General 2022 MLB Postseason Thread

feeling too lazy to set up polls for each series.

but i'll go rays, jays, cards, mets in the wild card rounds

i know they won't make it to the WS but the blue jays are the team i'm rooting for the most. great vibes

TB TOR PHIL NYMETS

I suspect cards will roll the hell out of philly tho

Thanks, na! We all know it's about who gets hot (or cold)--they can absolutely make it.

good pitchers' duel so far between two guys named shane

Yay, Guardians--not a Blue Jay fan anywhere who wouldn't love to see Tampa Bay out of this.

time of game: 2:17

so glad to see that michael kay is finding work while the division-winning yankees get some much-deserved rest!

haha, listening to the phillies radio broadcast right now.
color commentator is livid about the mound meeting running extra long.

This ninth inning is agonising

having no rooting interest, it is delivering an exciting finish for sure. october baseball!

Molina getting hit so many times this inning

I do feel bad for KM but also: lmao

This fielding…i want to die watching it

I also have to listen to ARod on my broadcast

"Yadier Molina is the general. he is Tom Brady like." - Alex Rodriguez

I want to die.

— Absolutely Hammered (@AH_Pod) October 7, 2022

are they really playing Gary Glitter at the ballpark as well 🫣

Ya. He’s apparently been forgiven by mlb a few years ago

when you have the opportunity to let yadier molina come to the plate as the game tying run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, you simply cannot pinch hit for him

Well that was excruciating

https://i.imgur.com/dCMrrtZ.png

mama said there'd be days like this

I had a super busy day at work today but had the Phils/Cards game on in the background. How the hell did the Cards lose in the 9th, wow.

Playoffs off to a good start.

Is San Diego finally playing up to their ability?

2014 World Series all over again where Zito outpitched Max.

The Panda hit three home runs in that opening game, good times.

i had thought all the home teams would win out, but was most worried about the jays

but you can't predict baseball, suzyn

Watching ESPN/MLB Network for analyst and because they are such NY centric of course they are saying that is the biggest lost of the day is the Mets. I get it but I would argue that St. Louis, the way they lost that game, are in worse shape mentality.

Still in need of an edit button

Even before the games started today, I was thinking how perilous home-field advantage is in these series. If you split the first two, which would seem to be the expected result, you're on the road for the deciding game. I realize a 1-1-1 set-up isn't practical, but I'm not sure how much of an advantage a 2-1 set-up is (and 1-2 wouldn't be ideal either).

All three games are played in one city. If that’s not the case, I have no idea what I bought tickets for!!

Haha, that is how I read it at first too but what he is saying is how to make it more fair?

For me, the fairest way--the one where home-field advantage feels tangible--is the one that's not practical: 1-1-1.

Wait a minute, now I see what you're saying...honestly, I had no idea the Jays (and the other teams) get all three at home. I thought if we win game #2, we head back to Seattle. I approve!

St. Louis, the way they lost that game, are in worse shape mentality.

brutal for STL, but also i don't think anyone expects them to go far in the playoffs, anyway. my wish was to get past the Wild Card and get to the division series, most likely losing to the braves there, but at least getting to play a few games.

probably worse for NYM (?) because up until recently they were going to skip the WC round altogether, because they're a much better team, and of course, because it's nyc

i was glad that the cardinals beat the PECOTA projection (77 wins)

I’d say Mets fans are in a pretty bad place emotionally right now, but it’s a place we know well. We can only dream of the consistency of the Cardinals (one losing season since 1999). I remember going to a Red Sox game the season after they had won their 4th title in 14 years. The Red Sox were shutout that day, and yet it seemed like no one in the crowd was the least bit bitter or hurt about it. I could not relate.

No ghost runner in the play offs so this TB-CLE game could go on for a bit.

Holy shit Oscar Gonzales’ walk up song is the SpongeBob Square Pants theme!!

0-0 and shadows creeping in only now, in the tenth? Yeah, this could definitely go on for a while.

all these batters are excellent at striking out

what a play

i didnt even think of that but thank fuck they dont do the ghost runner bs in the playoffs

12th inning? Just tuned in and thank God for no ghost runner.

Haha yeap

can't remember ever seeing a batter get a platinum sombrero in the playoffs

it's kluberin' time

They've got to be close to a record for postseason games (can't find anything online...longest game before first run, I mean).

I went upstairs to read during the 6th hoping to come down when this was over and watch the Mariners. That was like three hours ago? Jfc

FINALLY

i was worried they were going to run out of Ks and start writing them

spongebob ftw

We are dying at SpongeBob guy and every time there’s a shot of someone in the crowd congratulating him

From the city that immortalized the bat-flip, that was one great bat-flip!

This is a bloodbath, tomorrow should be interesting

Raleigh looks like he wants to lie down and cry

https://pbs.twimg.com/tweet_video_thumb/FelFA2qX0AIm5Dt?format=jpg&name=large

Sorry, gif from here

Merrifield gets drilled in the head and the Jays aren’t happy.

Can almost guarantee you there will be a Mariner hit later in this game. #MLB #Postseason pic.twitter.com/FIVROfawwK

— Immaculate Sports (@ImmacSports) October 8, 2022

gausman seems like a prime balk meltdown candidate

🤞🏻

Congrats on advancing to meet the Yankees, team that won a series with 2 runs in 24 innings.

sorry, 3 runs

Smooth

Crazy

!!!!

Genuinely thought the sound had cut out

What the hell

Hopefully he’s not too badly hurt

Even without the collision, it looks like that ball drops

First game of the day can't score a run. Second game will be decided by double digits. Baseball

man this would be a very brutal way for the jays to lose

Unbelievable

Congratulations Seattle

fuckin brutal

Kirby did so well to keep the lead, incredible game

1 - 1

I want the Mets because Sam Diego has no chance against the bums. Tho SD is peaking at the right time

Petty I know.

