a one game “series”..
If you want to move baseball more and more toward football, Bud’s format is the ticket. As Schulman poiints out, Baseball is a sport of series, not games. A one game “play in” is an insult to the sport.
I disagree that it’s an insult to the sport. I take the other side: it’s an insult to the divisional winner who spent 162 games earning the divisional crown to have their advantage taken away in a single game by a fucking wild card team that didn’t even exist until 1995. God forbid we mess with the fucking precious rights of the wild card team! They should be lucky to have the chance to get into the playoffs, not a given right to be there.
As usual, you bow down to anything Schulman says. It makes no sense at all. He’s an average (at best) beat writer.
Where do you see that a division winner could lose in one game?
they could lose HOMEFIELD ADVANTAGE IN ONE GAME I’ve said it like 20 fucking times……..
Actually, you only insinuated that. You’ll to exhibit more clarity if you hope to gain the respect that Schulman has.
The team with the best record has always faced the possibility of losing the homefiefield advantage. And the argument that a one game play in is ridiculous is shared by many, not just Schulman. It’s a stipud idea, proposed by stupid men like Selig.
Ok, glad I got a night time thread up that just sent my blood pressure to 150/100. Anyway, I gotta go. I’ll check in with you guys tomorrow. Nighty night. 🙂
A little cabernet will dilate the vessels, get down to about 130/80. Not bad. That’s down to watching Huff ground to 2nd for the 100th time…
I really think the scenario used through last season worked well. The WC team always played the div winner that had the best record of all the div winners, unless they were both from the same division. That meant most of the time the supposed best team in each league was rewarded for a great season with home field and first playing the weakest playoff opponent (the WC winner). Result: the best team in the league should, should make it to the NLCS, where naturally, anything can happen. That seems to me enough reward and incentive, with the home field advantage, for doing well all season. The argument making the first round a 4 of 7 rather than 3 of 5 seems strong, that gives the best record team more of an advantage, and theoretically, the “better” team should usually win in a longer series. I disagree giving 4 home games out of 5 to the best record team, that seems almost insurmountable in most cases, and really would dampen excitement provided by Cinderella teams that are hot at the end of the season.. The WS has always been 4 of 7, or at least way way back. Would you give 5 home games of 7 in the WS to the team with the better record? Same idea, and seems to me unfair and overkill….
The rule now is that if teams tie for a division win after 162 (and the loser will not still be the WC), they play just one game to decide the division. I don’t like that, either, it’s not enough after such a long grind to decide something that important on one game — which could be decided on one play, one error, one umpire blown call, etc. Football with only 16 games, OK, one and done is fine. After 162, one is not enough…
Like I said, the better way to resolve this would have been to make the first series 7 games. No short series. No BS WC game.
So you are for no change? 9 WC teams have gone to the World Series since 2000, with 4 winning. It doesn’t appear that this vaunted home field advantage has really worked out that well. I see you agreed that the one game play was wrong- where a team could get in the hunt by winning one game.
That was for Snarkk.
I like the current 8-team playoff setup, I think it is fair, I would keep it. Winnowing to 8 out of 30 means something, and last season’s last day proves it can be supremely exciting. Crap, Pawlie’s writing a damn book on that day/night. If, if another two WCs had to added, and they don’t have to be, this is a money grab and a Yanks/Boston thing, I would do it only with at least a 2 out of 3 “play in”, so that each team gets at least one home game (3 outta 5 is probably not doable due to pushing the season back way too far in November, since there’s no chance the 162 gets cut back to 154). Otherwise, it’s a gimmick, a farce. And, a slap to the fans of the visiting team in the one-game “play in” that put their butts in the seats to cheer their team late in the season onto the 2nd WC spot. No playoff spot in MLB should ever be granted with the playing of just one game, period…
And, how is this different? The winner of the one game WC ‘playoff’ game plays a division winner in a 5 game playoff.
Who might win the 1st LDS game and steal away home field advantage.
I’m not for a 1 game play in. Who are you talking to? The so called best team is always at risk for losing the homefield. The pitching match ups decide this as much as any home field advantage.
Flavor is attempting a draconian system where we might as well have no WCs at all. Don’t let them field a SS, make their #5 starter go in Game 1…
Two best of 3 series for the WCs, then on the present format makes total sense regardless of who proposes it. A 1 game play in makes zero sense-no matter who proposes it.
Well, I’m in bed with Schulman while Flavor sleeps with Selig… Zeke likes the comforter, too, Henry.
