Captain Bob Posted September 4, 2011 Share Posted September 4, 2011 the best team from each league gets a bye i meant Wouldn't work Here's an example: AL East - Yankees AL Central - Detroit AL West - Texas Wild Card - Boston Wild Card - Tampa Bay Yankees have a bye. Detroit Vs Tampa, Detroit Wins Texas vs Boston, Texas wins You now have NY, Detroit and Texas in the 2nd round. With 6 teams you could see this: AL East - Yankees AL Central - Detroit AL West - Texas Wild Card - Boston Wild Card - Tampa Bay Wild Card - Toronto Round 1 Yankees, Detroit with a bye. Texas vs Toronto, Texas Wins Boston vs Tampa, Boston wins Round 2 Yankees vs Boston Detroit vs Texas So as you can see, adding 2 wild cards I can see working, but not adding 1. The thing with this, if you have 6, you might as well have 8. And if you think about it, technically the NHL uses a division winner plus 5 wild card system. Edit: Never mind, I completely read that all wrong. What you're saying is: AL East - Yankees AL Central - Detroit AL West - Texas Wild Card - Boston Wild Card - Tampa Bay Yankees, Detroit, Texas get a bye. Boston vs Tampa, Boston wins. Yankees vs Boston Detroit vs Texas. Seems kind of silly, it's basically like when a 163rd game is required, but drawn out to a 7 game series. I just think 60% of round 1 having a bye is dumb. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gretzky's Mullet Posted September 4, 2011 Author Share Posted September 4, 2011 I just wanna say that I enjoy as just a casual baseball fan I enjoy reading GM's posts in here. They are very insightful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gretzky's Mullet Posted September 4, 2011 Author Share Posted September 4, 2011 Re: a second wild card team, I imagine the way it would end up working is that the two wild card hopefuls would play each other for the chance to play in a division series, or in other words, the division winners would technically all get a bye, and the wild cards would face off in a shortened series, or even one game. This does have the obvious issue of delaying the post season even further. It's bad enough that the World Series takes place in November when some of the major league cities have frigid weather. What I would want to know is whether a second wild card would automatically be another second place team, or if it could be a third place team from a really strong division should that team be the one with the next highest record. I'm mostly against expanding the playoffs too much, but in the AL East in particular, the Yankees/Red Sox dominance is sort of cannibalizing the competition and lowering the appeal for the other teams: save for a couple of recent good seasons for Tampa, the Rays, Jays and O's are pretty much eliminated by June every year, and in any other AL division with a strong frontrunner the teams don't have much of a shot at the wild card. For instance, there have been 16 post-seasons since the wild card was first implemented in 1995, and in those years, the wild card team has come from the AL East 12 times, the West 3 times, and the Central once. Of those 12 AL East times, it's been the Orioles once, the Yankees 4 times, and the Red Sox 7 times, so really, the wild card right now is pretty much the back door for the AL East powerhouse that finishes second to get into the playoffs. (You can pretty much chalk up another wild card for one of those teams this year too, as the second place team in the wild card is the Rays at 9 GB). Maybe the league likes this, because Yankees-Red Sox postseasons are good for ratings, but it isn't really improving league-wide parity, as it was mostly designed to do. (Incidentally, the American League wild card team has won two World Series Short of adding another round (and I really don't think baseball wants to have 16 of 30 make the playoffs like they do in hockey or basketball), I think we're stuck with some manifestation of the wild-card for the time being. I personally hope it isn't going to mean a few weeks of delay for the real playoffs to start while the wild cards get sorted out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jensen17 Posted September 4, 2011 Share Posted September 4, 2011 harper at the game i feel bad for cecil having such an off year he will be back stronger next year Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gretzky's Mullet Posted September 4, 2011 Author Share Posted September 4, 2011 For yesterday's Blue Jays-Yankees game, I saw part of it on TV and was driving for another part, listening on the radio. Something I found really interesting was how the radio crew of Jerry Howarth and Alan Ashby were commenting early in the game about how big of a strike zone Bartolo Colon was getting, leading to a lot of early game K's caught looking. Then, later in the game, Buck Martinez and Pat Tabler on TV were talking about how small it was being called for Romero, and that he couldn't get any calls when he was nibbling. So I was watching it feeling kind of pissed off, thinking maybe Cuzzi was calling it differently for the two teams, whether or not it was intentional. (And for some odd reason, I always feel Cuzzi is calling a pro-Yankees game, and I think it's because this atrocious call always enters my head ). Anyways, so I took a look at the pitch tracker for the game, and it does seem to me that the Yankees were getting