I’m at a Boston bar with a bunch of Mets fans and the mood is all over the place.

honestly love bringing in diaz there. we’ll see if it pays off

Huge add ons

ok now I kind of can’t believe buck brought him back in for the 8th

Agree, that move makes no sense to me either.

phillies vs barves is a real who-do-i-hate-less conundrum

Phillies

I guess I'm rooting for Cleveland now, but it's zombie-rooting.

tough finish for yadi and pujols. yadi the best catcher in smokies - and st louis - history.

feels weird that a team 14 games out of first (the Phils) could knock out a team that won their division handily (the Cards) by playing… two good games? hmm.

I don’t care what happened yesterday - I want the Mariners to go all the way.

I don’t like the new playoff structure. I want all the division-winning teams to be on equal footing, not some having to play an extra series against a wild card team while others get a bye.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/34760715/aroldis-chapman-left-yankees-roster-missing-workout

(xposts) I think there's always a temptation to root for the team that beats yours: "That's how close we were."

I feel worse about this year than last year. We were great towards the end in 2021, but we had to depend on other teams--ultimately, it was a team other than the Jays that sunk us with a blown lead. This year, it was all us.

When the Marlins beat the Yanks in ‘03, I didn’t feel quite as bad about the Cubs catastrophe. It made them feel more like an inevitable team of destiny rather than extremely lucky. Even though let’s face it they were probably also extremely lucky, and the Cubs melted down in preposterously amateur fashion.

Speaking of Chapman, I do associate him with the dreaded “what if” scenarios for Game 7 of the 2016 World Series. Distinctly un-clutch (also abusive of course.)

Cubs-Red Sox 2003 remains the greatest World Series that wasn't. (Before either had ended their droughts.)

fuckin aaron boone

i watched that game at bodean's in soho who locked the doors and let us watch it til the end on one of the big TVs downstairs with a bucket of beers

Memorable for me too. I'd just taken possession of my first house (age 42) but didn't have cable yet. So I watched both the Boone and the Bartman games in packed local bars.

I'll feel bad for Showalter if the Mets don't come back, primarily because I just finished Chumps to Champs, a book on the early- (when they were terrible) and mid-'90s Yankees. Showalter and Gene Michael are the focus of the book. I guess he's become a bit of a caricature because of his post-season failures, especially the Zack Britton game, but he comes across in the book as a very decent and thoughtful guy--and instrumental in laying the foundation of the late-'90s dynasty.

I have been very impressed with him this season.

Britton or no Britton, Showalter was the best Orioles manager since Weaver. I really want to see him go deep in the postseason.

lol i picked all four series wrong

baseball is a sham. i'll be there in the spring, again.

i have to say, in the midst of the cardinals 9th inning meltdown in game 1, my friend took his hat off of his head and slammed it onto the ground. it was almost involuntary, it looked like. that was pretty amazing, it really captured everything and i think i'll remember it more than most of the moments on the field this year

teams i am hoping will advance:
Guardians
Mariners
Barves
Padres

teams that are probably going to wind up advancing:
Yankess
Astros
Barves
Dodgers

Is San Diego finally playing up to their ability?

― Bee OK, Friday, October 7, 2022 5:44 PM (two days ago)

Mariners would be one of the best stories if they can pull it off.

I started to feel like this one was over when Bassitt couldn’t find the plate in the second. The margin for error is so small in these series. What a game from Musgrove.

I love that the inspection Buck instigated didn't rattle him at all.

Per Rob Thomson: Phillies reliever David Robertson strained his right calf jumping up in the air when Bryce Harper homered against the Cards last round. He’s out for the division series.

— Jesse Rogers (@JesseRogersESPN) October 11, 2022

this is 37

Whenever I see one of those home plate celebrations I always remember Kendrys Morales breaking his foot celebrating a grand slam and missing most of that season and all of the next. I also remember the Cubs celebrating David Bote’s walkoff grand slam and my son asking me, “why are they beating him up?”

ok i got them all wrong last time but here are my guesses for this round: atlanta in 4, houston in 3, cleveland in 4, dodgers in 5

my hottest takes are that cleveland can take down the yankees and that the padres will make it tough for the dodgers

Just saw the broadcasting schedule and Joe Davis is going to call all games. The reason why I bring this up is because Joe Davis is Fox #2 booth for the NFL. So I thought Fox would do the same thing and have him do his football games as they did with Joe Buck. I think Davis (also Dodgers play by play man) is a lot more invested in baseball then Buck was in his later years.

Tito bringing down Los Yanquis (again) would be delicious.

uh

When you're talking about Shohei you're usually on your knees, though, right?

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) October 11, 2022

Kinda sad seeing aces get clobbered in the playoffs. There's really no order in the universe

Excite too see what 3 days off did for everyone’s timing

xp didn’t Verlander also get lit up by the Giants in 2012?

This day has not gone as planned so far and I love it.

I’m definitely enjoying this Mariners game

Suddenly an Astros game

wau

and thus robbie ray is denied his first career save

Wow.

my boy Yordan

Costas is so pleasant to listen to

Bit late, but watched a couple of the early innnings of that Toronto/Seattle game and was WTF the next day when I saw the Jays lost. Ouch. Sorry for the Toronto fans, that one probably hurt a bit.

I guess today was a bit of payback to Seattle.

Got to wonder if this is FINALLY the year Dusty wins one. I really don't want Houston to win jack squat.

I'm sure MLB would LOVE to have a Cleveland/San Diego World Series. I'm sure that would get ratings almost as good as a Seinfeld re-run.

I was bowling but saw the Alvarez HR. What a hitter--he's already Edgar/Ortiz level (his 187 OPS+ this year is better than Edgar's high of 185 and Ortiz's of 173), though obviously he'll have to keep it up for a few seasons.

Wow crazy, homer turned into an out at first!

I really felt bad for the Mariners...kidding!

