The 2023 Running Baseball Thread

I hear all of the arguments, but if we went to eight in each league, two 82-80 teams would have gotten into the playoffs, which is stupid.

The Orioles were struggling to hit at the end of the season as it was. And they had a bunch of pitchers who had far surpassed their career highs in innings by the beginning of September. And they lost the best closer in baseball with a month left in the season. And they ran into a beast of a hitting team. I'd like to blame the layoff for the loss, but that's just a copout.

 

I hear you, but there's ample evidence of the team with a layoff doing worse than the team without one: Cardinals 04, Rockies 07, Tigers 12 are some big examples that come to mind.

I said go to 16 teams because the real answer is to do away with expanded playoffs and go back to the one-game wild card (so one less team) or back to an 8-team playoff. But the money is such baseball won't do that.

 

That question is harder to answer than what's going on in Israel right now.

 

I'm not dismissing the results. The Dodgers were in trouble going in due to the arms they were missing. With the exception of Riley, the Braves also didn't hit. Acuna and Olson were quiet. It is unlikely that the outcomes change, but not impossible. It just feels too short.

 

It's really unbelievable that anyone who has spent any time in a major league clubhouse would try to argue that things said in the open are off limits.

 

The egg on faces right now is going to be hard to clean off.

 

Rosenthal had something about this last week. Seems likely to happen when MLB expands to 32 (you know, after another hand-wringing we-can't-afford-this-plz-give-us-a-salary-cap lockout). It's going to suck, b/c if we think we're annoyed now w/an 84-win team making the LCS, just wait until a .500 or worse team pulls it off. I'm fully w/@Azrael, let's go back to only the league champs advancing. Never gonna happen of course but that's the way it should be.

 

Baseball is a true test .... you have to be good enough and deep enough to get to the postseason, then you have to enough firepower to perform when you get there.

I'm a Twins fan and in no way were they the best team over the long haul in either 1987 or 1991. But they got hot at the right time and brought home the titles.

The Orioles limped in (already discussed), the Dodgers started Lance frigging Lynn in Game 3 and his "performance" lowered the starters' ERA (Thanks Clayton).

As for my team, more than enough to get in and beat Toronto, but having Verlander on the ropes in game 1 and not cashing in stinks. Sonny Gray giving up yardballs that hadn't happened all year. And an offense that didn't perform (largely in part to Houston pitching)... The two big plays in Game 4 that went wrong were the 1st inning DP (great play) and the horrific called third strike to Kepler in the 6th.

 

I'm OK with a single wild card team and making it a clean four-from-each-league playoff. Teams that win 100-plus who are second behind another 100-plus win team aren't SOL while a 90-win division winner gets in.

But networks love playoff games and will pay out the nose to broadcast more playoff games. So we're getting more playoffs. But, hey, if we're cool with the NBA sending sub-.500 teams, I guess baseball can (/blue font).

 

Break out the violins.

 

Speaking of inappropriate and unprofessional, let me tell you about how I met my husband!