Since nobody will cut the season back to 154, the 2 outta 3 “play in” scheme for the two WCs works, timewise, if you push the season start up to the last week in March. The players always say that by then, they don’t need that last week of ST anyway. I think there are two reasons why this won’t happen. Too many teams now are making a ton of money on ST games, so another 5 ST games’ revenues would be lost to ALL teams — as opposed to an extra playoff game (or two) for just TWO teams. Anyway you slice the damn thing other than revenues, it’s nonsense to play 32 or so ST games (I counted the Giants Cactus league games this Spring, it’s 35 with the 3 exhibitions vs. A’s in the Bay Area) instead of maybe 26, but then limit a “play in” scenario for the playoffs to just ONE do or die game. Second, the winter weather in the East and Midwest is problematic to start in late March. That can be mitigated by scheduling the first week’s games in the warm weather and indoor sites as much as possible…
Several Giants need that extra week.
Who needs an extra week? 35 practice games added to 162 regular games = tired arms IMO. Around 25 ST games is plenty. If you can’t figure out who should be on the 25 roster by then, not to mention the first 10 days of ST when you’re just practicing, then something’s wrong, or your team sucks and every position is up for grabs. The Giants maybe have 3 or 4 spots actually up for grabs, the rest are set. Pill, Belt, maybe the backup catcher spot, one Pen spot, maybe one OF spot for a surprise add. The rest of the Pen is set, barring injury, and we know the starters…
Sounds like Sanchez, Vogelsong, Posey certainly…
I’ve proposed a regular season schedule that makes sense (Open March 21, finish September 21) for years now. But this is all moot- as to the new WC format- we’re stuck with the lame brained format proposed by Selig- where 4 teams will fight for 162 games for the right to be eliminated in 1 game- a fucking idiotic notion where how the pitching rotation falls will most likely determine a team’s fate.
If my opionions are often influenced by baseball writers, sites like BP and FanGraphs, and baseball executives, as well as over 50 years of wise observation- I recommend that route – a path of learning that some would be wise to emulate…I would also add that if Baggarly or Schulman share an opinion of mine, it is they who are in accord with me, not vice-versa..
Even if you just moved back to a 158 game schedule, that cutting of just 4 games would save a week of season time, and make a huge difference. That means just one fewer game per division rival, essentially. That, plus cutting the last week of ST would make everything work, and get the WS done the last week of October. Whatever, the numbers and schedule could be worked out, if greed were not on the front burner for both MLB and the MLBPA…
In 1993 the Giants won 103 games and didn’t make the play offs. In 94 we had the strike. So to get the fans back and make back monies lost during the strike MLB created an additional Division and Wild Card for each league. This wasn’t because of 93 it was to make money. The ticket prices for every post season game is decided by MLB for each team’s stadium. MLB, the teams and players make a lot of additional revenues for this. Interleague games started in 1997 this was also to make monies and to start moving to an NFL format. Playing ST games at the team’s home stadium and charging regular season prices, to make money, also it was being done in the NFL . Revenue sharing was so owners like Selig at the time, could field a shitty team and still make money. This new plan is to make additional money and again move towards an NFL format. As was pointed out earlier, Baseball is based on series not single games which makes this proposal seem wrong to me. Not just because of the single elimination game but also now they will need additional interleague games. MLB teams can’t have a bye like the NFL because baseball is series oriented and they won’t have an even number of teams in each league.The additional interleague games also moves baseball closer to including a DH in the NL, which makes the players happy because they’ll make additional revenues for players that can’t play the field. Not one thing under Selig has been done for the integrity of the game, not one and that includes this new WC
Sorry for the long post, I just get all riled up whenever Bud leaves his barbershop because at least when he’s getting a haircut he is not fucking baseball fans in the ass..
Jenkins has advocated baseball cutting the reg season short and starting earlier too (NBA also)…we just know it will never happen, primarily for the reasons Bozo has enumerated above. I think the system is fine enough as is without bud’s latest brainfart.
In any sport with playoffs, the favorites and best teams of reg season still have to prove on the field they are the best. That’s the whole idea. You actually make it harder by playing a season as long as baseball for the undeserving to get in, but at that point all records go out the window whether you get in on the last day (like SF did) or win the division going away. The longer the series, the more likely best team wins; but the more series you add it becomes more a grind on the players, and by the time networks get involved it seems the seasons never end (like hockey. No idea how those guys survive).
Btw, I love hockey players interviews. They are the ultimate humble team guys deflecting credit away from themselves and sound like baseball players from the 50s.