"Donaldson singled to deep right, Donaldson out stretching at second" is...a stretch.

Who is the color man in this Guardians/Yankees game? He sucks.

Also: I hate everybody.

Costas is so pleasant to listen to
― Its big ball chunky time (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved)

Can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not...I was going to say, I'm quite sure I'm the only one here who's glad to hear Costas's voice.

I’m serious about BC he has the deep well of knowledge that isn’t showy and he has a languid pace that is enjoyable. Ron darling is doing color and while i love him on the mets games i think he changes his energy for the national games and starts to suck

Bob is a boomer redass re steroid era so pobody’s nerfect

Totally agree about Costas' virtues.

Found this Phanatic web gem in today’s game pic.twitter.com/Vhtg1SlKBo

— John Foley (@2008Philz) May 10, 2020

Kershaw havin another one of those playoff Kershaw games

Tbf, so is Darvish

xp didn’t Verlander also get lit up by the Giants in 2012?

― barry sito (gyac), Tuesday, October 11, 2022

Game one 2012 World Series Verlander 4 innings 5 runs, two home runs from the Panda, and lost to Zito. Game four he pitched better but can't remember how long he went. Game went 10 innings.

wowww Bellinger

this game is lots of fun

It has been.

Go Padres

LMAO never seen that before

TV: “The duck, which is actually a goose, was escorted off the field during the break”

What actually happened: pic.twitter.com/wFbIukbPwn

— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) October 13, 2022

Goose was obviously a Padres fan

As he was escorted off the field, the Goose was overheard complaining about players today.

lol i was yelling at the broadcasters "that a goose you fucking clowns! how can you not tell this?!"

what happens if the goose honks at the second baseman as he's running backwards to catch a pop up, causing him to drop it? does that count as an error? if not, does the goose get an outfield assist? if so, does the goose get a BB-Ref page?

if a fielder misses a ball because of the sun in their eyes it is NOT ruled an error, so i assume a goose would fall under the same category of natural causes

Turner reached on infield single (Goose)

It would be a fowl ball.

o fuk

Don't agree with walking a batter into scoring position.

Yeah, I’m sure they’ll do better in Seattle but they looked a mile away from the team that clawed back all those runs against the Jays…truly wasted those loaded bases.

Astros are just that good and very, very happy for Dusty Baker

I know I should be rooting for the Mariners, but I'm vengefully enjoying their bad karma. I was watching today's game (missed it) on replay, and the bloop before Alvarez's HR was almost identical to their bloop hit against the Jays, with the three fielders converging at virtually the same angles.

Three out of four 1 -1,nice

Crushing Yankees loss
Got the feeling oswaldo cabrera didn’t want to go down looking
*makes josh donaldson error face*

that was an extremely satisfying game narratively

I didn’t plan on being a Phillies fan, but the stadium atmosphere plus the hurting they are putting on the Braves right now sure does taste like champagne.

lol i was talking about the yanquis/guardians but yeah the bad guys lost in any case

Wow at this Phillies offense.

Wait, are we the baddies?

Love the Phillies beating on the Barves.

to me it's merely a sign of how low i will stoop to see the horseshit white-flight racist braves fucked over

pretty low, it turns out

These NL games have been excellent

as mentioned earlier, i fully support the padres going apeshit and acquiring every decent ballplayer in sight. they absolutely should do that!

but also they finished *22* games behind the dodgers, and went 5-14 against them head-to-head. we should be celebrating the dodgers' incredible season/run/decade instead of whatever happens this weekend

Nah, fuck the Dodgers

(Staying on brand) and jealous of their success.

I'd kind of love seeing a Cleveland-San Diego WS...I must have some secret grudge against baseball; I like it when the law of unintended consequences leaves the sport squirming. (The unintended consequences a by-product of expanded playoffs--which, the catch-22, can't be avoided.)

Caught the end of Padres vs Dodgers. The crowd in SD was insane, what an amazing atmosphere. Makes me want to see them close out the series tomorrow.

And in a season with three NL teams winning more than 100 games, we are really close to an NLCS with an 87 vs 89 win team.

Phillies haven’t won a home playoff game in 11 years, the Padres haven’t won one with fans in the building in since ‘98. Those crowds certainly were hungry.

(xpost) Remember the '87 Twins? 85-77 on the year, outscored 806-786.

Love the Phillies beating on the Barves.

― sometimes you have to drink to kill the paranoia (PBKR), Friday, October 14, 2022 8:33 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Phillies look like this year's getting-hot-at-the-right-time team--maybe Harper makes up for the year he had to watch the Nationals win.

Padres too

"Dancing On My Own" by Robyn must be some sort of theme song for the Phillies this year.

Michael Tucker tied for the AL lead in game-winning RBI...had no idea they still kept track of that.

Really weird watching the Mariners broadcast and the centre field camera is somehow all fogged up, making it look like they’re showing two different games whenever they switch angles

never going to stop complaining about these busted green screen ads, absolutely nutso how these took over baseball broadcasts with zero pushback

https://i.postimg.cc/fLMHnMxL/image.png

xp, I turned on the game late and wondered if that was fog or fireworks smoke until I saw a different angle.

The digital ads will have gone too far if/when they start animating the fuckers.

Great game going on...I've never seen so many guys HPB'd on the hands--three times today, I think.

Gif I hate the Astros

Fuck the ‘stros

Hit ‘em

https://i.imgur.com/FZl2h10.gif

Altuve duermes con mi perro

This is my first time watching McKenzie pitch what a delightful looking lad on the mound i wish him great health and success and i hope he never gains an ounce of weight

I hate baseball

These games have a be averaging four and half hours.

Not every game is a grim 0-0 13-inning battle of attrition, and that's a good thing, but I love the few that are

At least calstars can breathe again

this is all fun and games until robbie ray is the only guy left in the seattle pen

14th inning go fuck yourself

Not complaining about length, just an observation. These games have been fun.

