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Thread: Joe Posnanski on why the Wild Card round stinks

  1. #16
    breath westofyou's Avatar
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    Re: Joe Posnanski on why the Wild Card round stinks

    I go 4 divisions of 7 (with 2 getting 8) and the top 4 teams battle it out in 7 game series.

    The 2nd place teams all play in the NIT of baseball with 5 game series.


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  3. #17
    Strategery RFS62's Avatar
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    Re: Joe Posnanski on why the Wild Card round stinks

    Quote Originally Posted by westofyou View Post
    I love the regular season, adore it, treasure it... playoffs seem like a a bad concert most of the time.
    Quote Originally Posted by Roy Tucker View Post
    Exactly.

    I love a pennant race. I love the everyday aspect of it. I love it that it is so final. I love that it's like a death march for the teams in it. The desperation "win or go home" brings true meaning. Guys play their guts out.

    It is a true test of who is the best *team*, slots 1 through 25 of the roster, slots 1 through 5 of the starters, your bullpen, and your bench and minor league depth.

    Playoff baseball has become who has the best and most #1 starters.


    Yep. My sentiments exactly

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  4. #18
    Potential Lunch Winner Dom Heffner's Avatar
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    Re: Joe Posnanski on why the Wild Card round stinks

    Couldn't disagree more with the article. Just dropping the Rays in the series this year would have been stupid and bad for baseball.

    I don't mind opening it up for more teams with the current wild card system, they just need to stop it with the off days. Seriously, it ruins it for me.

  5. #19
    Churlish Johnny Footstool's Avatar
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    Re: Joe Posnanski on why the Wild Card round stinks

    I'm with Dom.

    I'm a huge Posnanski fan, but he's off base here:

    Because playoffs, by their very nature, cut into the drama of pennant races. Nobody gave a damn who won the American League East this year since both teams were making the playoffs.
    ...and no one gave a damn about the AL West, either, because the Rangers ran away with it. (Well, and also because it's the AL West....)

    Pennant races are only dramatic if there are two teams battling head-to-head, and they are only really dramatic for fans of those two teams. Fans of the game itself appreciate a good pennant race, but unless they have a dog in the fight, the passion is missing.

    Also, for Joe to assert that baseball isn't a game that thrives on intensity is just plain dumb, especially considering how he pines for a "dramatic" pennant race.

    But hey, you know what more than makes up for the alleged, prolonged "drama" of a pennant race? PLAYOFF GAMES.
    "I prefer books and movies where the conflict isn't of the extreme cannibal apocalypse variety I guess." Redsfaithful

  6. #20
    Member mth123's Avatar
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    Re: Joe Posnanski on why the Wild Card round stinks

    Quote Originally Posted by Roy Tucker View Post
    Exactly.

    I love a pennant race. I love the everyday aspect of it. I love it that it is so final. I love that it's like a death march for the teams in it. The desperation "win or go home" brings true meaning. Guys play their guts out.

    It is a true test of who is the best *team*, slots 1 through 25 of the roster, slots 1 through 5 of the starters, your bullpen, and your bench and minor league depth.

    Playoff baseball has become who has the best and most #1 starters.
    All my posts are my opinion - just like yours are. If I forget to state it and you're too dense to see the obvious, look here!

  7. #21
    Member Redhook's Avatar
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    Re: Joe Posnanski on why the Wild Card round stinks

    Baseball playoffs are terrible. Almost unwatchable. Too many off days with 4-hour games that start way too late. This is a major reason why the NFL dominates MLB. Who wants to stay up to midnight to watch the end of a game? A 4-hour game no less.

    Games should start no later than 7 PM, there shouldn't be off days in between games in the same city, and they must find a way to get the games closer to 3 hours long.
    "....the two players I liked watching the most were Barry Larkin and Eric Davis. I was suitably entertained by their effortless skill that I didn't need them crashing into walls like a squirrel on a coke binge." - dsmith421

  8. #22
    Waitin til next year bucksfan2's Avatar
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    Re: Joe Posnanski on why the Wild Card round stinks

    I don’t like them. I don’t need them. I don’t want them. If we lived in some sort of strange baseball dictatorship where I was the only person deciding baseball’s fate, I would get rid of the wild card, return baseball to a world with two divisions in each league, a championship series, then a World Series. I wouldn’t be opposed to getting rid of the playoffs altogether and just taking the best team from each league and going right to the World Series*.
    This is the most telling thing in the whole article to me. Poz clearly lays out that the is a traditionalist and wants the game the way it was 20 or so years ago. I don't have an issue with that, I would just tell him to embrace the change. While purist may not like the wild card and interleague play, it has brought a lot of excitement back to baseball.

    I also would challenge the notion that the better team doesn't win a large percentage of time. To be honest bad teams don't make the playoffs. So when you have a playoff series it is a crap shoot because both teams are good, and home field advantage is relegated to 1 game over the course of a 5 or 7 game series.

    I agree with what Kyle said above. 1st pitch should be no later than 7pm. The only time a game should start after 7pm is if the game is played on the west coast. But to start the games as late as they do they lose viewship.

  9. #23
    Member blumj's Avatar
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    Re: Joe Posnanski on why the Wild Card round stinks

    Quote Originally Posted by Johnny Footstool View Post
    I'm with Dom.

    I'm a huge Posnanski fan, but he's off base here:



    ...and no one gave a damn about the AL West, either, because the Rangers ran away with it. (Well, and also because it's the AL West....)

    Pennant races are only dramatic if there are two teams battling head-to-head, and they are only really dramatic for fans of those two teams. Fans of the game itself appreciate a good pennant race, but unless they have a dog in the fight, the passion is missing.

