Sammys Boombox

It boggles my mind why people "can't stand" the way they are doing it. Why? As discussed before there are pros and cons to every system. In the minds of many people a major con with the one-game WC potentially gives a team that finished 5, 10, 15+ games behind one team in a 162-game season the chance to take that team's postseason spot just by beating them once. This is a sport where the worst team in the league probably has a better than 25% chance (yeah, that number is just a guess, but you get the idea) of beating the best team in the league on any given day, especially when the starting pitcher is a huge variable that changes game-to-game. I think we have established that that con is not a big deal to you, and that the pro of the excitement of a sudden death game and making the division races matter outweighs this con. Other people do not feel that way, and it's not that hard to understand why.

I would prefer this to what we have now. EDIT: I really, really like this. You still make the division races matter. There is an important race between WC#1 vs. WC#2 and between WC#3 and the first team left out, and the biggest con that I have with the 4 wild cards is that a really mediocre to bad team could grab a wild card spot. This reduces the chances of that happening.

You lost me here. This entirely defeats the purpose of having each league at 15 teams. You've unbalanced the divisions again. Yep. It's not perfect and would be better implemented with 32 teams (or 28). However, is having an uneven number of teams in a division really that big of a deal when the number of teams is so high (7 or 8)? Is it worth giving up the benefit of making meaningful races between seeds 1/2 vs. 3/4 vs. 5/6 vs. staying home? I'm just not a fan of small divisions but don't want to go so far as to have no divisions. Both the DH and the uneven divisions are cons, but the pros outweigh the cons IMHO. You know, like it's a con that the Reds had a shot at the Pirates last night in a single game despite finishing 4 games behind them in the standings of a 162-game season. A pro was that the game was extremely exciting because it was sudden death.

Then it's really about pitching staffs, man. The DH are not ideal, but if it hurts anybody it hurts the WC teams. I think from what most have posted if it hurts a WC team then we're cool with that. But as long as you win the WC spot outright you would have had a day off on Monday anyway, so you should be fine with your Monday starter for one game and Tuesday starter for a second game. The DH is such a small part of the idea. Don't get hung up on it. A lot of it is about what it would do to the regular season division races and giving a huge advantage to the division winners without also making WC#1 and WC#4 basically the same spot. I understand many like the single game and why they do. I'm not trying to change your opinion. I'm just offering something that I think would have a lot of benefit to it not the least of which is the issue of some divisions being much tougher than others. This would greatly reduce the likelihood of a division being much tougher than average for many consecutive season.

I don't see the correlation here.

Two divisions in each league. Four Wild Cards in each league. Keep Monday open for Game 163. In the event of a 3-way or 4-way tie play all of the games in one park DH style. i.e. Team 1 vs. Team 2 winner plays Team 3 all in Team 1 home stadium. Or, Team 1 vs. Team 2 winner plays winner of Team 3 vs. Team 4 all on the same day in the same stadium. 3-game Wild Card Series: DH on Tuesday. If necessary Game 3 on Wednesday. All games played in higher seeded team's stadium. Don't stagger the starts and put each series on its own network. I know the TV people will not like how these are not staggered, but this is never going to happen anyway, so I don't care. Obviously, division winners get byes. 5-game Division Series 2-2-1 Starts on Thursday/Friday just like this year. Realign so that the league winner is guaranteed to face the worst WC team by record. 7-game League Championship Series 2-3-2 7-game World Series 2-3-2 Best record hosts with tie breaker of head-to-head then common games then just a coin flip. This would create: 1. Meaningful race for the division vs. WC#1 and WC#2 2. Meaningful race for WC#1 and WC#2 vs. WC#3 and WC#4 (No home playoff games until LDS for WC#3 and WC#4) 3. Meaningful race for WC#3 and WC#4 vs. first team(s) left out 4. More teams would remain in contention longer. 5. A furious NCAA Basketball style elimination at the beginning of the playoffs. 4 teams would be eliminated in 1 or 2 days. Could have as many as 5 teams from each division (of 7 or 8). You can't really complain about the division you are in at that point.