Still happy there is no ghost runner in these playoffs

If this goes to the 16th, I may bail. I can only invest so much time in a game not involving the Jays and not a WS game.

"First post season game to go into the 16th inning "

Gets out of it

This is insane.

altuve in this series: 0-for-16, 6 K, 1 BB

JOE BUCK: Welcome to the top of the 47th
[Sun rises]
[Sun keeps getting bigger]
BUCK: yes
[World engulfed by flames]
BUCK: oh god yes

— Justin Klugh (@justin_klugh) October 28, 2015

Make it a double

well at least it was an extremely mariners way for that to happen

Basically played the astros to a draw. Not bad

lmao fuck baseball

Game one today was a tie. Game two was a 1-0 loss.

That was incredible...I wanted Naylor to get the winning hit (Mississauga!), but he was the wrong guy, a long-swing power hitter. Needed one of those pesky Guardian hitters...five singles, unheard of today.

BASEBALL IS THE GREATEST GODDAMN SPORT IN THE WORLD

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FfKOae3WQAcQFM5?format=png&name=900x900

Clarke Schmidt almost made the greatest catch in postseason history pic.twitter.com/TkeXxeO9E1

— Grant Brisbee (@GrantBrisbee) October 16, 2022

Braves losing certainly makes the Mets season seem more tolerable? Like both teams battled frantically all season to win the division, only to be chased away after 3/4 postseason games. There really is something about peaking at the right time.

boone is getting absolutely buried for not bringing in clay holmes; if the yanks lose this series i think he’s toast

Dodgers kind of blew the top of the seventh, bases loaded and only one run scored. Of course the Padres make them pay by coming back in the bottom of the inning.

Wow

Always a happy day

Goose

The goose is the new black cat

Preparing for a lot of think pieces about how the regular season is too long and doesn't even matter that much now, why even win 100 games when your season can be over in 3 or 4 games, shouldn't MLB adopt a premier league style format, etc

Eventually this Dodgers run will end and they'll be a third place team and someone will write a great book about how they blew it every year in the playoffs and were part of I don't know how many "biggest upsets ever" games and series.

I really don't think you can explain it through bad luck. They play poorly and make bad decisions. Like tonight, the Soto stolen base was because of horrible defense, they simply weren't concentrating out there. That cannot happen in that situation. And once the comeback was complete they looked lost at the plate, you could see they'd basically given up

i was rooting for both the phillies and the padres but yeah i think when the 87 and 89 win teams make it to the LCS in a league with 3 100-win teams, that's a bad sign and something needs to change

Houston vs Seattle was 6:22

Just checked out of curiosity -- WAS vs SF Game 2 NLDS, which was also decided by a HR in the 18th inning, lasted 6:23.

holy shit guardians

and holy shit HOU-SEA lol. that’s real baseball baby

Didn't stick around for the Padres' comeback, but that's amazing. As much as I want to see Dusty Baker win one, Guardians-Padres would be something.

I was actually going to put up a poll the other day about whether baseball has a problem, but I stopped myself because the best teams (or close enough) won the WS in 2016/17/18 and--if you give it the same weight--2020. Not in 2019, and not in 2021. Still, didn't seem enough to diagnose a problem. But as you continue to add WC teams--and expanding the playoffs has been a matter of survival for baseball--you may be getting there.

And if you do get "there"--where it's just a free-for-all where anybody can and does win--for a lot of people, that's not a problem at all.

This is the weird shit we all signed up for imo

Idk if your team can’t beat a team in the playoffs that they may have beaten several times over the season, then stop whining imo. Team being drastically changed through injuries or something like that is one thing, but “it’s not fair that the best teams have to play the losers, and sometimes the losers win and that’s Bad for Baseball,” I can’t understand that at all.

The Dodgers not being able to overcome a team they beat 14-5 in the regular season is a problem for the Dodgers, not baseball. Just call it a choke and move on.

the playoff field should be selected by me, personally, each year

barring extreme circumstances, i can't really get behind third-place teams making the playoffs, so this year i'd have left out the rays and phillies

can't really support teams that finished 20+ games back in their division, so there go the padres. although maybe they get a one-time pass because matt holliday never touched home plate in 2007? seattle is perilously close to being nixed at 16 games behind the astros, but it had been 21 years so i'll let it slide

so in the NL i'd have gone straight to the DS with dodgers-cards and braves-mets. AL would have been more or less what actually happened, except we needn't have bothered with the cleveland-tampa series

check back with me next year for my absolutely correct selections

That all seems reasonable but what about the Pirates

Pirates did sweep the dodgers this season!

sorry for continuing to criticize a broadly unpopular change made before the season (expanding the playoffs) after the effect of that change is felt in a tangible way

if i'm going to argue about this on the internet for the umpteenth time then i guess it'll have to be established for the umpteenth time that playoffs in baseball are random and the results of individual series are a crapshoot

In the NFL, a “best-of-11” series is needed to match the NBA’s better team advances rate.

In the NHL, a “best-of-51” series is needed to match the NBA’s better team advances rate.

