MLB 2025 Post-Season

Jearlpam0925 wrote:

ESPN is the absolute worst - Ken Rosenthal breaks news that they're going to the new format, and everyone knows that Rosenthal broke the story. ESPN, or Buster Olney - probably both - say "sources" say they are going to the new format. "Sources"? Everyone and their fucking mother knows that little midget broke the story. ESPN and Buster Olney are awful.

I like Olney for the most part. ESPN blows but he's good and knows his shit.

Jearlpam0925 wrote:

Cliffy6745 wrote:

Jearlpam0925 wrote:

ESPN is the absolute worst - Ken Rosenthal breaks news that they're going to the new format, and everyone knows that Rosenthal broke the story. ESPN, or Buster Olney - probably both - say "sources" say they are going to the new format. "Sources"? Everyone and their fucking mother knows that little midget broke the story. ESPN and Buster Olney are awful.

I like Olney for the most part. ESPN blows but he's good and knows his shit.

He's alright, but I've seen this with him before. Apparently a couple times before he used "sources" on a twitter feed when he knew full well who broke the stories. Then, I think all of his non-ESPN peers called him out for it. Pretty funny.

Yeah, that's annoying but I feel like he knows his shit more than most writers out there.

Cliffy6745 wrote:

Yeah, that he fought procedure and not the results. None of them believe him.

jose bautista seems to believe that the majority of players are clean and that they all want good testing

Jearlpam0925 wrote:

Monster Rain wrote:

The problem I have with the extra Wild Card is that it will wind up penalizing the best teams while teams in weaker divisions can still employ the strategy of resting their pitchers and everyday players before the playoffs start. Take 2010, for example. The Rays and Yankees won 96 & 95 games respectively. The Rangers won 90 games but won the West by 9 games because Oakland was the 2nd-best team in the division and they were 81-81. So despite winning 95 games, the Yankees and Rays would have had to push their pitchers and everyday players to avoid playing a 1-game playoff against Boston, who finished 6 games behind the Yankees for the Wild Card spot. Meanwhile, the Rangers couls still rest their players knowing that Oakland couldnt' catch them and they were assured of not having to play in a 1-game playoff.

I think there are (mostly) good intnentions behind the change, but I also see it causing a 95-win team in a tough division to use its ace on the final day to try to win the division and then have to play an 88-win team that rested its ace to save him for the 1-game playoff knowing that they couldn't win the division and had locked up the 5th playoff spot.

I think you're too easily dismissing the biggest point of all of this - WIN YOUR DIVISION.

And there was also times when teams with shitty wild card records get in and sometimes win(83 win '06 Cards). The point is the playoffs were getting expanded in 1995 and nobody liked it. Now, here we sit again. A wildcard team is a wildcard team, meaning they didn't win their division. Point being = WIN. YOUR. DIVISION.

I agree that winning the division should be important, but I don't think this is the answer because it could actually penalize a good team for winning its division while a weaker team in a weaker division can rest. Since the Wild Card can (and has in many seasons) have a better record than 1 or 2 of the division winners, maybe let the team with the best overall record in the league pick its 1st-round opponent. Implement a deadline for the decision so they can't wait until 11:59 PM on the final day of the season to make its choice and leave the other teams waiting to find out where they have to play (maybe they have to submit scenario-based choices sometime during the final week so everyone knows as soon as the playoff teams are decided).

But don't force a team that's won its division with 96 wins to be at a disadvantage over a team that won its division with 87 wins because the 96-win team plays in a tough division and won the title by 1 game while the 87-win team plays in a weak division with no other teams above .500. If you want to reward the best teams, why prevent them from having their players rested and having their ace available for Game 1? Yes, they might get to play the team that had to win a 1-game playoff if they lead the league in wins, but if that Wild Card team is the 95-win team and neither team has its ace available until Game 3, then where is the real advantage in winning the division? And what if the 96-win team wins its division by 1-game but there's a 97-win team in another division that wins its division by 6 games? Now, that 96-win team is playing the 3rd division winner (the 87-win team), but the 96-win team is at a disadvantage because their ace isn't available until Game 3 while the other team has its ace starting Game 1 (and Game 5 if it goes that far).

Cliffy6745 wrote:

Jearlpam0925 wrote:

ESPN is the absolute worst - Ken Rosenthal breaks news that they're going to the new format, and everyone knows that Rosenthal broke the story. ESPN, or Buster Olney - probably both - say "sources" say they are going to the new format. "Sources"? Everyone and their fucking mother knows that little midget broke the story. ESPN and Buster Olney are awful.

I like Olney for the most part. ESPN blows but he's good and knows his shit.

why do people still care about steroids? i know it's another league but brian urlacher is admittedly taking pain killing shots just so he can play...how is there no uproar over this yet we care about someone who is playing taking something that supposedly makes them better? there is no logic and reason when it comes to cleanliness...that's why i posted the article Pierce is the first dude in the media who actually gets the illogic of steroids hate.

Jearlpam0925 wrote:

You write a lot. I know that sounds simple of me, but it doesn't need that much explanation. I think this can be summed up in one question - you're a Yankee/Red Sox fan aren't you?

