The likely playoff matchups

[TruffleShuffle]

With the Brewers getting hot and the Yankees falling out of the race in the AL East/AL wild card, the playoff picture is starting to shape up:

 

AL first round:

Wild Card (Red Sox/Devil Rays) @ Angels

AL Central winner (White Sox/Twins) @ AL East winner (Devil Rays/Red Sox)

 

NL first round:

NL West winner (D-bags/Dodgers) @ NL Central winner (Cubs/Brewers)

Wild Card (Brewers/Cubs) @ NL East winner (Phillies/Mets/Marlins)

 

The worst team in the NL will likely be the NL West winner, and the best team will be the NL Central winner, so that works out pretty fair.

 

Since the #2/#3 teams in the AL are likely to be from the same division, they can't face each other, meaning that the AL East winner will actually get the weakest AL team (White Sox/Twins) in the first round. The Angels could easily end up with the best record in baseball and be facing the defending world series champs in the first round, which would pretty much suck for them.

[Little Slide Rooter]

Makes that Wild Card spot look pretty appealing.

[UMFan83]

You owe a couple of dollars to the Tampa Bay Rays fund.

[jersey cubs fan]

Wasn't there talk of doing away with the "can't play WC from same divsision" thing?

[UMFan83]

Wasn't there talk of doing away with the "can't play WC from same divsision" thing?

 

I think its kinda good because I think it would seem stupid to play a team 17 times in the regular season and then play them again right away in the NLDS, but then again, it seems like the Wild Card winner is in the same division as the team with the best record almost every year, and I think that's bad.

[kjfoster 1553]

Wasn't there talk of doing away with the "can't play WC from same divsision" thing?

 

I think its kinda good because I think it would seem stupid to play a team 17 times in the regular season and then play them again right away in the NLDS, but then again, it seems like the Wild Card winner is in the same division as the team with the best record almost every year, and I think that's bad.

 

IMO they should just seed them 1-4 and have 1 v. 4 and 2 v. 3 no matter what division they are from.

[UMFan83]

Wasn't there talk of doing away with the "can't play WC from same divsision" thing?

 

I think its kinda good because I think it would seem stupid to play a team 17 times in the regular season and then play them again right away in the NLDS, but then again, it seems like the Wild Card winner is in the same division as the team with the best record almost every year, and I think that's bad.

 

IMO they should just seed them 1-4 and have 1 v. 4 and 2 v. 3 no matter what division they are from.

 

I just think there should be some value to winning the division no matter how bad the record is for the division winner.

[anabiono]

Wasn't there talk of doing away with the "can't play WC from same divsision" thing?

 

I think its kinda good because I think it would seem stupid to play a team 17 times in the regular season and then play them again right away in the NLDS, but then again, it seems like the Wild Card winner is in the same division as the team with the best record almost every year, and I think that's bad.

 

IMO they should just seed them 1-4 and have 1 v. 4 and 2 v. 3 no matter what division they are from.

 

i definitely agree with this completely

[Ding Dong Johnson]

Wasn't there talk of doing away with the "can't play WC from same divsision" thing?

 

I think its kinda good because I think it would seem stupid to play a team 17 times in the regular season and then play them again right away in the NLDS, but then again, it seems like the Wild Card winner is in the same division as the team with the best record almost every year, and I think that's bad.

 

IMO they should just seed them 1-4 and have 1 v. 4 and 2 v. 3 no matter what division they are from.

 

I just think there should be some value to winning the division no matter how bad the record is for the division winner.

the value is in that they get to play another series (or more) while the rest of their division doesn't. the Diamondbacks/Dodgers barely hovering over 500 do not deserve HFA over a team like the Brewers just because they won their weak division.

[UMFan83]

Wasn't there talk of doing away with the "can't play WC from same divsision" thing?

 

I think its kinda good because I think it would seem stupid to play a team 17 times in the regular season and then play them again right away in the NLDS, but then again, it seems like the Wild Card winner is in the same division as the team with the best record almost every year, and I think that's bad.

 

IMO they should just seed them 1-4 and have 1 v. 4 and 2 v. 3 no matter what division they are from.

 

I just think there should be some value to winning the division no matter how bad the record is for the division winner.

the value is in that they get to play another series (or more) while the rest of their division doesn't. the Diamondbacks/Dodgers barely hovering over 500 do not deserve HFA over a team like the Brewers just because they won their weak division.

