The Mets are doing great and playoff baseball is a wonderful thing, especially when your favorite team is involved. The Mets took the lead in the Division series and now have two chances to win one game and advance to the NLCS. My oldest brother is a Dodgers fan and I know several people who root for L.A. My hope was for a trip to face the Dodges in the NLCS. But the Dodgers are in the same boat as the Phillies – facing an elimination game today and needing to win twice to advance.
The NL Central champs lost in the Wild Card round and the other two division winners might get knocked out in the first round they play, too. And it’s not like we haven’t seen division winners get knocked out early before, either. It’s one thing when it’s the Mets, who’ve been the best team in baseball for 4.5 months, knock out the third division winner. But the D’Backs entered the playoffs last year as a Wild Card team, one who had a 32-39 record in the second half of the season. And they made it to the World Series.
Is it good for baseball to have a playoff format that consistently eliminates the best teams over 162 games in the first round they play?
It seems fair to say that no one wants a rubber stamp, where the team with the most wins in the regular season always makes it to the World Series. But in the NL, we have to go back to 2017 where in a 162-game season, the team with the most wins made it to the World Series. And if the Padres eliminate the Dodgers, that will make six full years where the best team during the regular season didn’t make the Fall Classic. It seems we’ve gone beyond fluke and into territory where the current format needs to be changed.
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Join us in the Game Chatter for today’s 5:08 p.m. game — https://substack.com/chat/1934025/post/01d83f29-fa3d-4d92-a990-e6168a6b35ea
Gotta go for the jugular tonight.
I have zero interest in going back to Philly to face Zack Wheeler with a fired up squad behind him and a grandstand full of howling phanatics in front of him.
Feels like Mike Scott in 86.
Bingo!
Obviously a fan of the wild card format since it got us in 2 of the last 3 years, however i don’t think it’s ultimately good for the game to consistently have 5 and 6 seeds in the world series. The long regular season should matter for something.
I would shorten the regular season to 154 games and make every playoff series best of 7. The longer the series, the greater the chance for the better team to settle in and emerge.
(and now I’ll wait for your detailed and well researched article providing evidence for or against this assumption)
I don’t know if there’s an easy answer here.
I’ve long felt that the top team should get to pick their opponent. But do you have them pick before the Wild Card round or after?
My other thought is to have the two teams with a bye play one or two games against each other during the Wild Card round. It wouldn’t count for anything and teams could take it as seriously as they wanted. But it would be a chance to have players face some competition and not sit around for five days
Not a fan of this new format either. The bye seems to hurt more than help as 5 of 8 bye teams have lost with PHI and LA currently on the ropes. Doubt they’ll ever reduce # of playoff teams but something needs to be done if this trend continues.
Here’s my random thought on NLDS Game 4 top of 6th inning
Mendoza hardcore about L-L and/or R-R matchups
I understand he wants to keep the deficit 1-0, and he has few lefties in the pen
However, I felt truly alarmed when he brought in Peterson, who finished 2024 with ERA below 3. This is the best/freshest lefty Mendoza has
So, let’s say the PheePhis win game 4 and the Mets have to get Back On The Road for Friday.
Who do the Mets start against WheelBarrow?
OMFG!!!
It’s Severino for the final game of 2024
Editor’s Note – Please do not capitalize words in your post. And if you want to discuss the game while it’s in progress, please participate in the Game Chatter, not in the Open Thread.
Posted on ESPN a few hours ago:
Jeff McNeil fractured his right wrist in early September and figured to miss the rest of the season, but the second baseman is scheduled to play in the Arizona Fall League this weekend and might rejoin the New York Mets if they reach the National League Championship Series.
Agree that the current playoff format isn’t working. The division winners are penalized. This year, I don’t care and it helped the Mets, but I don’t think it’s good for the game. It’s another dilution of the pennant races too.
Something needs to be done but unfortunately, having Manfred’s hand on the wheel is tragic. The man has no feel for the game, although I admit that the pitch clock has been mostly a good change.
I don’t have a problem with the playoffs as they are. The teams with a bye have a huge advantage:
1. They set up their rotations any way they want.
2. Every player is well rested.
3. They have home field advantage.
4. They have a tired team waiting for them that has been thoroughly scouted for few games for present info, not old info.
Everything you say is true.
In theory, this should give teams with the bye an advantage. It’s just reality has resulted in the exact opposite. I don’t criticize MLB for the current playoff format because the theory was sound. But now, with several years worth of results to examine, we need to move past theory.
From Matt Gelb in The Athletic:
“ “We knew we weren’t playing our best baseball coming into the postseason,” Realmuto said. “But we were hoping that once the lights turned on, we’d flip the switch and our offense would get back going. It just didn’t happen for us.”
That’s a candid and concerning observation. The Phillies were a great fastball-hitting team until they weren’t. They chased too many pitches. Do they think teams formed a better plan on how to beat them over time?
“I don’t,” shortstop Trea Turner said. “Personally, I think we get ourselves out. I don’t think it matters who’s on the mound.”
As Turner spoke, president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski circled the room to shake the players’ hands. Dombrowski, the veteran executive who constructed this team, will have to consider a better balance for his lineup. His two trade deadline acquisitions, Estévez and Austin Hays, disappointed in October. There was no trade that would have saved the Phillies; they made legitimate overtures to the Chicago White Sox for hard-throwing lefty Garrett Crochet, but he wouldn’t have helped the Phillies score more runs against the Mets.”
The team needs to be trending up. As far back as the 1986 Mets, a big lead means that the pedal has been off the throttle for a while. A team needs to not let up, and then expect to find it.
Agree with both of you. It should be an advantage but the data shows otherwise. Small sample size, but if LA loses, I thing that’s a complete blanking for the division leaders. Regardless, I don’t have a better suggestion. But odds are that anything Manfred does will be worse.
“And if you want to discuss the game while it’s in progress, please participate in the Game Chatter, not in the Open Thread.”
oops
i thought you stopped doing the game chatter a few weeks ago
sorry
With all due respect – Do you even read the articles? I’ve been posting direct links to the Game Chatters in them for a while now.
10/9 — Join us in the Game Chatter for today’s 5:08 p.m. game — https://substack.com/chat/1934025/post/01d83f29-fa3d-4d92-a990-e6168a6b35ea
10/8 – Today’s game has a 5:08 start. Join us in the Game Chatter — https://substack.com/chat/1934025/post/d32fa824-e27a-4720-85e4-2190d37ffd23
10/6 – Join us in the Game Chatter at 4:00 p.m. today — https://substack.com/chat/1934025/post/5f7ae3ce-0aad-46ce-994f-d8bc5a6476e0
10/5 – Here’s the direct link:
https://substack.com/chat/1934025/post/ece5a1d5-2894-46ae-8d64-227f517280cf
The first one listed above was in this very article that you’re reading now!!!!!