Frayed Knot

I suspect that error is on New Era rather than MLB but yaneverknow. It reminds me of the times I've hear ESPN yakkers refer to baseball managers as the "head coach". It's not their fault, they simply don't know any better. Neither, I suspect, does New Era.

Padres need at least four in top 9 or else the Sillies, the worst NL team to qualify for the post-season, will be 3/4th of the way to the WS and will have Zack Wheeler for the kill tomorrow (vs Darvish).

Caught up to real time now: 10 - 6 Philly, bottom 7 Pads jumped out to a 4 - 0 lead but have been outscored 10 - 2 since.

Phillies, down 4 - 0 and then 6 - 4, now lead 8 - 6 after 5 (at least in my world it is ... I'm still about 20 minutes behind) Rhys Hoskins with two 2R HRs which gave the Phils their first two runs then runs # 6 & 7 to go ahead for the first time. Syndergaard in for the top of the 6th

So now I'm watching SDP/PHI (Game 4) via delay (am about 45 minutes behind). Still in bottom 1st but both starters are already gone. Padres hung 4 on Falters and the Phils, and SD's Clevinger was lifted without recordng a single out. 4 - 3 SD but with the Phils still hacking in the opening frame.

And Donaldson K's to end the game but begin the boos (and probably the booze too).

G. Torres - K M. Carpenter - 1B (looked catchable) H. Bader - 1B J. Donaldson ----

Stanton - GO on a nice play by Altuve (Yanx, btw) are being one hit)

The bottom of the 8th featured some Miguel Castro action. He didn't have a great season and spent a chunk of the second half on the IL then wasn't active for the earlier round, but pitched a scoreless frame tonight. Yanx need at least five or they're looking at a 3 - Zip deficit.

Finally caught up to real time in this here Game #3. Houston winning game 2 was huge I thought as they otherwise would have gone to YSIII not just tied at 1 - 1 but also having to face Cole then Cortes on the road. But not only did they win #2 but also hung 5 on Cole and got him out in the 5th. Still 5 - 0 'stros and they've got 2 on and [CROSSOUT]none[/CROSSOUT] one out, top 9

Jeez, even Francesa (apparently he has a podcast these days) is telling the Yanx to STFU and maybe try getting a few hits instead. Both their runs in Game 2 were unearned and they've K'd 33 times in two games.

Bregman's at least made it over the wall, unlike, say, one of Jeter's.

=Fman99 post_id=111690 time=1666356760 user_id=86] ... I feel like the GGs are the awards most often botched over the years in terms of awards given out.

Was it only blowing in one half of the innings, and which half? Did the wind hurt their offense or defense or both and, if so, why didn't it affect Houston? The roof, btw, is a call made by MLB in post-season so I hope they're not going to try and paint this as another garbage can issue.

My final input on the topic: - the '73 Mets won their division. THAT gets them into the playoffs. If wins alone is going to be the standard then get rid of divisions. - I'm perfectly willing to discuss Byes and lengths of rounds and so on, although do keep in mind that baseball has weather issues that other sports don't so can't go on for 10-12 (or 30) weeks like the NBA. What I DON'T WANT is plumbing the depths of mediocrities to see how many of them we can cram into a tourney because even though they weren't actually good enough to win anything it might hurt their feelings if they were left out and orange slices and participation trophies just aren't enticing enough. The fact that the Nationals COULD win the WS this year with a run no one knew they had in them is a lousy reason to include them in the playoffs, and that goes for whoever the 10th thru 16th best teams were too.

Not over-thinking things at all. What I'm arguing against here is the whole concept that the purpose of playoffs is to be a second chance way station for everyone from those who were almost good enough to win down through the kinda good teams plus a group of assorted mediocrities. My idea of the best use of a post-season is to pit regional/league winners against each other and crown a winner for that particular season from the survivor of a knock-out tournament. I don't see the attraction in including those teams that were shown over the long haul of a complete season to be a cut beneath the top teams and even less in including those several cuts below them.