 

What if they are barely over .500 because all of the teams in the division are awesome and beat up on each other all the time? Meanwhile a team like the Angels gets to play with the Rangers, A's and Mariners. Not saying that's true, but just a hypothetical situation. With an unbalanced schedule, there has to be a value to winning the division, otherwise it makes no sense.

[Vanilla Ice]

I said about three weeks ago that I thought it would be Rays/Twins and Angels/Sox. I'll stick to that. I'll say Cubs/Dodgers and Mets/Brewers. I'll go ahead and try to predict the winners, just in case I get them right.

 

Cubs/Brewers

Rays/Angels

 

Cubs/Angels

Angels

[bukie]

What if they are barely over .500 because all of the teams in the division are awesome and beat up on each other all the time? Meanwhile a team like the Angels gets to play with the Rangers, A's and Mariners. Not saying that's true, but just a hypothetical situation. With an unbalanced schedule, there has to be a value to winning the division, otherwise it makes no sense.

 

The value to winning the division is that you actually get into the playoffs.

[Guest]

Wasn't there talk of doing away with the "can't play WC from same divsision" thing?

 

I think its kinda good because I think it would seem stupid to play a team 17 times in the regular season and then play them again right away in the NLDS, but then again, it seems like the Wild Card winner is in the same division as the team with the best record almost every year, and I think that's bad.

 

IMO they should just seed them 1-4 and have 1 v. 4 and 2 v. 3 no matter what division they are from.

 

I just think there should be some value to winning the division no matter how bad the record is for the division winner.

the value is in that they get to play another series (or more) while the rest of their division doesn't. the Diamondbacks/Dodgers barely hovering over 500 do not deserve HFA over a team like the Brewers just because they won their weak division.

 

What if they are barely over .500 because all of the teams in the division are awesome and beat up on each other all the time? Meanwhile a team like the Angels gets to play with the Rangers, A's and Mariners. Not saying that's true, but just a hypothetical situation. With an unbalanced schedule, there has to be a value to winning the division, otherwise it makes no sense.

 

If they're that awesome then they would beat up on the other teams in the other two divisions and probably wouldn't finish barely over .500.

[Schwarber Fan]

West Coast late starts are gonna suck

 

At least we'll have HFA this time ;)

[Banedon]

Anyone else rooting for the dodgers to win the west? I don't wanna see Arizona again.

[Schwarber Fan]

Anyone else rooting for the dodgers to win the west? I don't wanna see Arizona again.

 

Tough call for me, the Dodgers are better I'm pretty sure and their offense is more dangerous when healthy.

 

However, when Arizona's pitching is on, they can beat anyone in a short series and I hate facing them.

 

IMO, it will be different with HFA this time.

[UMFan83]

Anyone else rooting for the dodgers to win the west? I don't wanna see Arizona again.

 

Tough call for me, the Dodgers are better I'm pretty sure and their offense is more dangerous when healthy.

 

However, when Arizona's pitching is on, they can beat anyone in a short series and I hate facing them.

 

IMO, it will be different with HFA this time.

 

I just think we've had better success with the Dodgers pitchers than we have Arizona's. I am not worried about the Cubs pitchers neutralizing the Dodger hitters as much as I am facing Webb 2 times in a 5 game series. I am certainly not saying the Dodgers pitchers are bad, we all saw Kudora dominate us, and Billingsley has great stuff and other than a Lee HR really pitched well against us at Wrigley. But Webb/Haren vs. Billingsley/Kudora, I'll take the later.

[Banedon]

Anyone else rooting for the dodgers to win the west? I don't wanna see Arizona again.

 

Tough call for me, the Dodgers are better I'm pretty sure and their offense is more dangerous when healthy.

 

However, when Arizona's pitching is on, they can beat anyone in a short series and I hate facing them.

 

IMO, it will be different with HFA this time.

 

I just think we've had better success with the Dodgers pitchers than we have Arizona's. I am not worried about the Cubs pitchers neutralizing the Dodger hitters as much as I am facing Webb 2 times in a 5 game series. I am certainly not saying the Dodgers pitchers are bad, we all saw Kudora dominate us, and Billingsley has great stuff and other than a Lee HR really pitched well against us at Wrigley. But Webb/Haren vs. Billingsley/Kudora, I'll take the later.

 

Yeah...I don't fear a team scoring a bunch on our pitching as much as I fear a good pitcher shutting us down.