WTF is Kuiper smoking.this morning.He thinks Pablo should hit 5th or 6th to help extend the innings.Yeah right you take your best hitter and RBi guy and move him down the LU,Right Kuip.He Bats 3rd are cleanup all year!
In the spirit of change, how about the NL finally caving in to modernity and the rest of baseball and introduce the DH? Pitchers can go back to what they do best and the fans can appreciate a bit more production from the ninth spot. Anyway it would help the Giants out. It’s the regular season I’m concerned about not the playoffs.
For those who are against any sort of wild-card team in the playoffs and are for just division winners, just remember the ’93 Giants winning a 100 games and still being bounced from the playoffs because the Braves won 103 games and both were in the same division at the time.
Must we?
That was cuz the Braves picked up McGriff at the deadline and he went off the 2nd. half.Shrewd move by the Braves.
The padres totally screwed the giants with that one. If I remember correctly they got next to nothing for the crime dog.
I understand Flav’s right vs. privilege argument, but I’d probably lean toward a best-of-3. That would minimize the potential biggest flaw in this new format: There could be a situation where one wild card has already clinched its spot going into the final week but has no chance to win its division, while the other wild card is still fightlng for a division title and has to play right to the end. So while the first wild card gets to set up its best pitcher for the one-game playoff, the other wild card has no such luxury.
The biggest flaw for best-of-3 concerns the team that plays the wild-card winner, presumably the team with the best record. Although that team can set up its pitching, the position players are sitting around for three days or so, possibly disrupting their rhythm and timing after playing 162 games, while the wild-card players come in fresh off a best-of-3 victory and rarin’ to go.
One can argue this back and forth, but there’s no perfect solution.
Players union did vote on this, right?
Watching SFG-Live on the Giants web site, Pablo looks fine, doesn’t look any heavier than last year IMO
Back in the day, they used to decide NL/AL league ties with a 3 game series.
This one-game thing is pure bullshit. And you still end up with the same playoff format in the end. After the manufacured pressure game of the WC ‘winners’, you still have 3 div winners and a WC. I don’t see how this does anything but water down the achievement of getting in.
In other words, if one WC is bad, 2 is better? I think they should go with one WC per division. Well, that wouldn’t work. Make it one WC per division plus the best record that doesn’t win the WC or division. Then you have 4 WCs. That should make Bud happy. Give ’em a week to play 2 best of 3 series to get the last WC.
I mean, we want to make this like the NBA, right?
Chuck BLEEPS one-games! News at Eleven.
If MLB was really serious about a playoff meritocracy, like BF apparently is, then you’d have totally seeded playoffs, no WC. Just the top 4 or top 6 teams in each league get in, then play the seeds. No crap teams getting in by winning a division title in a crap division. As it is now, you can have a division winner in a crap division that wins fewer games than the WC team, yet gets to the post season. The new scenario doesn’t fix that, NOW you can have 2 WC teams with better records than a crap division winner. The NBA has it right in that respect, the #1 team plays the #8, #2 the #7, etc….
How would you have 6? Like the NFL, use byes. The top 2 seeds get a first round bye. The #3 plays the #6, the #4 plays the #5 in the qualifying round. Whoever survives those two first round qualifying or “play in” series — say best 3 of 5, then plays the top two seeds based on top seed vs. lowest seeded qualifier, 2nd seed plays highest seeded qualifier — in 3 of 5, with the higher seeds having the home field. Then the surviving 2 play in the 4 of 7 NLCS. You can argue bye periods are bad for the waiting baseball team. I dunno, maybe. But, I wouldn’t bet against within a decade we’ll have 6 teams in each league, after there’s time and experience to argue that the new WC scenario is unfair…
There’s talk of that, Snarkk. No more divisions, just 15 NL team, 15 AL teams, and the top 6 make the playoffs.
With the DH soon to be introduced to the NL, then the transmogrification of baseball to a dog and pony show.
Where are you hearing that the DH in the NL is on the front burner? That would be an abomination even more than 6 playoff teams…
You calling the A’s an “abomination?”
With the Manny signing, Is there now any question of that?…
if you played the other fourteen teams 11 times you would have 154 games, which would shorten the schedule and because you have an equitable schedule it would be fair to take the top 4 or 6. someone earlier mentioned starting earlier but the weather in the rest of the country would probably add some rain-out doubleheaders.