Boring people like to be bored. Or baseball is a game based on a pitching STAFF, so some people would like more than one game. I understand why people like the one game. I understand why people like the three game series. I understand why people don't even want the second wild card. There is no correct way of doing it just differing opinions. Baseball is not a game based on a pitching staff. You're joking, right? I'm not discounting that some people think non-decisive games are boring. What percentage of them do? I don't know. Not every stance you take has to be debated so that you win the argument. When you try to win every debate instead of discussing them you say things like, "Baseball is not a game based on a pitching staff."

Boring people like to be bored. Or baseball is a game based on a pitching STAFF, so some people would like more than one game. I understand why people like the one game. I understand why people like the three game series. I understand why people don't even want the second wild card. There is no correct way of doing it just differing opinions.

I just put 2 and 2 together and realized the Pirates had not won a postseason game in 21 years. The Cubs are currently at 10 years...

The Division Series don't even start until Thursday and Friday, which means there is plenty of room to fit a 3-game series. There is no reason to let 1-game decide a "playoff" round in a sport that plays a 162 game regular season. 1. It was decided over those 162 games that you're stuck in the do or die situation. If you want a chance at a full series, win your division. 2. In the case of the AL this year, you'd have Tampa traveling from Toronto on Sunday to Arlington on Monday to Cleveland on Tuesday(then presumably) back to Tampa on Thursday, and then to Boston on Fridady. And needing to leave Monday open for tiebreakers/make-up games, you wouldn't be able to start any of the DS games on Thursday. I'm a fan of the 3-game series but would prefer that it was played in Wild Card #1's park for all three games.

Pirates>Indians>Tigers>A's>Rays>Braves>Red Sox>Dodgers>>>>>>>>>Reds>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>North Korean National Team>Cardinals

Swallowed by a black hole means I don't get to enjoy beating them when we're good again one day. Team wide Crabs will suffice. If it was possible for the Cardinals to just disappear (or go to the AL), I would be all for that.

I had the same thought. Should have shown the replay they came back with after the break first. I'm just glad I have DVR.

The replay work just done by TBS on that play was just awful. Huge play and they couldn't show a clear replay before going to break without putting the line score up right on top of the key part of the questionable play. EDIT: And awful camera work on that weird 0-2 zoom in during Escobar's AB.

My patience on the renovations and the product on the field is growing extremely thin.

100 times this. The atmosphere at those games would be off the charts. But, as usual, I'm cool with anything that doesn't involve St. Louis. I lived between Pittsburgh and Cleveland for 7 months for job training in 2011. Both teams were kind of thinking about maybe competing that July/August. I thought the fans were great (especially in Pittsburgh). I am definitely pulling for a Cleveland/Pittsburgh World Series.

I couldn't disagree more. With the new CBA, there are more incentives for teams to tank and they will continue to do so unless changes are made to the system. You can't just look at draft position. A team's record also impacts their amateur draft budget, international draft budget, and protected pick status for Type A free agents. Theo said that if you don't make the playoffs you're better off finishing in the bottom 10 and that if it came a point in the season where they knew they would not compete that we would see another sell off and an awful finish. We did. This is the right way to do it. I would rather end up with pick #4, CJ Edwards, Mike Olt, Neil Ramirez ++ than the #15 pick and Garza for the rest of the year on a faint hope of competing. That is the point. The right way to do it under the current CBA is to tank when it is obvious you will not be close to competing and have players that are worth more than a sandwich pick that you do not plan on having around the next time you compete. They should take away the incentive to tank games after some cutoff point (such as the trade deadline). It could severely affect the competitiveness in late season games when certain teams are trying to make the postseason. It also makes for dreadfully awful baseball for many teams for extended months. That cannot be good for the game overall.