a more generous outside corner. This website http://www.brooksbaseball.net/pfxVB/zoneTrack.php?month=9&day=3&year=2011&game=gid_2011_09_03_tormlb_nyamlb_1%2F&prevGame=gid_2011_09_02_tormlb_nyamlb_1%2F&prevDate=93 is an awesome resource for baseball nerds like me. By my count, the Yankees got four strike calls outside of the normal strike zone on the outside corner (with respect to a right handed batter), compared to only one for the Blue Jays. The Blue Jays also had one outside strike called a ball, compared to none for the Yankees. On the inside corner, the Jays had two strikes called balls versus none for New York, while each team had one inside ball called a strike. So while the differences are small, it does seem that the pitch calling on an individual pitch basis did favour the Yankees somewhat. On the flip side, the Jays got a bit larger zone vertically. This difference in zones seemed particularly apparent in the 7th inning, where it appeared Romero couldn't get any called strikes. Looking at the pitch by pitch for just that inning, everything outside the zone (even close) for that inning was called a ball, while one strike in the zone was also called a ball (first pitch to Granderson, whom he later plunked). Then he got yanked and Janssen came in and promptly gave up the lead. I have to say I was absolutely seething after watching how that inning went. I also thought the fact that the Blue Jays had defensive backups in the game hurt them yesterday. In that pivotal bottom of the 7th inning, there were two ugly looking defensive plays in a row that cost the Jays at least one, and possibly two runs. On the first, Wise took a terrible path to Cano's "double", and in the end let it get to the wall, allowing both runners to score. A more astute defensive player probably cuts that one off (as Wise should've), and keeps Cano to a single and ARod at third. For the next batter, Mike McCoy looked like a little leaguer trying to snare a short hop on his backhand instead of taking one step to his right and fielding that ball correctly. On that play, Cano scored from second (of course, everything might have happened differently had Cano only been at first), but still, that was a play that Yunel probably would've made. Just another example of how underrated defence can be in the outcomes of baseball games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Bob Posted September 4, 2011 Share Posted September 4, 2011 save for a couple of recent good seasons for Tampa, the Rays, Jays and O's are pretty much eliminated by June every year, and in any other AL division with a strong frontrunner the teams don't have much of a shot at the wild card. Tampa AND the Rays? How about 12 teams make the post season? I mentioned it a few posts back. This would add another round, but how about knocking off 5 or so games from the regular season? Or even pre season. Don't some teams play upwards of 30 pre season ? From a few posts back... With 6 teams you could see this: AL East - Yankees AL Central - Detroit AL West - Texas Wild Card - Boston Wild Card - Tampa Bay Wild Card - Toronto Round 1 Yankees, Detroit with a bye. Texas vs Toronto, Texas Wins Boston vs Tampa, Boston wins Round 2 Yankees vs Boston Detroit vs Texas So as you can see, adding 2 wild cards I can see working, but not adding 1. The thing with this, if you have 6, you might as well have 8. And if you think about it, technically the NHL uses a division winner plus 5 wild card system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gretzky's Mullet Posted September 4, 2011 Author Share Posted September 4, 2011 Tampa AND the Rays? How about 12 teams make the post season? I mentioned it a few posts back. This would add another round, but how about knocking off 5 or so games from the regular season? Or even pre season. Don't some teams play upwards of 30 pre season ? From a few posts back... With 6 teams you could see this: AL East - Yankees AL Central - Detroit AL West - Texas Wild Card - Boston Wild Card - Tampa Bay Wild Card - Toronto Round 1 Yankees, Detroit with a bye. Texas vs Toronto, Texas Wins Boston vs Tampa, Boston wins Round 2 Yankees vs Boston Detroit vs Texas So as you can see, adding 2 wild cards I can see working, but not adding 1. The thing with this, if you have 6, you might as well have 8. And if you think about it, technically the NHL uses a division winner plus 5 wild card system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shiznak Posted September 4, 2011 Share Posted September 4, 2011 Just realign the divisions to make it fair for other teams. Have the highest paying club salary teams in one division and let them duke it out.So in other words, the Yankees, Red Sox, Phillies and Braves/Mets would be in one division. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Champions of Nothing Posted September 5, 2011 Share Posted September 5, 2011 Just realign the divisions to make it fair for other teams. Have the highest paying club salary teams in one division and let them duke it out.So in other words, the Yankees, Red Sox, Phillies and Braves/Mets would be in one division. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Romo Posted September 5, 2011 Share Posted September 5, 2011 Lawrie!!!!!!!! Walk off homer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shiznak Posted September 5, 2011 Share Posted September 5, 2011 How would you like it if the Canucks were in the same division as the Wings, Sharks, Hawks and Penguins every year? That is the opposite if what they are trying to accomplish, stopping deserving teams from missin the post season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Likewise Posted September 5, 2011 Share Posted September 5, 2011 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gretzky's Mullet Posted September 6, 2011 Author Share Posted September 6, 2011 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gretzky's Mullet Posted September 6, 2011 Author Share Posted September 6, 2011 So I have a very high opinion of Alex Anthopoulos, but I wonder if he was cringing a little bit in watching Zach Stewart throw a complete game, 1-hit shutout today. I know that Colby Rasmus has plenty of potential and ability, and I realize that with all their injuries, the opposing Twins aren't exactly the 1927 Yankees, but as a GM you never really want the guys you trade away to show that level of dominance while the guy you've gotten in return has definitely stumbled. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vancity787 Posted September 6, 2011 Share Posted September 6, 2011 <br />So I have a very high opinion of Alex Anthopoulos, but I wonder if he was cringing a little bit in watching Zach Stewart throw a complete game, 1-hit shutout today. I know that Colby Rasmus has plenty of potential and ability, and I realize that with all their injuries, the opposing Twins aren't exactly the 1927 Yankees, but as a GM you never really want the guys you trade away to show that level of dominance while the guy you've gotten in return has definitely stumbled.<br /> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gretzky's Mullet Posted September 6, 2011 Author Share Posted September 6, 2011 <br /><br /><br /> I think AA is hoping that Alverez can take Stewarts spot in what would be next years pitching rotation. I dont know about you but I think Alverez has done an incredible job since his been in the bigs. Rasmus on the other hand ahas a ton of upside, and to contend in the Al East you need to have fire power. Just before he got hurt he was playing quite consistantly and getting in on the long ball. If Morrow and Cecil can find some consistancy and Alverez can prove that what hes done thus far is no fluke. Im happy with getting rid of stewart.We all know Morrow has great stuff, he just loses control sometimes. I think next year, The Jays will be in a very tight battle with Tampa for the third place in the end of the season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gretzky's Mullet Posted September 6, 2011 Author Share Posted September 6, 2011 Sadly, the only interesting race left in the majors is between the Rangers and Angels, because the other 7 playoff spots are all essentially spoken for at this point. It'll be interesting to see who actually wins the AL East, but the loser already pretty much has the wild card sewn up, and the NL East is also a lock to send 2 teams. Both central divisions are pretty much out of reach, and sadly, the Giants are looking to be on the outside looking in as well. The season ends with a 3 game set between the Rangers and Angels, so I think any 3rd party baseball fan would love for the division to still be close at that point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Horvatian One Posted September 6, 2011 Share Posted September 6, 2011 New York, NY (Sports Network) - Toronto Blue Jays left-hander Ricky Romero was voted American League Pitcher of the Month for August after going 5-0 in six starts. Romero, who lost his latest outing on Saturday, led the AL with a 2.05 earned run average in August and had 26 strikeouts in 44 innings. Opponents batted a major league-low .160 against him. Among his six starts, Romero pitched a three-hit shutout against the Oakland Athletics on August 18, his second shutout of the season and third of his career. He also earned two wins over the Rays and one each against the Orioles and Angels. He didn't receive a decision against the Royals on August 24 but the Blue Jays won the game and finished 6-0 in his August starts. Other pitchers receiving votes were Tampa Bay's James Shields, Detroit's Justin Verlander and Jose Valverde, Kansas City's Bruce Chen, Seattle's Felix Hernandez and Ervin Santana of the Angels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Champions of Nothing Posted September 7, 2011 Share Posted September 7, 2011 Sadly, the only interesting race left in the majors is between the Rangers and Angels, because the other 7 playoff spots are all essentially spoken for at this point. It'll be interesting to see who actually wins the AL East, but the loser already pretty much has the wild card sewn up, and the NL East is also a lock to send 2 teams. Both central divisions are pretty much out of reach, and sadly, the Giants are looking to be on the outside looking in as well. The season ends with a 3 game set between the Rangers and Angels, so I think any 3rd party baseball fan would love for the division to still be close at that point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BM24 Posted September 7, 2011 Share Posted September 7, 2011 Jays had a good game today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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