[Guest]

Anyone else rooting for the dodgers to win the west? I don't wanna see Arizona again.

 

Yessssss.

 

(Of course I live 15 miles from Dodger Stadium.)

[TruffleShuffle]

the playoffs in general scare me, because it's easy to lose 3 out of 5 games in any given stretch against an average to above average team. it's scary that the cubs can be easily the best team in the regular season and then bust out against the wholly average NL west.

 

but yeah, i'd think that anyone who would rather face webb, haren, r. johnson and webb again in a 5-game series is insane.

[David]

the playoffs in general scare me, because it's easy to lose 3 out of 5 games in any given stretch against an average to above average team. it's scary that the cubs can be easily the best team in the regular season and then bust out against the wholly average NL west.

 

but yeah, i'd think that anyone who would rather face webb, haren, r. johnson and webb again in a 5-game series is insane.

 

 

That's how I feel about the playoffs, too. But, then again, the other team's fans should be twice as worried about running into our high-powered offense, dominant starting pitching, and shut-down setup man/closer.

[BigSlick]

the playoffs in general scare me, because it's easy to lose 3 out of 5 games in any given stretch against an average to above average team. it's scary that the cubs can be easily the best team in the regular season and then bust out against the wholly average NL west.

 

but yeah, i'd think that anyone who would rather face webb, haren, r. johnson and webb again in a 5-game series is insane.

 

 

That's how I feel about the playoffs, too. But, then again, the other team's fans should be twice as worried about running into our high-powered offense, dominant starting pitching, and shut-down setup man/closer.

Thinking about it from the D-backs perspective, they really should be afraid of us. Their offense is still in flux, even with the acquisition of Dunn, and they don't have that many dependable hitters. The pitching, well, we all know the story on that, but we've been able to get to them a little this year...usually at home. #-o

 

Of course none of our pitchers can figure out that you should never throw a strike to Chris Young. I feel like I'm watching other teams playing against Soriano, STOP THROWING THE GUY STRIKES

[erik316wttn]

the playoffs in general scare me, because it's easy to lose 3 out of 5 games in any given stretch against an average to above average team. it's scary that the cubs can be easily the best team in the regular season and then bust out against the wholly average NL west.

 

but yeah, i'd think that anyone who would rather face webb, haren, r. johnson and webb again in a 5-game series is insane.

 

 

That's how I feel about the playoffs, too. But, then again, the other team's fans should be twice as worried about running into our high-powered offense, dominant starting pitching, and shut-down setup man/closer.

Thinking about it from the D-backs perspective, they really should be afraid of us. Their offense is still in flux, even with the acquisition of Dunn, and they don't have that many dependable hitters. The pitching, well, we all know the story on that, but we've been able to get to them a little this year...usually at home. #-o

 

Of course none of our pitchers can figure out that you should never throw a strike to Chris Young. I feel like I'm watching other teams playing against Soriano, STOP THROWING THE GUY STRIKES

 

It's ok to throw him strikes, just so long as that strike isn't a fastball.

 

If we play Arizona in the NLDS and I'm Lou, I institute a $2,500 fine for every fastball in the strike zone thrown to Chris Young.

[TruffleShuffle]

i don't think d-bag or dodger fans are really afraid of anyone. that division sucks and whoever wins it is lucky to even be in the playoffs, so a first round loss against a cub team that's 15 games better would be no surprise. they're kinda playing with house money once they're in.

[David]

i don't think d-bag or dodger fans are really afraid of anyone. that division sucks and whoever wins it is lucky to even be in the playoffs, so a first round loss against a cub team that's 15 games better would be no surprise. they're kinda playing with house money once they're in.

 

I don't know about that. Going into the 03 NLDS, I was nervous as all hell and worried about the Braves, who looked like a powerhouse that year. I didn't feel like we were playing with house money. I thought we had a legitimate shot with our dominant pitching staff that eeked out a playoff spot in a crappy division (sound familiar?) ... In 98 I wasn't treating it that way, either. Granted, I was 15, but I was crushed when they lost, even though that team was crap compared to the Braves. Given the nature of the playoffs, I never felt that nothing to lose mentality and I don't see why other fans would either. I suppose it might be different for a Cubs fan, though, given how (at the time of those appearances) rarely we did make it to the postseason and the drought crap along with it.

 

Once you're in, you want to win. It's sort of a pointless thing to argue about, though.