Well, that eliminates the 18 games of interleague play, which I think the Budman is committed into the foreseeable future. Cut interleague down to 14, including just 2 with your “rival”. That leaves 140 games for your league season. Cut down the division play to 16 games from 18. I get tired of seeing the Pads and Rockies, to be honest. That’s 64, so now you have 76 games left to divide up among the remaining 10 teams in the league, which is unbalanced, but that can be figured out. Or, some permutation of the above. My point is that 154 can certainly be done in exchange for another round of playoffs, if that is where MLB and the TV greedsters are headed. IMO a reduction in divisional games is no big deal and is warranted, I’m not thrilled with seeing the same division teams so much–though ESPN would probably want 30 Yanks vs. RSox games…
So, I take that none of this is set in stone. first is MLB going to shorten the regular season? if not I am going to be LMAO when it snows during the WS. and I am going to really LMAO if the weather last 2-3 days!! MLB is just crazy GREEDY. The only way they can keep the regular season in tact is if they do what the NFL does, pick a dome stadium or put it in a city that will not have rain and Snow storms. Baseball shoud be over in Mid to late October.
If it’s up to Dud Bud we will have Baseball till Christmas….Ho Ho Ho…
Snarkk, it’s inevitable. With the expanded interleague schedule, and the realignment of Houston, the next in line would more than likely be the DH.
You may be right. The greed factor is the controlling factor. The players union wants it, no doubt. Nobody gives a crap about what NL fans want. All the major sports are heading more and more to the merging of sport with entertainment…
Snarkk bitter?
It’s pretty much guaranteed in 3 years. I mean, Slug just re-upped til the end of the 2014 season, so it’ll happen before he splits (or votes himself another extension).
Fricking SOAD is claiming he talked to Marty Lurie about a part time DH in the NL plan where they play DH for 6 innings and then revert to NL rules for the last 3.
Marty suppoedly lovd the idea.
I guess if you go extras, it alternates off anf on.
I’ve been saying for awhile that the increased interleague schedule will make an NL team or two think about carrying a Giambi type guy on the bench. One that can pinch hit, play a little in the field and DH. Like I said when this first came up. Nipper’s gonna be happy.
I’m blanking. SOAD?
That’s the stupidest idea I’ve heard in a while.
Why don’t we let the fans in the ballpark vote via smartphone for whether and when they want to pull the pitcher(s) and make double switches? I’d be for that before the 6 + 3 “plan”…
Sonofabastard/Yogibarrister/and a ton of other names . . .
I forgot all about that guy. He’s still preaching somewhere?
Reason #38 why pro sports players end up bankrupt…
http://tinyurl.com/72hpqf6
well, I still feel this is going to be good for baseball—at least in terms of the excitement level for that one game. There is now a Game 7 situation to KICK OFF the playoffs. I love it. Really, if they had just done this back in ’95 there wouldn’t be people wetting themselves about this today. If you found out they were changing the playoff structure back in ’95 and were adding 2 WC teams in each division who would play a sudden death game to get into the playoffs, you would all be fine with it. It would have allowed non-division winners to make it into the playoffs and since most of the fans are from teams that don’t win their division they would have salivated at the chance, even if it was just a single game, to make it into the playoffs……..
But we’ve gotten used to the Wild Card over the years and that’s unfortunate. It’s just a team that didn’t win their division that was better than most but not good enough to win anything. Something needs to change to make it harder for WC teams to advance in the playoffs. I think this will do the trick.
As I’ve pointed out several times, 162 games is a long grind that deserves a reward once you get to the end (if you win something). And there is no sport easier to win a game than on the road in baseball. Wild card teams should have to do more than they have done in the past to win and advance in the playoffs……..
Once you guys get used to it you’ll be fine with it. No one likes change apparently………
I just feel it’s hokum. With 3 divisions, what else is there to do? Go to 4 divisions, and add 2 more teams a la the NFL? No. The WC has a play-in game and that changes everything? I don’t think so. What did the Pads get into the playoffs with when they won the west a few years back? 82-80? Wer they worse than the WC team? Yup.
I mean if this is good, so is my idea of a WC from every division. if 10 playoff teams are better than 8, then 12 would be better than 10. You have 3 1=game series to weed out the WCs. Brilliant.
I wasn’t particularly fond of interleague. It worked out OK, although it ain’t fair at all. What now? Interleague all the time. Yay. Water down division races? Sure. You watch. There will be a WC for every division in the near future. As will the DH in both leagues.
Get used to it? Like we have a fucking choice? Bud’s going to turn this into the NBA in the next 3 years.
SOAD was one of the early greats.
There was a time not too long ago when the NHL had 21 teams and 16 made the playoffs.
