MFY 2K18

[Benjamin Grimm]

Yes, it makes it better, because it makes it more unlikely.

And I haven't seen any evidence that the 2018 Mets can "easily" win a best of three against anyone at all.

[HahnSolo]

I do feel that once the wild card game has been settled that the #1 seed should play the remaining team with the worst record, whether that is a division winner or wild card. In this instance* the Sox would be in line to face the Indians in the best of 5 rather than the MFYs.

*if playoffs started today

[Vic Sage]

first, it was all about winning the pennant. There was no WS and no sympathy for 2nd place.

Then, it was win the pennant to get into the WS. There was no discussion of fairness, if one pennant winner wasn't as good as the 2nd place team in the other league.

Then, because of expansion, the leagues were divided into divisions. So it was win the division to win the pennant to win the WS. But this is when the whining really started.

Since teams weren't playing against other teams the same number of games, there were teams in some divisions who were playing more of their games against stronger teams than other division winners. "wah!" they cried. So the Mets won 90 games in `84 and 98 games in `85, and didn't make the playoffs because St.L won the division. I don't remember crying that we should have been in the playoffs anyway. I remember crying, but not about that.

But the crying was getting so loud, they designated a "wild card" team, and, for the first time, you didn't have to win anything to make the playoffs. Now we were on the road to being like every other watered down league, where the regular season becomes less and less important, because everybody gets into the post-season.

But when WC teams started winning pennants and the WS, they finally realized that there should be at least SOME penalty for not winning anything. So, they added a 2nd WC team but made them play the 1-game playoff, thus requiring the WCs to burn their best starters and be subject to some degree of random chance, making the division title even more important. And this year, it might actually work! If the Yanks don't overtake the Sox, it's their own fault.

And now the cries continue. "wah, it's not fair! It should be a best-of-3 series!" Well how about 3/5, or 4/7? Whats the perfect number that maintains the importance and integrity of the regular season, but allows JUST the extra good teams into the playoffs, despite not winning a title?

No WC team is ENTITLED to be in the post-season... the WC is a gift! a compromise that we weren't entitled to in 84 and 85. Why do we have to make it even easier for them to advance? Because its not fair? It's not fair that they're even getting one fucking game and you want to give them more? Fuck the Yankees. In fact, i think we should go back to 1 division per league and you either win the fucking pennant or you go the fuck home.

But that's just me.

[Ceetar]

The playoffs are not the regular season and not meant to be an accurate representation of the 'best team' despite the marketing. It's just a tournament that you need to win to get ultimate glory, but the glory of being a dominate team all season and taking your shot in that tournament is itself a victory and glory all it's own.

2006 was a great Mets year. so was 2015, and even 2016.

They didn't start letting more teams in for consolation, they let them in 'cause the playoffs were awesome. because they were growing the game. Playoff baseball is fun, and ranking teams by regular season win totals is silly anyway. What if you acquire studs midseason? what if you bring up prospects and they flourish? If one team starts 0-20, but goes 88-54 the rest of the way, whereas another team goes 20-0, but 75-67, why would we rather see the 95 win team over the 88?

Some day down the road we're gonna get a meh 78 win team that just got hot near the end, squeaks into the second wildcard spot in the eastern conference, wins the 1 game playoff, wins the 7 game series against the 101 team #1 seed, beats someone else great in the NLCS, and goes to the World Series and wins it all. And it'll be fun. They'll be playing great, doing all the things great teams do. It might not be a true representation of their 162 game talent, but who cares? that's arbitrary.

[Edgy MD]

The beast is turning on itself, with the Yankees airing family business in public.

[tweet:3ccr5f4q]

[/tweet:3ccr5f4q]

[smg58]

Ceetar wrote: Some day down the road we're gonna get a meh 78 win team that just got hot near the end, squeaks into the second wildcard spot in the eastern conference, wins the 1 game playoff, wins the 7 game series against the 101 team #1 seed, beats someone else great in the NLCS, and goes to the World Series and wins it all. And it'll be fun. They'll be playing great, doing all the things great teams do. It might not be a true representation of their 162 game talent, but who cares? that's arbitrary.

The 1973 Mets mostly did just that.

[Ceetar]

smg58 wrote: Ceetar wrote: Some day down the road we're gonna get a meh 78 win team that just got hot near the end, squeaks into the second wildcard spot in the eastern conference, wins the 1 game playoff, wins the 7 game series against the 101 team #1 seed, beats someone else great in the NLCS, and goes to the World Series and wins it all. And it'll be fun. They'll be playing great, doing all the things great teams do. It might not be a true representation of their 162 game talent, but who cares? that's arbitrary. The 1973 Mets mostly did just that.

Yup. I assume they were a hell of lot of fun to watch down the stretch. 20-8 in Sept-Oct, a competitive series against the Reds all the way to game 7 of the Series. Star power too.