And in MLB, an astounding “best-of-75” series is needed to match the NBA’s better team advances rate.

i personally think that mlb and other sports leagues have some sort of responsibility to corral the best teams (as established over a legitimate sample size) into a better position to win the postseason. other people don't, and that's fine. when my hapless and pathetic orioles do eventually win it again, if they ever do, i will enjoy it regardless but i'd still prefer to know that they did it as one of the best teams in the league and not because any team with 83 wins in the right circumstances can hot streak their way to infinity.

i'd prefer it if there were less teams. i was against expanding to 12. i'll continue to be against expanding to 14 next CBA and then 16 for the CBA after that. i'm aware that it's going to happen anyway, so i think that deeper handicaps are needed to not only ensure that the best regular season teams tend to advance, but that teams are never satisfied entering the season with a "just good enough" win projection, which is what will continue to happen as the playoffs expand without more handicapping. giving the top two records a bye and removing a round of randomness is a good start, but it's not enough. the cards should be stacked higher against the lowest seeds - if you want cinderella stories, make it an actual cinderella story

that's it for me, not going to reopen this thread today because i'm supposed to be fucking myself up at the renaissance faire and i'm not going to let my internet argument brain worms get the best of me, please enjoy your sunday god bless

personally, i root for my favorite team (the kansas city royals) to win the regular season, and the regular season performance is mostly how i remember the team. for example, the 2004/5 cardinals were the really, really good ones. the 2006 won the WS but were worse. it was a crapshoot. this year they forgot how to score runs in the wild card and left after 2 games. i'll be remembering the other 162 games instead. there were some classic ones in there.

i don't have a good idea on how to "fix" the postseason. i don't want the established best teams to win every time. i don't want the kind of mediocre-but-streaking-in-october teams to win every time, either. i am ok with how it is tbh

I was getting a little ahead of myself back there. The Guardians still need to beat the Yankees--forgot they're a day behind.

Posnanski sort of addresses all this today:

https://open.substack.com/pub/joeposnanski/p/are-you-entertained-yet?r=1jtu0&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

The Guardians are so much fun. This team cannot hit a lick. I haven’t looked this up to verify, but I believe they set a major league record this year by finishing sixth in the league in runs scored despite the fact that Jose Ramirez was the only player on the team to get a hit all season.

even going back to single-division leagues playing each other in a 7-game WS is a crapshoot. i think you have to just see the postseason and WS as a bit of a circus and enjoy it for what pleasures it provides.

this is astounding. before last night

The Yankees had never once blown a multiple-run lead entering the ninth inning of a playoff game. Never once. They were 167-0, according to our Joel Sherman.

half the point of sports is teams battling to determine who is the actual best but the other half of sports is the joy and pain of random fickle events. both halves are equally important.

baseball is a weighted random number generator with fun personalities and noises attached

arguably the best team wins the World Series every year bc MLB defines the “best” as the team that wins the World Series. if the “best” team was the team with the best regular season record, there would be no need for a postseason

we could just have teams set their rosters and decide which is the best team on paper and then we wouldn’t need to have any of those pesky games at all

I'm fine with the way things are. Fact is, if an Astros/Yankees vs. Dodgers WS had been almost a sure thing, I probably wouldn't be watching now, and I'm getting quite caught up in the craziness.

I do think that, more years than not, you have to dispense with the idea that the WS winner is the best team.

i figured that was a joke, from NA. because if not, then we have to deal with the term "world series", which, despite toronto's proximity to the us border, doesn't seem to be accurate

Guardiac Kids!

Anyway - I wouldn't mind 7 game series for the second+ rounds along with a shorter season. Not sure it would make a difference as all these good teams would be down 3-1.

(xpost) 2032 Wild Card, Bracket G: Barcelona vs. Copenhagen.

For real though the World Baseball Classic was pretty outstanding fun to watch, last time around! I’m excited for the next one

i’m in favor of this new playoff format if it winds up getting aaron boone fired

as a fan of the Brewers I think this new format dramatically increases my team's chances of winning a WS and I think you could argue that it acts as a bit of a safeguard against high budget teams just buying their way to the playoffs (though how possible is this really? didn't the Cubs constantly trot out 75 win teams?) that said it does feel weird to see these insanely good teams just get eliminated over a weekend, particularly the Mets losing in a random 3 game series, you can't even really call it a "choke" because every 100+ win team still has a ton of 3-game stretches in which they went 1-2, that's just the nature of the beast. so I guess I'm on Posnanski's side - the regular season is kind of its own thing now, what's happening now is definitely a lot of fun, so who cares (sorry LA and NY)

dude stop jinxing Cleveland, they're not through yet

I don’t really know what my ideal postseason format would be. As I said above I think the division winners should start the postseason on equal footing instead of some of them playing a wild card team and others getting a bye. I suppose the fairest method would be to not have any wild card teams at all but I understand why they do it and I do like having the postseason last a little longer (more baseball = better).

The first round bye should be a huge advantage for the top seeds, although it hasn't appeared that way so far. Unless MLB goes back to four playoff teams to ensure the best teams play in the CS (which isn't happening) or they try some crazy format like spotting 100-win teams a 1-0 advantage before the series even starts, then the playoffs are always going to be "unfair" to some extent.

And in MLB, an astounding “best-of-75” series is needed to match the NBA’s better team advances rate.

This is not true for a 111 win team vs a 89 win team.

I don’t remember where I read it, but someone once floated the idea of every team making the postseason, with a series of one game playoffs until you get to the DS. Your record determines how much the odds are stacked against you. The worst teams have to win the most games, and the division winners go straight to the extended 7-game series. Despite how completely impractical it sounds, I still think about it a bunch.

I remember that article! Was this it?

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/23244608/radical-ideas-series-every-mlb-team-made-playoffs

Thanks for the link! That was it.

What in the hell kind of HR trot was that? Hilarious!

Apparently a reference to the pitcher being his “baby”

Yeah...Will have to check Josh Naylor's HBP totals.

Nothing to speak of--I wouldn't think pitchers would take to kindly to that.

Bob Costas and I, livin' in the past.

do pitchers really retaliate in elimination games?

No, I was thinking more in the regular season (if he indeed does that all time). Not in a playoff game, no.

Maybe it's a recent thing--his HBP did jump up this season.

Costas starting to look like a lesbian

Cole throwing 98 mph on his 107th pitch

I assume that anything off Judge's bat that looks like that is a HR.

There has been too much baseball so I cut the American Leauge but I love hearing Costas call baseball again

Anyone but Buck is ok with me

lol

even going back to single-division leagues playing each other in a 7-game WS is a crapshoot.

arguably the best team wins the World Series every year bc MLB defines the “best” as the team that wins the World Series. if the “best” team was the team with the best regular season record, there would be no need for a postseason

I do think that, more years than not, you have to dispense with the idea that the WS winner is the best team.