I'm a Yankees fan, yes. I enjoy the fact that the AL East is so competitive because it makes everyone step up their game. In reality, this basically assures me that there will be at least 1 Yankees playoff game every year since they have 2 other tough teams in the division, but I still don't like it. I just don't buy that this is being done to "reward" teams who win. It's being done for money and to help some smaller-market teams like KC, Toronto, DC, etc. have a better shot at making the playoffs. I like that some of those teams will have a bteer chance now because it will only make them better in the long run if there's always a chance at a playoff spot. Their fans will care more instead of giving up in June and the owners will spend a little bit more to keep their best players if they see a chance to make more money. I just don't buy that there's a reward for the best teams in this when the example everyone points to (the 2010 Rays/Yankees race) is one that would have penalized the 2 best teams in the league that year. It's a forced attempt at drama and Selig wants us to think he's assured us that last year's Game 162 drama will happen every year from now on because of the 1-game playoff.

Monster Rain wrote:

Jearlpam0925 wrote:

You write a lot. I know that sounds simple of me, but it doesn't need that much explanation. I think this can be summed up in one question - you're a Yankee/Red Sox fan aren't you?

I'm a Yankees fan, yes. I enjoy the fact that the AL East is so competitive because it makes everyone step up their game. In reality, this basically assures me that there will be at least 1 Yankees playoff game every year since they have 2 other tough teams in the division, but I still don't like it. I just don't buy that this is being done to "reward" teams who win. It's being done for money and to help some smaller-market teams like KC, Toronto, DC, etc. have a better shot at making the playoffs. I like that some of those teams will have a bteer chance now because it will only make them better in the long run if there's always a chance at a playoff spot. Their fans will care more instead of giving up in June and the owners will spend a little bit more to keep their best players if they see a chance to make more money. I just don't buy that there's a reward for the best teams in this when the example everyone points to (the 2010 Rays/Yankees race) is one that would have penalized the 2 best teams in the league that year. It's a forced attempt at drama and Selig wants us to think he's assured us that last year's Game 162 drama will happen every year from now on because of the 1-game playoff.

yeah but what it will do is help a team who wins their division and is at the top, the phillies would have gotten away with charlie manuel's ultimate stupidity for winning the last game last year thus ensuring at least a playoff with the cards and braves. what this would have done is not let chris carpenter pitch twice against the best team all season, and that's what will happen guaranteed now (almost).

RW81233 wrote:

yeah but what it will do is help a team who wins their division and is at the top, the phillies would have gotten away with charlie manuel's ultimate stupidity for winning the last game last year thus ensuring at least a playoff with the cards and braves. what this would have done is not let chris carpenter pitch twice against the best team all season, and that's what will happen guaranteed now (almost).

You're slowly making more sense to me.

And, what'd I say, a Yankees fan. Maybe you guys should have given a shit about winning the division and not accepting the wildcard if this format was in place this past season. Even Cashman openly admitted to there not being any reason to go for the division title.

This ultimately will restore some semblance of pride in winning your division more than the other 3 sports - well, except getting the bye in football.

Cliffy6745 wrote:

I didn't give a shit about steroids when baseball allowed it. You would have been an idiot not to take them and I don't blame one of them. That said, now that they are testing I don't think they should be part of the game and find it amusing when people get caught.

i gotcha on the amusement...just because my politics with regard to steroids are indifferent would lead me to not care about the yanks or sawx that used didn't preclude me from making fun of my friends team's. that said, the pierce article is spot on - drug testing in sports is a deeply flawed system that is making a ton of people a ton of money at the expense of the dignity of athletes and it's going to take a lot to reverse the idiocy. hell howard bryant made a killing off of writing about steroids in a sports book, espn gets more shit to sift through their 24 hour news cycle, the drug testers get paid, the league's "seem" better to the public so it's good PR, and the whole thing is fucking stupid. the only logical conclusion to PED testing is to make everyone eat the same thing, work out the same amount, and so on, which is just stupid. on top of that isn't it funny that we celebrate the removal of tendons from a cadaver allowing an athlete who had 0 chance of playing in a game to play not once but twice with a bloody sock, yet we bemoan the idea that barry bonds didn't deserve his home runs because he rubbed a little cream on his body.

Yes, I'm a Yankees fan and I explained why this format helps them. In any given year the Rays, Red Sox, Angels, and Rangers are all contenders for a playoff spot. Having 2 Wild Cards almost guarantees the Yankees a playoff spot every year. I still don't like it. If this had been in place last year, nobody would have cared about the last week of the season. You don't think Boston and Tampa would have rested their players at the end? The Yankees still would've rested CC, Jeter, A-Rod, etc., but nobody would care because there wouldn't have been anyone questioning if they were tanking on purpose to keep hurt Boston or if they were just preparing for the postseason as usual. Nobody would mention the Red Sox or Braves collapsing at the end of the season because they still would have made the playoffs. The Yankees would have made the playoffs in 2008 and I wouldn't have spent that October pretending baseball didn't exist. In short, everything fun about last season would not exist.

Who do you root for?

Jearlpam0925 wrote:

RW81233 wrote:

yeah but what it will do is help a team who wins their division and is at the top, the phillies would have gotten away with charlie manuel's ultimate stupidity for winning the last game last year thus ensuring at least a playoff with the cards and braves. what this would have done is not let chris carpenter pitch twice against the best team all season, and that's what will happen guaranteed now (almost).

You're slowly making more sense to me.

And, what'd I say, a Yankees fan. Maybe you guys should have given a shit about winning the division and not accepting the wildcard if this format was in place this past season. Even Cashman openly admitted to there not being any reason to go for the division title.

This ultimately will restore some semblance of pride in winning your division more than the other 3 sports - well, except getting the bye in football.