# MLB Playoffs

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-playoffs/1008374>\
**Category:** The Game Room\
**Tags:** baseball-mlb\
**Created:** [October 2, 2024, 10:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-playoffs/1008374 "2024-10-02T10:22:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 3

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2024, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-playoffs/1008374/41 "2024-10-04T12:29:16Z")

</div>

It is true, and thanks for making me [look it up](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Milwaukee_Brewers_seasons#Postseason_records). 😀

What’s particularly interesting to Mets fans: the four teams that defeated them in the Wild Card round went on to win the World Series.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2024, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-playoffs/1008374/42 "2024-10-04T14:12:35Z")

</div>

In this year’s wild card round, the home teams went 1-8. Every team I was pulling for advances to the division series. Great start to the postseason. Rooting for NY, Det, NY, and LA in the next round and either a subway series or NY-LA in the WS.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2024, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-playoffs/1008374/43 "2024-10-04T15:00:24Z")

</div>

NYY - LA would be a dream series for me and MLB.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2024, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-playoffs/1008374/44 "2024-10-04T15:22:18Z")

</div>

I would take it, no question. Yankees-Dodgers is classic and it would mean the match up of the top two players in the game currently. Also means my Yanks got through the playoffs.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2024, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-playoffs/1008374/45 "2024-10-04T15:24:27Z")

</div>

> [@silenus](#):
>
> NYY - LA would be a dream series for me and MLB.

I’m sure that MLB would love it for the ratings. Speaking as a baseball fan for the past 50 years: my _God_, can we please see someone other than the Yankees and Dodgers? They’ve gotten the lion’s share of press coverage, and having their games televised, for as long as I can remember.

The only thing that would make such a World Series even more annoying, for me, would be if they somehow figured out how to also have the Red Sox playing in it. 😛

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2024, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-playoffs/1008374/46 "2024-10-04T15:31:29Z")

</div>

Yep. It would mean the Dodgers got by the Padres, which is going to be tough.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2024, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-playoffs/1008374/47 "2024-10-04T15:37:58Z")

</div>

> [@kenobi\_65](#):
>
> I’m sure that MLB would love it for the ratings. Speaking as a baseball fan for the past 50 years: my _God_, can we please see someone other than the Yankees and Dodgers?

I woukdn’t mind the Dodgers in the WS because I wanna see Shohei and Mookie. No one really wants to see the Yankees though. A Dodgers-Royals World Series would be awesome.

The Brewers have one sad history, man.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2024, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-playoffs/1008374/48 "2024-10-04T15:52:24Z")

</div>

> [@RickJay](#):
>
> The Brewers have one sad history, man.

Indeed, they do. The last seven seasons have been their longest period of sustained success ever, and account for six of the ten times they’ve ever made it to the playoffs – and even so, they haven’t been able to make it over the hump.

For me, as a Brewer fan, one of the saddest moments was that, in the '80s and early '90s, they had two of the best players in baseball, who were both Hall of Fame bound: Robin Yount and Paul Molitor. After the '92 season, they let Molitor become a free agent, because they couldn’t afford to pay both of them…and then, he became a Blue Jay, and won a World Series in his first season there. ☹

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2024, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-playoffs/1008374/49 "2024-10-04T16:01:52Z")

</div>

me too but everyone in flyover country would bitch about the "two richest teams in baseball buying another Ws " the whole time …

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2024, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-playoffs/1008374/50 "2024-10-04T16:14:40Z")

</div>

The owners are all billionaires. If they don’t want to pony up the bucks, fuck 'em.

I’d also be down for a Padres/Anybody series. San Diego has been lights-out this season. What other team could see its top 2 players leave in the off-season and get better? Plus I love Petco Park. SD/KC!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2024, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-playoffs/1008374/51 "2024-10-04T16:26:14Z")

</div>

I’d like to see Cleveland win its first WS since 1948 over the Mets or Padres, even though the MLB hierarchy and ad execs would fume over the Dodgers and Evil Empire being on the sidelines.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2024, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-playoffs/1008374/52 "2024-10-04T17:16:26Z")

</div>

> [@kenobi\_65](#):
>
> After the '92 season, they let Molitor become a free agent, because they couldn’t afford to pay both of them…and then, he became a Blue Jay, and won a World Series in his first season there.

I don’t think they were choosing between them; Yount was almost done and actually made a little bit less in 1993. I think Molitor just chose not to stay because he saw a chance to join the best team in the majors. To his credit, he wasn’t just a hanger-on, he had a tremendous year and was World Series MVP.