I couldn't disagree more. With the new CBA, there are more incentives for teams to tank and they will continue to do so unless changes are made to the system. You can't just look at draft position. A team's record also impacts their amateur draft budget, international draft budget, and protected pick status for Type A free agents. Theo said that if you don't make the playoffs you're better off finishing in the bottom 10 and that if it came a point in the season where they knew they would not compete that we would see another sell off and an awful finish. We did.

What do you guys think of locking in the draft spots based on records at the ASB or trade deadline? Do you think it would reduce the number of teams that are obviously tanking season? I fear MLB is going to turn into 22 teams fighting for 10 spots (i.e. 8 teams go into the season knowing they are tanking), then after the trade deadline 12-15 teams are fighting for the 10 spots and the other half of the league is trying to find their way into the bottom 10. This creates some serious competition issues for the teams that are actually trying to reach the postseason. Say, two or three of the tanking teams are in the same division. That's a huge Wild Card advantage to the team(s) that finish second/third in that division. Say Teams A, B and C are all within the same division. Teams A and B are contending all season, but Team C decides in July that their .500 record is not going to be good enough and they want to dump some major pieces on their MLB team for prospects and give a bunch of AAA/AA players some MLB experience. Team A played Team C 15 times before the break and only have a 4-game series remaining with Team C. However, Team B has only played Team C 6 times and still has 13 to play against them. Team A is going to be pretty upset. After a few years of this CBA I would like to compare the distribution of wins versus historical distributions.

Royals are putting together the best bullpen ERA season since 1990 or something. The fans are calling for Ned Yost's head because of his management of the bullpen but not for his "NL style managing," aka, bunting every chance he gets.

Last year it was right after Thanksgiving. One question idea would be something along the lines of "In light of the way Castro responded to trying to make him a more patient hitter and the fact that you said the current minor league stud prospects are not the high OBP guys you would ideally build a team around, do you envision the trade market being a major avenue of acquiring impact MLB talent in the near future?"

I'm assuming the Cubs will have the Q&A again this year with Theo, Jed and Len. We need to come up with some good questions as a group and dominate that Q&A. I was the second person in last year. You have to be in there before it starts and as soon as Len tells you how to put yourself in line to ask a question you have to hit the button. From a non-baseball perspective I want each of them to answer if they ever lurk on message boards not affiliated with the Cubs. From a baseball perspective I'm sure we can come up with some good ones and it would be really good if we can come up with a few that would make them expand on a previous question that one of us will ask. That's usually the best way to get some real info that they were not planning on sharing.

So, if I drop my season tickets this offseason can I buy them in 2017 without re-entering a waitlist?

ned yost has always been abysmal at managing the bullpen. i remember just before he was canned, he made one of the stupidest moves i've ever seen a manager make. baseball prospectus did a nice job ridiculing it: The thing is he actually does a pretty good job (with the bullpen) most of the time, but every now and then he does something that is just so obviously horrible that you really cannot figure out how this guy has had multiple managing jobs. His explanations make it even worse: Also, the amount of sacrifice bunts he calls for is just disgusting. He literally sets up his lineup to have his "bunters" between his "OBP guys" and his "RBI guys".

So glad I'm a casual Royals fan. If the Cubs were in the position the Royals are in and they blew a 3-0 lead, and then let the go-ahead run score because 1. the 1B couldn't field what should have been a double play and 2. the LF lazily went back on a fly ball that sailed on him, I would have broken this hotel room TV. Also, later in the inning the 2B inexplicably dropped the ball as he was about to make a routine throw to first. I know all fan bases complain about the way their managers manage the bullpen (and the Royals have the lowest ERA by a bullpen since 1990), but Ned Yost really does some idiotic stuff. His decision to pitch Guthrie in the 8th on Sunday was just horrific. This is a long read, but it is right on. http://www.ranyontheroyals.com/2013/09/yosted-again.html