    Also, for Joe to assert that baseball isn't a game that thrives on intensity is just plain dumb, especially considering how he pines for a "dramatic" pennant race.

    But hey, you know what more than makes up for the alleged, prolonged "drama" of a pennant race? PLAYOFF GAMES.
    Right, the problem is that other teams aren't providing enough competition sometimes, whether there are 2 playoff teams or 12, there are always going to be times when there's no race because X number of teams are that much better than the others.
    "Reality tells us there are no guarantees. Except that some day Jon Lester will be on that list of 100-game winners." - Peter Gammons

  10. #24
    Posting in Dynarama M2's Avatar
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    Re: Joe Posnanski on why the Wild Card round stinks

    I think the flaw in Posnanski's argument is that he's only beginning to realize that, regardless of the sport, playoffs are silly. They don't actually tell you who the best team is. Sometimes the best team actually wins, but often it's the hottest or luckiest team. And the only reason you know they're the best teams is because they played better than everyone else during the regular season.

    We construct tortured rationales designed to convince ourselves that playoffs are a sensible way to determine a champion, but the truth is they're not and the only time a playoff ever sort-of served that function was before 1969 in baseball when the champions of two completely separate leagues with balanced schedules faced off in a series to crown the best baseball team on the planet. And, even then, it was more spectacle than on-field proof of which team was the greatest in all the land.

    In fact, spectacle is exactly what playoffs are designed to be. You can love the regular season and still enjoy the spectacle that is the playoffs.

    And, in terms of putting on a spectacle, I think a play-in game between two wild card teams (and, most likely, their ace pitchers) would be a neat addition.
    I'm not a system player. I am a system.

  11. #25
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    Re: Joe Posnanski on why the Wild Card round stinks

    Play more DH during the year. Expand rosters to 28 through April and then 26 from May through into Sept. Then with expanded rosters you an deal with DH.

    You can schedule about 2 in each month. With the Reds deep staff it would actually benefit them. But main thing is that it ends the year before October begins.

    The playoff days off are something that everyone blames the networks for. How are you going to help that?

  12. #26
    Charlie Brown All-Star IslandRed's Avatar
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    Re: Joe Posnanski on why the Wild Card round stinks

    Quote Originally Posted by M2 View Post
    I think the flaw in Posnanski's argument is that he's only beginning to realize that, regardless of the sport, playoffs are silly. They don't actually tell you who the best team is. Sometimes the best team actually wins, but often it's the hottest or luckiest team.
    Yep. And we as sports fans generally accept that the team that wins the Super Bowl or the NCAA Tournament etc. wasn't necessarily the best team, but they're the champion, and that's that. The flip side is something like the NBA playoffs -- the best team (or in the discussion for it) almost always wins, but it requires slogging through a mini-season's worth of games to get there.
    Reading comprehension is not just an ability, it's a choice

  13. #27
    Member Cedric's Avatar
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    Re: Joe Posnanski on why the Wild Card round stinks

    Quote Originally Posted by bucksfan2 View Post
    This is the most telling thing in the whole article to me. Poz clearly lays out that the is a traditionalist and wants the game the way it was 20 or so years ago. I don't have an issue with that, I would just tell him to embrace the change. While purist may not like the wild card and interleague play, it has brought a lot of excitement back to baseball.

    I also would challenge the notion that the better team doesn't win a large percentage of time. To be honest bad teams don't make the playoffs. So when you have a playoff series it is a crap shoot because both teams are good, and home field advantage is relegated to 1 game over the course of a 5 or 7 game series.

    I agree with what Kyle said above. 1st pitch should be no later than 7pm. The only time a game should start after 7pm is if the game is played on the west coast. But to start the games as late as they do they lose viewship.
    I suggest if the Yankees don't win the world series every year, than the best team doesn't win it every year.
    This is the time. The real Reds organization is back.

  14. #28
    Churlish Johnny Footstool's Avatar
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    Re: Joe Posnanski on why the Wild Card round stinks

    It's good that the best team doesn't always win the playoffs. It's good that a scrappy underdog can knock off a better team. It's what we love about sports.
    "I prefer books and movies where the conflict isn't of the extreme cannibal apocalypse variety I guess." Redsfaithful

  15. #29
    Moderator The Operator's Avatar
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    Re: Joe Posnanski on why the Wild Card round stinks

    Quote Originally Posted by Johnny Footstool View Post
    It's good that the best team doesn't always win the playoffs. It's good that a scrappy underdog can knock off a better team. It's what we love about sports.
    It is good, but at the same time it also allows Bud Selig to sit back and point to the occasional feel good underdog story and proclaim that nothing is wrong with the competitive balance in baseball. It's a double edged sword in that regard.
    Quote Originally Posted by BCubb2003 View Post
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  16. #30
    Member Redhook's Avatar
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    Re: Joe Posnanski on why the Wild Card round stinks

    I'm currently really enjoying watching the Rangers beat the Yankees. And the best part, regardless of the outcome, is I'll get to see the end of the game. What a novelty! And, for an added bonus, I should be able to see the end of tonight's Lincecum vs. Halladay battle because they're starting it at a decent time. As you can tell, starting the games late is my biggest pet peeve. Today's schedule is good, a rarity for the MLB playoffs.

    Another thing that stinks for many is the fact that most of the games are on TBS now. Many have cable now, but quite a few still don't. These games should be able to be seen by everyone.

    The thing that MLB doesn't seem to get is how they're not connecting with future fans, aka children. For future growth of the game, kids need to enjoy playing it and watching it. Unfortunately, baseball seems to do everything in their power to turn children away from the game.
    "....the two players I liked watching the most were Barry Larkin and Eric Davis. I was suitably entertained by their effortless skill that I didn't need them crashing into walls like a squirrel on a coke binge." - dsmith421


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