I'm fine with the way things are. Fact is, if an Astros/Yankees vs. Dodgers WS had been almost a sure thing, I probably wouldn't be watching now, and I'm getting quite caught up in the craziness.

or they try some crazy format like spotting 100-win teams a 1-0 advantage before the series even starts

This is not true for a 111 win team vs a 89 win team.

As they've been saying all night, the Guardians should have the edge in a bullpen game tomorrow night, maybe even a big edge. All they have to overcome is Yankee Stadium, history, inexperience, and a few other things.

When I wrote "if an Astros/Yankees vs. Dodgers WS had been almost a sure thing," I wasn't talking about any kind of a weighting scheme; I was talking about baseball vs. basketball or hockey, where sure-thing teams usually win with great predictability.

(that is not at all the case with playoff hockey)

i mean basketball is odd because you can literally have lebron shoot every shot if you really want to, but mike trout can never get more than four or five at-bats

in between is the hot hockey goalie, which has absolutely long been a factor

Obviously, I'll defer to you on hockey, but hasn't the best team (or close) won the last three? I know St. Louis pulled a big upset the year before.

that's fair. but the fate of president's trophy winners (for best regular-season record) is pretty ugly

also basketball is very much an offense vs. defense game whereas defense in the MLB doesn't really vary a whole lot. so a guy like LeBron & Giannis can literally affect every possession

They asked Cole about Naylor in the post-game conference. "Yeah (long pause; no actual eye-roll, but the pause achieved the same effect)...whatever."

As I said above, nobody's throwing at anybody right now, but I'd bet money someone on the Yankees filed that away for future reference.

When you’re making a million per game or whatever, just smile, shut up, and take your paycheck

naylor's homer resulted in them still being down one run

at the risk of being a hater . . . at least save that until you're ahead

Speaking as an avid Cleveland fan: the two main sports traumas of my childhood could have been avoided if the 1995 and 1996 Indians teams been awarded the championship after having had the best record in either league. (What a team 1995 was!) I harbored resentment for years. But clearly now the only way small-market teams can compete with big money is through a playoff system.

The Indians/Guardians are just completely allergic to winning playoff series at home, failing to clinch when they were up and had shots in the 1999 ALDS, 2007 ALCS, 2016 WS, and yesterday. A firm tradition of crapping the bed.

This is not true for a 111 win team vs a 89 win team.

i don't get what you mean by this
― ✖, Monday, 17 October 2022 05:09 (eleven hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I meant that if both teams play to their talent level (based on their win totals) then it would take far less than 75 games to establish (with high probability) which team is better.

Winning the WS is unlikely for any team, no matter how good they are, because of the number of rounds and teams. The Dodgers had maybe a 30 percent chance of winning the WS at the start of the playoffs, and the Astros 20-25 percent? So you have to take the field winning vs either of them, although their chances of winning were much higher than just about any other team.

I wouldn't want to overly manipulate the postseason to give the best teams more advantages. If the point is to game the system to crown the best regular season team most of the time then I don't see the point of having a playoff round. Just base it on regular season only, like European soccer.

What a night for an extended rain delay...Will probably still be watching at 1:30 a.m.

well there goes Cleveland’s supposed bullpen advantage

That was three hours well spent.

will the guardians start bieber?

also, tonight's tickets are good for tomorrow's game only, no refunds or exchanges, so if you sat in the rain for three hours tonight and don't have tomorrow afternoon off, you're screwed. (MLB makes these calls for postseason games, btw, not NYY)

Gates opened to fans at 5 pm. The Yankees and MLB announced at 6:20 pm that the scheduled 7pm game would start in a delay. There were no official updates between the announcement of the delay and the announcement of the postponement at 9:35 pm. Awful.

— Lindsey Adler (@lindseyadler) October 18, 2022

Didn’t the same thing Happen thurs / Fri? I guess it’s easier to take off Friday than Tuesday

will the guardians start bieber?

Checked his splits and he's never started on three days rest; also, better on five days rest than four by three-quarters of a run.

Doesn't mean they won't, though.

The weather forecast in your area is not available due to blackout restrictions.

— Dryhelm 🦬 of the H-Town Guild (@Dryhelm) October 18, 2022

RIP Guardos

it’s not great

Not challenging that play at first?

That was safe!

Ugh

If they end up scoring again & losing in a tight game…

I think it’s more like one baserunner in a 2 out situation early when u have a superior bullpen to restore order.

It’s not like they had 2 guys on

but what would have been the downside?? you have video guys poised for this stuff. were they taking a leak??

extremely strange

Even if nothing came of it you need to fight for your guys, no?

in the postseason you tend to need absolutely everything to break your way.. a missed opportunity like that feels the same as like, getting picked off first. establishes the wrong vibe

I dunno man, Costas is really grating on me tonight. He’s so matter of fact and kind of won’t shut up

“Second guesses are always better than first guesses”
THANKS FOR THAT

Other than following Ramirez through the season, I didn't pay the least bit of attention to Cleveland all year. They've been so exciting the past couple of weeks, though, I feel lousy right now (and nothing at all to do with hating the Yankees, which I don't).

is guardos the accepted nickname? i like it much better than guards

top of the order, make it count lads

Aaron Boone: always snackin’

costas’ eddie haskell schtick is so relentlessly vapid and inane

Guy in the stands with the Chuckie doll is all time

I accept Guardos as the nickname wherever I roam.

Welp, those last two games fizzled out badly, here's hoping they can get some down on his luck HR hitter next year.

wandy “wandifferous” peralta - series mvp

Welp that’s a wrap on the season. The one silver lining is at least now I won’t have to hear Bob Costas and Ron Darling for awhile.