The 1982 Brewers were a hell of a team, man. But they were all offense. They scored a staggering number of runs, 23 percent more than league average, which is a huge, huge total; in most seasons no team does that. That team just wrecked baseballs.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2024, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-playoffs/1008374/53 "2024-10-04T17:17:00Z")

</div>

Every team in the playoffs (except SD) has been to the WS more recently than the Evil Empire.

Yankees vs Padres World Series coming up.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![3AxisCtrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/ecd19e/32.png) [@3AxisCtrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3AxisCtrl)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2024, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-playoffs/1008374/54 "2024-10-04T17:26:41Z")

</div>

Here’s Jomboy, explaining how the Brewers’ [Devin Williams was tipping his pitches](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7z8aaZ7gIk&ab_channel=JomboyMedia), helping Alonso to hit that home run.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2024, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-playoffs/1008374/55 "2024-10-04T17:28:33Z")

</div>

> [@RickJay](#):
>
> I don’t think they were choosing between them; Yount was almost done and actually made a little bit less in 1993. I think Molitor just chose not to stay because he saw a chance to join the best team in the majors. To his credit, he wasn’t just a hanger-on, he had a tremendous year and was World Series MVP.

I may well be mistaken, but that’s what’s lodged in my memory from 1992. “We’d love to keep both, but we had to make a choice.” And even though Yount wound up only playing for one more year, he was the face of the franchise, and letting him go would have caused an uproar.

But, I can absolutely see Molitor wanting to get another chance at a ring, elsewhere.

> [@](#):
>
> The 1982 Brewers were a hell of a team, man. But they were all offense. They scored a staggering number of runs, 23 percent more than league average, which is a huge, huge total; in most seasons no team does that. That team just wrecked baseballs.

Yeah, that pitching staff was not great, though the late-season addition of Don Sutton helped some. Their best pitcher, closer Rollie Fingers, was lost to an injury late in the season, and wasn’t available for the World Series. Their “ace,” Pete Vuckovich, won the AL Cy Young, mostly because he won 18 games for an excellent team; his stats (particularly his more modern sabermetric stats) indicate that he may well have been the least-deserving Cy Young winner ever.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2024, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-playoffs/1008374/56 "2024-10-04T17:39:33Z")

</div>

> [@kenobi\_65](#):
>
> Their “ace,” Pete Vuckovich, won the AL Cy Young, mostly because he won 18 games for an excellent team; his stats (particularly his more modern sabermetric stats) indicate that he may well have been the least-deserving Cy Young winner ever.

I think it’s generally agreed Vuckovich was the worst Cy Young Award winner of all time; Dave Stieb was robbed that year and not for the last time.

Granted, it’s hard to compare Vuckovich to the many relief pitchers who have won the award, not a single one of whom deserved it except maybe, ironically enough, Rollie Fingers of the Brewers in 1981. Steve Bedrosian in 1987 was… a choice.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2024, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-playoffs/1008374/57 "2024-10-04T18:36:22Z")

</div>

Despite the Dodgers repeatedly insisting that they will not send Ohtani out to pitch, I can’t help but be curious, if, if they suffer a lot of pitching injuries in the playoffs and miss some deadline to pick up a free agent, whether or not they send Ohtani to the mound in desperation if it’s Game 7 or something. He has apparently been doing decently in throws as part of his rehab right now.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2024, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-playoffs/1008374/58 "2024-10-04T19:21:53Z")

</div>

> [@Velocity](#):
>
> miss some deadline to pick up a free agent

I’m pretty sure that the time is past that a team can add to its roster from outside the organization.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2024, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-playoffs/1008374/59 "2024-10-04T20:50:48Z")

</div>

> [@RickJay](#):
>
> I think it’s generally agreed Vuckovich was the worst Cy Young Award winner of all time; Dave Stieb was robbed that year and not for the last time.

Boy Howdy. Just for having one more win? Surely the voters noticed 19 complete games and 5 shutouts for Stieb compared to 9 and 1 for Vuckovich? Plus the innings and the strikeouts…it boggles the mind.

Also, three unrelated players named Vu(c)kovich with overlapping careers? That seems weird too.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2024, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-playoffs/1008374/60 "2024-10-04T23:18:13Z")

</div>

> [@BlankSlate](#):
>
> Also, three unrelated players named Vu(c)kovich with overlapping careers? That seems weird too.

As weird as there being three unrelated guys named Youngblood, whose first names started with J (Joel, Jack, and Jim), who were playing professional sports in the late '70s – and two of them were starters on the same team (Los Angeles Rams).

Or two unrelated guys named Pruitt (Greg and Mike), who were the starting running backs for the Cleveland Browns during the same time period.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-playoffs/1008374.md?page=2)

[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-playoffs/1008374.md?page=4)