[smg58]

On the mildly annoying front, after not finishing seven innings once for the Twins, Lance Lynn goes 7.1 shutout innings in his first Yankee start.

Yankees pitching coach: "You see Lance, they key is to throw more strikes."

Lance Lynn: "Wow, strikes? Why didn't I think of that before?"

[Ceetar]

more topically,

Ellsbury to have hip surgery to repair the torn labrum. (6 months puts him to the start of Spring Training basically.) Will be his age 35 season and he is still owed $47 million. (2 years plus a $5 option buyout)

He's been average at best with most of his value coming on defense. Best case is ~18 months since his last major league game if he's ready to go in 2019.

[Frayed Knot]

Ellsbury, btw, has not played the entire season but is just NOW having the surgery which will keep him out for the rest of the year and maybe into next.
Not that it matters really as the Yanx are at least as good without him and maybe better. They've gotten much more out of Hicks so I suspect they neither care a whit nor give a shit.

The next two years, however, are a problem. I would have guessed that this was his final year but, Noooooo, only the 5th of 7 (plus the option) as it turns out.
Turns out that $153 million just doesn't but what it used to. That's something I've noticed on my own when shopping at Target.
I used to be able to get a lot of stuff for that kind of scratch but, these days, not so much.

[Edgy MD]

I have trouble fully accepting the idea that grownups with billion-dollar assets behave this way, but I sometimes tend to think the Yankees tack a premium on their offers when they're trying to sign a marquee free agent away from Boston.

[Ceetar]

Edgy MD wrote: I have trouble fully accepting the idea that grownups with billion-dollar assets behave this way, but I sometimes tend to think the Yankees tack a premium on their offers when they're trying to sign a marquee free agent away from Boston.

I mean, that does make a little sense, if you think it's likely he'll return there. If gaining value from a player decreases it from your chief rival, than maybe it widens the gap more than normal......

...until you're stuck overpaying for guys and the opponent is free to sign someone else at market rates.

[Frayed Knot]

Signing a guy for the sole purpose of keeping him away from a rival is a really bad idea.
Spending $150 million or so for that reason simply makes it worse.

[smg58]

But I bet they have an insurance policy on Ellsbury, too.

[Edgy MD]

Insurance policies have supposedly become pretty rare in recent years.

[Frayed Knot]

Sure [responding to smg58] but of course that's an expense above and beyond the 150-whatever million $ salary cost and those policies vary on what they cover and how much they reimburse.

And still the larger point: that signing a 30 y/o speed guy to a 7/8 year top-dollar contract is rarely a good idea even if you're NOT just doing it to screw your rival, and especially so when it involves
a player with as many missed/partial seasons on his resume during his twenties [18 games played in 2010; 73 in 2012] as good seasons [oWAR = 7.5 & 4.2 in 2011 & 2013].

[Guest Mets Willets Point]

See, I see things differently from a lot of you.

You see winning DIVISIONS as important. But a division is an arbitrary collection of teams, and often four of them are shitty and the one remaining emerges as "the best."

I see winning GAMES as important. The 162 game schedule is the longest season in all of team sports and winning lots of GAME is a remarkable achievement. The reason why so many "Wild Card" teams have been successful in the postseason is because they are often much better than than the shitty teams that win shitty divisions. I think a team that wins more games against all 14 league foes and some number of interleague matchups should be recognized as a great accomplishment that just being the best team of five. And the best team of all in each league should get a bye to the LCS and watch the rest of the pretenders beat the fuck out of one another for a week.

[Frayed Knot]

You see winning DIVISIONS as important. But a division is an arbitrary collection of teams, and often four of them are shitty and the one remaining emerges as "the best."

Which is why larger divisions are better than smaller and why I cringe every time someone wants to "fix" MLB by expanding to 32 teams and then dividing them into eight four-team divisions.


But if you're going to advocate for a system that ignores division winners then I think you just need to get rid of the divisions. Right now they serve to promote regional rivalries and make some form of
sanity out of scheduling and travel. Scrapping that leaves you with a single 15-team league which plays all year to determine the best team only, assuming we're going with the five teams off the top
model, to follow it with a series of short series which purports to then determine who's really the best, larger sample size be damned.
At least the current system determines different winners of different sub-prizes even if, in some years, some are more equal than others.


The problem is that American sports is kind of caught in the middle: EPL during the season followed by a kind of FA Cup at the end.
You could advocate going back to a WS-only format as existed for nearly seven decades but no one is going to try and stuff that genie back into the bottle even if there weren't twice as many team as
there used to be.

Edited August 8, 2018 by Guest

[Centerfield]

Agreed. No one is going to give up the revenue generated by more post-season games, even if it means that the WS Champ is more a function of luck rather than merit.

[Edgy MD]

If they'd put away what they think they know, go to a quiet place, and open the eyes of their minds, they'd see that the revenue can be more than made up for with cup play and with the sudden increased relevance of every game of the season, even for bottom feeders.