Just under 80%!
Don’t forget Yogi’s successful cover up handle as “DumeroUno”. He blogged here for about 8 months before Twin finally nailed him……..
The Cardinals handing over 75 million (it’s actually 82 since he’s making 7 mil this year) might qualify as the dumbest contract I’ve seen in a while. This dude doesn’t even put up AJ Pierzynski numbers offensively (well, he did last year). But I fully expect him to rebound backwards from his 2011 numbers.
Yes, he’s a great defensive catcher but you don’t have to pay those guys 15 million a year. He’s 30, catchers don’t get more durable as they get into their 30’s.
Mauer’s contract was idiotic but at least he was a multi-batting champ winner. And look what happened to him after he got his 180 million dollar deal.
I love it when other teams make stupid contract decisions. Good luck with that deal, St Louis……..
That’s a lotta Molina Moolah.
He’s good, but no way I’d pay that much that long for a guy his age at that position…
Here’s what MLB really wants…….realign the AL into 2 divisions…….
AL East
-Boston
-New York
AL West
All other 13 teams
Top 2 teams in each league make playoffs
The village IDIOT Bud needs to quit.Quit ruining a great game and quit your job you moron.You have done enough damage.Retire or Quit.Just Go!
Sure, there’s a certain logic to it that was missing, but more playoff teams just waters down the playoffs. The chances of another BASEBALL’S STARRY NIGHT [shameless promo; out soon! the WHITE SOX CALLED ME TODAY TO SET UP AN INTERVIEW WITH DAN FREAKIN’ JOHNSON!]. I’m all for a 154-game schedule, though, for a bunch of reasons. It won’t ever happen. Too much money to be lost. And I LOATHE the idea of interleague play all year [but that’s next year, no?]
But I’ll adjust. And us this to sell my book with the message that the drama of 9.28.11 can never be repeated.
I’ll adjust fine if we can repeat that delicious phrase that is better than sex [maybe]: WORLD CHAMPION SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS [insert any year 2012 or later]!!!!!
Pawlie, congrats on the White Sox connection. Tell Dan Johnson that you loved him when he was an A, that should butter him up good enough Speaking of guys like Dan Johnson, what did we ever get for Fred Lewis? Weren’t we supposed to get a PTBNL from Toronto? Or did that just turn into a cash deal?
My first question for Dan Johnson:
1) “Dan, you haven’t hit over .200 since 2007. That’s a half a decade ago. How is this even mathematically possible?”
I’d like to know how many players have played 4 going on 5 str8 seasons of not hitting over .200 in a single season. That’s almost impossible to consider…….
Looks like only 3 straight, Flav. The infamous Mendoza’s done that. Dal Maxvill, too. Probably many others.
Ray Oyler…
Jose Vidal…
Loo, did you pull those 3 names out of your mind or did you actually have to hit baseball-ref for that. Because in MY MIND the names Ray Oyler and Jose Vidal would come up in casual conversations with you at least 3-9 times a day.
as some of you may know, I work in the field of behavior analysis–this involves different areas of child development across 2 specific fields: regular ed and rehab programs in the juvenile system. My partner and I are taking a swing at creating a sports social skills training video series where we do the acting but we act it as if we are the kids learning and developing the targeted sports social skills. It targets 7-10 year old kids with behavior problems. There are group activities that go along with watching the videos. If any of you are interested in seeing the pilot videos (we’ve done 3) I’ll email you the links and would appreciate your feedback. This is way outside our normal field as we usually just do crisis management and functional analysis assessments. For those of you who I know on facebook, the videos are already up on my facebook page.
Anyway, shoot me an email if you want to see them and/or if you have an interest in feedback on the project that is just now in it’s earliest development phases.
Not sure if anyone here addressed this already, but thinking about last year, I haven’t looked at the final records for all teams, but I’m guessing that if there had been one more WC team, then both Atlanta and Boston would’ve made it to the one-game playoff with the other WC team… thus giving them a shot at redemption to “correct” their epic collapses. Certainly fans of those cities would’ve loved that. On the other hand, epic collapses are great drama at the end of the season. Those two teams choked last year; knowing they could still sneak in as a 2nd WC team doesn’t seem fair to me. If you choke, you choke, go home. It does change the game, adding another WC team, giving teams that had done well all year a shot even in the midst of a year-end collapse, and also giving teams that get hot right at the end an opening as well…
I like your take, especially on the collapses. With an extra WC, those mind bending, history making tank jobs might have been pulled out of the fire. Baseball lore would be the poorer…