Yanx down by one, top 9th K - Rizzo K- G. Torres BB - Donaldson (Locastro = pinch runner) K - Carpenter (ph-ing) Aaaaaaaaand tha YANQUIS LOSE!!!

Pinhead Astros take a 3-run lead in botom 3 then follow that up with a sloppy frame to give 2 of those runs right back.

again, there is no system that even approaches an indicative test of who's the "Best team", so we should refocus to what we really want out of this tournament. I want 7-game (or more) series like the NHL, I followed hockey for a long time and my impression then, as it is now, is if the NHL does something one way, run, don't walk, to do it the complete opposite. As one-time referee and long-time announcer Bill Chadwick was known to say; 'Hockey's gotta be the greatest sport ever invented to survive with the idiots that run it'. ... and bonus, i think that's probably the one that leads to the 'best' teams making the World Series more often. No, it's Clearly the worst way to get the best teams thru to the WS because it gives them multiple chances to lose before even getter there. Even if we give the upper seeds much better than even odds to survive each round, say a generous 70% chance of moving on in Round 1, 60% in the 2nd, and around 50/50 in the 3rd when they'd likely meet a team roughly equal to their strength, those add up to around a 1-in-5 chance that a top seed survives to even get to the WS (.7 x .6 x .5 = .21) much less win it. And the Stanley Cup playoffs almost never see the best teams through to the end. #8 seeds regularly beat #1's in the first round and the results are more random than any other sport we watch here. The NBA, with roughly the same format (though they recently decided that 16/30 team wasn't enough) stays more true to form but that's because the gap between the top teams and the also-rans is much bigger than you see anywhere else (multiple teams/yr win in excess of 75-85% of their games) and because one or two superstars can dominate a game (think LAA if Ohtani pitches everyday and the Angels decide to give Trout 40% of his team's ABs)

1) I want the regular season to be as meaningful as possible 2) I want any post-season tourney to include those teams closest to the elite level from that just-played season Ceets' system promotes precisely the opposite of those goals and does so in spades. The idea that the regular season is irrelevant to the conversation of how to structure the playoffs boggles both logic and common sense.

well yes, all my points include 18 teams of expansion. Oh good, because I was afraid for a minute that we were going to drift i to the realm of the unrealistic. "There's no solution that awards the best regular season team the championship most often. " No solution that guarantees it but there's a simple solution to have the championship go to one of the top teams and that's to allow only the top tier teams to the playoffs in the first place. " The real solution is to place more value/prestige on winning divisions. You could do byes if you want. 4 first round series, the winner of each places the division winner from each of the 4 divisions." Byes work ONCE, ask the Braves. After that there's no advantage outside of increased # of home games and that's a thin edge at best. "Again, no playoff system is "good" but like, the main idea is competition right, team v team, duking it out. This maximizes that. the drama and narrative of that battle." I call that the season itself and, quirky guy that I am, I like it. "The smaller series, even the NLDSs seem like play-in games. But a first round 7 game series? even between two wild card teams? I don't think that would." Really? I'd call it the definition of a play-in series.

As a kid, the Astros were always my second least favorite team. I knew as a lad that the expansion Mets weren't supposed to be good but it always pissed me off that they were always behind the other team which wasn't supposed to be good either. This week they just happen to be playing my all time least favorite team.

Too many teams, too long, and it turns the back half of the regular season into a lengthy waltz with little on the line but slight advantages (or not) in 'seeding' ... and we saw how important that was recently. The Mets would have clinched a playoff spot around Father's Day this year just as the Golden State Warrior are on pace to clinch a week from Tuesday at which point 'Load Management' takes over.

Please spare me anything resembling NBA/NHL style playoff systems.

NYY's leading playoff HR hitter ... Judge? ... Stanton? ... Rizzo? Nope, it's Harrison Bader. Bader, who hit 5 in 246 ABs for StL then none in 46 ABs after the deadline trade and IL-delayed debut for the Yanx in the regular season, hit 4 in his first 16 ABs vs Cleveland and now Houston. It's Matt Carpenter all over again except that Bader can actually play the OF.