That’s kind of the point of playoff expansion, right? It makes it easier for teams to reach the tourney but discounts the regular season.
6 teams made the playoffs in each league. 12 teams did not. That does not exactly sound like “discounting the regular season”.
Actually, it’s “6 teams made the playoffs in each league. 9 teams did not.” Each league has 15 teams, not 18.
oh, yeah, I see I was looking at the WC contention list,numbered 1-12, which includes the 3 WCs.
Yup, and even that was a compromise between the owners and the players’ union. The owners wanted 7 teams from each league in the playoffs, or 14/30 teams.
With Hicks out, opens up a spot on the roster. For the love of all that’s holy, do NOT activate Chapman. If LeMahieu or Benintendi are healthy, I’d take one of them. If not them, Peraza I’d put Stanton in left, let Carpenter DH, and Cabrera at SS.
I get the feeling the Carpenter can only swing the bat. If he pinch hits and gets on base he’ll be run for. I don’t think he can DH. They only carried 12 pitchers. They will be carrying 13 in the next series. Hopefully Marinaccio is ready. Any other changes will not be for Hicks.
Bill Walton was behind the plate at the Padres game. Imagine paying thousands of dollars to get a seat behind home plate and you wind up sitting behind a 7 foot tall guy.
I’m really hoping LeMahieu is healthy. He would be a big help.
They’re expected to add 1 extra pitcher this round, so if LeMahieu is not healthy, Hicks spot may be just another pitcher.
The only reports I’ve seen, Benintendi will not be ready for this round. Maybe if we advance.
Positional Player Options:
DJ LeMahieu 1b,2b,3b,DH
Oswald Peraza IF
Estevan Florial OF A fast lefty that has gotten pretty good as stealing bases but has not yet successfully hit in the Majors.
Pitching:
Albert Abreu
Aroldis Chapman L
Frankie Montas
Ron Marinaccio, Boone says he is in play for this series. So maybe he is ready. Montas also.
This homebrew Padres NLCS fight song is making the rounds in some Philadelphia circles for mockery purposes. If anyone is up for a bit of cringe:
As expected the Yankees added a pitcher to go to 13. It’s Montas. They dropped Gonzalez and added Peraza.
I hope they start Oswald at short and Oswaldo in left. They can play either IKF or Donaldson at third…it really doesn’t matter which.
As for Montas, the Oakland version showing up would greatly improve NY’s chances.
I’ll be attending a friend’s CD release show tonight, which will mean missing roughly the first 1/3 of the game. He’s also a baseball fan, more invested in the AL than the NL, and when I teased him on FB about having a show at the same time as the game someone had the audacity to comment “it’s only game 1.”
“Only” game 1?!?
THAT PERSON IS DEAD TO ME.
Honestly I’d be fine with going to 16 teams and just having four playoff rounds, IF they expand to at least 32 and preferably 36 teams, and if they shave a few games off the regular season.
MLB has 12 playoff teams, out of 30.
NFL has 14 playoff teams, out of 32.
NHL has 16 playoff teams, out of 32.
NBA, with its new ‘play-in tourney’, now has 20 playoff teams, out of 30.
In my opinion, which matters not a whit to anybody, each of these leagues has too many playoff teams.
I agree
Hey, it’s all opinion, it’s sports.
The thing about the playoffs in baseball is that if you go too far back in terms of how restrictive you are, you reach the point that so many games are meaningless that huge swathes of the regular season will see attendance collapse. One of the reasons they went to divisional play in 1969 is that with expansion to 12-team leagues, they decided the idea of having 11th and 12th place teams was just too much to ask of hard-done-by fans. The various leagues have kept expanding, and so either you expand the playoffs or you doom some teams to eternal pointlessness, which of course happens to some teams anyway but there would be way more of them.
I do get that Dodgers fans are frustrated the Dodgers choked again, of course, but I also can understand why MLB doesn’t want half the NL, year after year, totally eliminated by the most-attended sports franchise in the history of world that can spend over $300 million a year on payroll.
MLB is, above all, an entertainment business, and I think there is good reason to think that it’s more entertaining this way.
I agree too.
The more teams in the playoffs, the more fan interest. It’s all about the money, for owners and TV, all around.
But it does keep it more interesting, for longer. There is that. More entertainment, yes.
Phillies taking it to the Padres early.
As opposed to what other reason or method? Crowning the very best team? In which case, why have playoffs at all? Why not just declare the best record as the champ and move on to next year? (Had a thread about this a while back.)