Sigh. It was a fun season, and playoff shots are hard to come by these days in Cleveburg, so I can't complain. Guardians have some glaring weak spots, and here's hoping the Dolans loosen the purse strings a bit. (Psych!)

I was actually eager to have Costas call baseball again -- maybe watching him in old Letterman clips has softened me on him -- but I obviously forgot about his overpowering nerd-smarm.

you have to think that an AI Costas would be at the easier end of potential implementations

*shows baby on screen*

Bob Costas: “The mind still developing, she does not know all her life leads to the inevitable arrival of death”

*batter looks at strike 3*

Bob Costas: “Unless we too are seated at the Right Hand”

Ron Darling: “Went back to the cutter on 2-2”

— Philadelphia Phillies Student (@sacketology) October 14, 2022

Costasian aphorisms

They write themselves suzyn

Go Goose

Is this game already over?

I'm sorry what was that?

All the way back, wow.

And now the lead

It's only fair after the first inning

Hey, Matt Carpenter's back.

bader is not a power hitter! he's on quite a streak now, though

i don't normally root for NYY but they have both bader and carpenter, and they're also against the astros

Hader looks unhittable

1 -1

Best of five

the Yankees struck out 17 times tonight

the Astros struck out twice

That 15-strikeout differential is the largest in a game in postseason history

— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) October 20, 2022

It's starting to feel like this is the year that Dusty Baker finally wins a WS and rides off into the sunset.

Not shareable, but Posnanski has a Dusty column today (haven't read it yet):

That’s exactly what I want for Dusty. I so thoroughly and deeply loathe the “he can’t win the big one” narrative. Dusty Baker has had a remarkable and complicated managerial career. He has managed five teams — all of them broken in some way or another when he took over — and he has managed all five of them into the postseason at one point or another.

I’m pretty sure I could manage my way into the playoffs with some of those “broken” teams too

I thought the Astros job was challenging after the scandal, and they were sub-.500 in the COVID season. I didn't expect them to be so good in 2021/22, although a lot of personnel is the same, true.

Just tuning in, of course its tied.

All these check swings are becoming bullshit. MLB needs to fix this with being able to challenge in my opinion.

Pedro’s orange tie + Costas’ purple jacket= Joker

NYY gonna bring the muthafuckin’ ruckus

Slow motion Altuve thinking = vomit

Wow. Judge’s misplay just cost them 2 runs

That is a disputable out

was it a judge misplay? he should’ve called bader off but there was no need for bader to range so far into right

CF usually has the green light to get anything

i.e. other fielders should defer if there’s any question

Yankees' season starting the decent into the bowl. Shame.

v. sad

I know it’s kind of passé to complain about the astros cheating but maybe that penalty from a few years ago wasn’t harsh enough

I can't even remember what their penalty was...monetary, I assume, or did they lose draft picks?

i love christian vasquez so much. that throwout was magnificent, pin-perfect. and with his ribbies this feels like his game as much as javier’s, who has been a pleasure to watch. i feel like it’s unusual days to see a pitcher just get guys out over and over again with his fastball - and while he throws it hard it’s not like he’s throwing 99

As someone who had both Javier and Cole on his fantasy team, I can attest to Javier being a pleasure to watch and also Cole being an inconsistent dope.

i like cole -- and props for absolutely hating trevor bauer first -- but i liked him better when he wasn't a yankee

xp

As a result, Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow and field manager A. J. Hinch were suspended for the entire 2020 season for failing to prevent the rule violations. The Astros were fined the maximum allowable $5 million and forfeited their first- and second-round picks in the 2020 and 2021 drafts. No players were punished because they had been given immunity by MLB in exchange for their cooperation.[1] The Astros subsequently fired both Luhnow and Hinch on the day their suspensions were announced.[2] MLB's investigation also determined that Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora helped mastermind the Astros' sign stealing while serving as Hinch's bench coach in 2017. The Red Sox and Cora mutually parted ways the following day and MLB suspended him through the 2020 postseason, although the Red Sox rehired Cora after his suspension ended. Carlos Beltrán was the only Astros player from 2017 who was specifically named in the report; he had been hired to manage the New York Mets in November 2019 but parted ways with the team after the results of MLB's investigation were announced.

biggest consequence related to on-field performance is losing the first and second round picks for 2 straight years. that is a significant blow, i guess, but it's also one that by definition doesn't damage the MLB club for at least a few years into the future. and...i guess i get that? one could argue that, as a penalty, you also wouldn't want to impose a penalize that would significantly damage the astros team in the immediately following year, because then what do you have in august? a team that should have been good that sucks and low attendance, low revenue etc etc. i don't know.

as wikipedia mentions, beltran was the only player named, and conveniently he was 40 years old and retiring anyway. maybe one approach mlb could have went with was penalizing other players a bit more, or at all

Dusty Baker, Olympic toothpick gymnast

Are the Yankees losing in 2022 cos the Astros stole signs 4 years ago? That’s one for my thread.

the yankees are losing because their fans aren't rooting hard enough

To me, that seems reasonably harsh (the draft picks especially) at a team level. They could have been harsher with individual players, but at least a couple--Altuve and Correa--will possibly pay the penalty down the road of not getting into the HOF.

Padres off to a great start

Well fuck, this is going to be a good game

has to be some sort of record for both starters combining for two outs

Yeah, really. Don't remember seeing a playoff first inning like that before. What can you say, baseball

today's yankees lineup in this series. i mean barrison hader can only do so much

https://i.imgur.com/IkAp9pI.jpeg

This game is nuts

Great Philly crowd.

Philly doin a lot of cool things out there

seriously what the fuck is going on with these ads???