[Frayed Knot]

After a win this afternoon (Sat), the Yanx are now 5-1 through the early stages of their dregs of the AL (and sometimes NL) tour ...

CHW x 3 (3-0) TEX x 4 (2-1) NYM x1 TBR x 3 TOR x 3 MIA x 2 BAL x 4 CHW again x 3 DET x 3

... a stretch which will likely go a long way towards ensuring them one of the WC slots.
But they've still got to be at least a wee bit worried about Aroldis Chapman.

Starting back with his near-blown game vs us back on 7/21 [3 walks, pulled from the game] he now has issued 10 BBs (plus 2 HBP) over his 7 appearances/6 innings starting that night while needing
an average of over 26 pitches to get through a typical inning (average ~15). His famed velocity also seems to be down.

Today he again got away with loading the bases although this time he was able to protect the two-run lead on his own [Walk, K, Single, Pop-out, HBP, K]
Also didn't help matters that, after trade deadline pick-up Zach Britton got the first two outs in the 7th, he proceeded to allow the Rangers to tie the game by going: Single, Single, Walk, Walk, Balk (the Balk was Bettances) and had to be pulled without ever finishing the inning.

[bmfc1]

MFND?
https://thebiglead.com/2018/08/16/notre-dame-yankee-uniforms/

[MFS62]

They had an old timer's day of sorts to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their "great 1988 team". (I'll pause while you barf)
Two folks on that team were absent.
Derek F'n Jeter sent a message that he couldn't attend because he wanted to be there at his daughter's first birthday party. (I gotta' give him that one.)
Joe Girardi (a reserve catcher on that team) was sent several invitations, and turned them all down.

Tee hee

Later

[Frayed Knot]

CHW x 3 (3-0) TEX x 4 (2-1) NYM x1 (0-1) yeah baby TBR x 3 (1-2) TOR x 3 (3-0) MIA x 2 (1-0) BAL x 4 CHW again x 3 DET x 3

Yanx now 11-4 on their trip through their sisters of the poor tour following their 12th inning win last night in Miami
On the other hand, Dee Dee Gregorius was just DL'd with a heel problem (awkward landing on 1st base -- Gleyber Torres playing SS for now) and Aroldis Chapman left last night's game with "recurring
knee problems" after facing just one batter and walking him on five pitches.

But they have a 3.5 game lead on HOU/OAK for the 1st WC who are in turn 4.0 games up on fading Seattle, so there's virtually no chance of them NOT making it to the one-game WC matchup.

[Centerfield]

When I saw this reply I was hoping to hear that the Marlins had won this game. Annoying.

I still their 22 game losing streak in September will drop them out of the playoffs completely.

[MFS62]

Centerfield wrote: When I saw this reply I was hoping to hear that the Marlins had won this game. Annoying. I still their 22 game losing streak in September will drop them out of the playoffs completely.

Miami had the bases loaded and nobody out in extras and the MFYs played the shift. Not one of the next three batters either tried to hit the other way or even bunt. And the announcers said one of those batters, while hitting around .160, had "great speed". Naturally, he swung from the heels.
The second out of the inning was a nice play be Torres. He backhanded a grounder and made a quick sidearm throw to the plate to nail the runner.
They did not score.
Yech!

Later

[seawolf17]

MFS62 wrote: Centerfield wrote: When I saw this reply I was hoping to hear that the Marlins had won this game. Annoying. I still their 22 game losing streak in September will drop them out of the playoffs completely. Miami had the bases loaded and nobody out in extras and the MFYs played the shift. Not one of the next three batters either tried to hit the other way or even bunt. And the announcers said one of those batters, while hitting around .160, had "great speed". Naturally, he swung from the heels. The second out of the inning was a nice play be Torres. He backhanded a grounder and made a quick sidearm throw to the plate to nail the runner. They did not score. Yech! Later

It's almost as though the Marlins' owner called the dugout with a "suggestion" that they not score there.

[HahnSolo]

MFS62 wrote: Centerfield wrote: When I saw this reply I was hoping to hear that the Marlins had won this game. Annoying. I still their 22 game losing streak in September will drop them out of the playoffs completely. Miami had the bases loaded and nobody out in extras and the MFYs played the shift. Not one of the next three batters either tried to hit the other way or even bunt. And the announcers said one of those batters, while hitting around .160, had "great speed". Naturally, he swung from the heels. The second out of the inning was a nice play be Torres. He backhanded a grounder and made a quick sidearm throw to the plate to nail the runner. They did not score. Yech! Later

Bases loaded, no out, in a tie game in extra innings and they shifted!?!?! Not played infield in, or at least halfway?

[Frayed Knot]

Yanqui fans are still mad at Torre for playing the infield in on Luis Gonzalez in a bases loaded/one out situation 17 years ago.

[Edgy MD]

Like Jeter would've gotten to that anyhow.