KYLE SCHWARBER CAN'T STOP HITTING HOMERS 💪

(via @MLB)pic.twitter.com/Sr4NiX6Ec4

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) October 23, 2022

It was all set up for the Padres, score four in the first and took the crowd out of it.

apparently this ties the largest comeback in postseason history which doesn't seem right to say given it was 4-3 after 1

maybe one approach mlb could have went with was penalizing other players a bit more, or at all

That’s really interesting. I didn’t know that.
The only guy going unpunished I’m annoyed about is Altuve, since it sounds like he really pushed the whole thing further than anyone else with the, if you believe it, electronic buzzer, allegedly, under his shirt.

just fwiw the astros cheating scandal had nothing to do with the yankees managing three hits in their home ballpark tonight

I’m sorry I brought it up

Are the Astros even going to lose a game in the post season?

they say in the postseason variance swamps everything but i’m not sure it can swamp this astros pitching staff

No players other than Beltran were named in the report, but it's impossible to imagine that Altuve (and every other Astros' hitter) wasn't a fully active participant. They are all equally guilty IMO.

Cora and Hinch are managing again, the Astros franchise does nothing but win (albeit not another WS, at least not yet), but Beltran lost his managing job and probably won't get another chance, he paid the biggest price for the scandal.

OTOH, I find it hard to get too worked up over sign stealing, for years the Jays were known as the sign stealing team (example: https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/astros-cristian-javier-stymies-yankees-again-holds-bombers-to-one-hit-in-alcs-game-3/), much like the Astros, it's the kind of thing that gets brushed off a lot of the time when a team starts winning.

The Astros paid a heavy penalty in draft picks, but it's not like it gutted the franchise. That said, a lot of teams have talent on paper and still underachieve and don't have to deal with the biggest MLB cheating scandal in decades, I think Dusty absolutely deserves credit for righting the ship.

Sorry, the link above should be this: https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/blue-jays-stealing-signs-one-royal-says-they-got-a-guy-in-center-field/.

And there were plenty of reports about the Jays' "man in white" and other supposed sign stealing schemes over the years.

has any team cleaned house of their manager and gm after reaching a league championship series?

asking for a friend

Theres a transaction embargo until after the WS so not officially

I think it’s been said before, but Yanks have felt very one-dimensional (home run or bust) the past month or so, and all the Judge theatrics kind of overshadowed how poorly the rest of the team has been hitting.

Definitely true of the Yankees, but didn't they say yesterday that almost all the Astros post-season runs have come via the home run too?

That seems true too, especially the clutch home runs. I wonder what percentage of at bats have been the three true outcomes this postseason.

Checked the Astros:

vs. Mariners - 10/13 runs via HR
vs. Yankees - 8/12 runs via HR

Last night was the first time most of their runs (3/5) came without a HR.

it’s been pretty conclusively demonstrated that homers are what tend to win games these days.

they say in the postseason variance swamps everything but i’m not sure it can swamp this astros pitching staff

yeah. something about the postseason - an error, a bobble, a bad read, and suddenly you get a little bit of the stink of death on you

both of those homers were crushed

Great Philly crowd.

― sometimes you have to drink to kill the paranoia (PBKR), Saturday, October 22, 2022 10:04 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Looks like I missed one hell of a game.

Would not have given up an out there

Would not have given up an out there

Yeap, cost them

Well maybe the Phillies can win one game in the World Series.

not sure who was on the bench, but someone should have hit (and not bunted) for grisham

Glad I have no horse in this race.

Agree, mookieproof

The Phillies have a puncher's chance against the Astros, their offense is doing everything right and they have three good to great starting pitchers. This run reminds me of tge Nationals in 2019.

Dave Dombrowski has taken four teams to the WS as a GM (could have been five with the Expos), is that a record?

jeez. seems like it must be but I'm not sure

there can't be that many people who've even GM'd four different teams

Out, so I regrettably missed Harper's HR. I think they definitely have a chance in the Series: they've got two ace starters and two very hot hitters, and that's a good start.

Thanks for toughing it out, Nestor.

it’s been pretty conclusively demonstrated that homers are what tend to win games these days.
― Tracer Hand, Sunday, October 23, 2022 11:07 AM

I think this is truer now than it was 10 hours ago.

breaking: bob costas has called the astros "the yankees' daddy"

ffs

I would have give the error on that botched double play to the SS.

my god, i have to wait until friday for more baseball?!

yeah this is fucked up

rude even

how dare they

Everyone I've spoken to where I am is rooting for the Phillies because of Rob Thomson. He was born in Sarnia, but he lives in Sebringville--I drive through there almost every day, about 15 minutes away.

Justin Verlander has made 7 career starts in the World Series...4 with Houston, 3 with Detroit.

(38 IP) 0-6, 5.68 ERA, 24 ER, 35 H, 1.289 WHIP. #RedOctober

— Luke Arcaini (@ArcainiLuke) October 24, 2022

man, justin verlander sucks!

is there a hot stove thread yet?

adam wainwright is back for another year. it's important

also i was joking about justin verlander sucking, i hope that was clear

directly. into. my veins.

Aaron Boone and Brian Cashman should be fired for this alone.

George Steinbrenner is rolling over in his grave. pic.twitter.com/FMKihZi5r6

— Jordan Moore (@iJordanMoore) October 25, 2022

https://joeposnanski.substack.com/p/yankee-haters-savor-the-moment

xp absolutely lost it at “avoiding theatre shootings using the example of Abraham Lincoln”

i do wonder sometimes about my capacity for sadism because every time kay’s voice cracks with pain and anger i’m like “YES”

I’m guessing you enjoyed that 2004 game

cmon

It’s one of the most incredible things I’ve ever seen. This is like Darth Vader showing stormtroopers video highlights of Luke Skywalker taking out the Death Star exhaust port as inspiration. This is like the old television Joker showing his henchmen video highlights of Batman and Robin beating the POW! OOF! AWK! ZOWIE! out of them as inspiration. This is like the Los Angeles police department showing officers video of The Terminator police station shootout as inspiration.

Amazing.