Chef Jim Posted October 9, 2012 Posted October 9, 2012 How many regular season games are you normally tuned into - either TV, radio, following online, etc.? What does that have to do with it?
Rob's House Posted October 9, 2012 Posted October 9, 2012 How many regular season games are you normally tuned into - either TV, radio, following online, etc.? Not as many since TBS stopped carrying the games. But I hated the best of 5 series when I watched quite a bit and hate the 1 game playoff even more b/c 1. Given the nature of the sport I think it's a very weak indicator of which is the better team, and 2. I think it cheapens the regular season & makes those 162 games far less meaningful. A run at the WC used to be a run at the playoffs. Now it's a run at a glorified coin flip. It makes me not want to follow the sport at all.
Metal Man Posted October 9, 2012 Posted October 9, 2012 There needs to be some kind of deterrent to the wild card that makes winning the division more important. Not being able to set your line-up for the divisional series and having to be in a play-in game seems to be fair to me. This way if you can win the world series as a wild card you really accomplished something. Not to mention keeping the season more exciting for longer. I like the idea of scheduling a double header or two a month someone put out there. Playing baseball in November and even late October is ridiculous.
bbb Posted October 9, 2012 Posted October 9, 2012 Not as many since TBS stopped carrying the games. But I hated the best of 5 series when I watched quite a bit and hate the 1 game playoff even more b/c 1. Given the nature of the sport I think it's a very weak indicator of which is the better team, and 2. I think it cheapens the regular season & makes those 162 games far less meaningful. A run at the WC used to be a run at the playoffs. Now it's a run at a glorified coin flip. It makes me not want to follow the sport at all. Totally agree with Metal Man and totally disagree that it makes the 162 games less meaningful. It makes them more meaningful! Way more.
Metal Man Posted October 9, 2012 Posted October 9, 2012 It makes them more meaningful! Way more. Exactly. This season NY and Baltimore clinched play-off spots with a weeks worth of games to go. Last season they would have just packed it in not really caring about that extra home game all that much. This year they both had to play it out right down to the very last game.
Rob's House Posted October 9, 2012 Posted October 9, 2012 Totally agree with Metal Man and totally disagree that it makes the 162 games less meaningful. It makes them more meaningful! Way more. It's cool if you think that; I just don't see it that way. Baseball teams are built to play a lot of games and are particularly structured for multi-game series. I get how it makes winning the division more important but you can't honestly say it makes winning the wild card more meaningful. And I don't see how winning a single game playoff amounts to them really earning their spot in the playoffs. Plus, if you only have 1 WC team that team probably won more regular season games than one of the division winners and therefore is every bit as deserving of their playoff spot. IMO, every round of baseball playoffs should be best of 7.
Chef Jim Posted October 9, 2012 Posted October 9, 2012 A lot. Start with the most important point. I don't feel you have to have watched any MLB games to have an opinion that the new format sucks.
bbb Posted October 9, 2012 Posted October 9, 2012 Start with the most important point. I don't feel you have to have watched any MLB games to have an opinion that the new format sucks. See Metal Man's reply two above yours.
Chef Jim Posted October 9, 2012 Posted October 9, 2012 Totally agree with Metal Man and totally disagree that it makes the 162 games less meaningful. It makes them more meaningful! Way more. By adding one more team to the mix? Wrong! There needs to be some kind of deterrent to the wild card that makes winning the division more important. Not being able to set your line-up for the divisional series and having to be in a play-in game seems to be fair to me. This way if you can win the world series as a wild card you really accomplished something. Not to mention keeping the season more exciting for longer. I like the idea of scheduling a double header or two a month someone put out there. Playing baseball in November and even late October is ridiculous. The deterrent to the WC is having to play the number one seed. The three divisional winners and one wild card was perfect. This is just silly. And don't get me on the 2-3 format. You are the higher seed and you start out with two games on the road. WTF is that?!?!
Metal Man Posted October 9, 2012 Posted October 9, 2012 It's cool if you think that; I just don't see it that way. Baseball teams are built to play a lot of games and are particularly structured for multi-game series. I get how it makes winning the division more important but you can't honestly say it makes winning the wild card more meaningful. And I don't see how winning a single game playoff amounts to them really earning their spot in the playoffs. Plus, if you only have 1 WC team that team probably won more regular season games than one of the division winners and therefore is every bit as deserving of their playoff spot. IMO, every round of baseball playoffs should be best of 7. I get all of this. I guess the differing of opinion is should the wild card team have a harder road to a championship. To me it should and just having to play an extra road game in a 5 or 7 game series isn't all that hard to overcome in baseball unlike in football where winning three straight road games to make the Super Bowl is definitely a taller order than winning a couple at home.
Chef Jim Posted October 9, 2012 Posted October 9, 2012 See Metal Man's reply two above yours. You're RIGHT! Because that's NEVER happened before until this new format came about.
Metal Man Posted October 9, 2012 Posted October 9, 2012 By adding one more team to the mix? Wrong! The deterrent to the WC is having to play the number one seed. The three divisional winners and one wild card was perfect. This is just silly. And don't get me on the 2-3 format. You are the higher seed and you start out with two games on the road. WTF is that?!?! Unless they were in your division then it didn't matter because they wouldn't let division opponents face off in the first round for some reason.... In any case like I said I think the difference here is how much harder we all believe it should be for the WC team to win it all. And you'll get no argument from me about the 2-3... that is insane. Oakland is facing elimination now and they haven't even gotten to play at home yet. What kind of higher seeded advantage is that? Total crap.
bbb Posted October 9, 2012 Posted October 9, 2012 By adding one more team to the mix? Wrong! No, by making the divsion winners mean something. If you don't like regular season baseball and pennant races, then fine. I do and I like any sport that makes the regular season mean more. EVERYBODY - for the third time, the 2-3 is only for this year!
Chef Jim Posted October 9, 2012 Posted October 9, 2012 Unless they were in your division then it didn't matter because they wouldn't let division opponents face off in the first round for some reason.... In any case like I said I think the difference here is how much harder we all believe it should be for the WC team to win it all. And you'll get no argument from me about the 2-3... that is insane. Oakland is facing elimination now and they haven't even gotten to play at home yet. What kind of higher seeded advantage is that? Total crap. How does the one game playoff make it harder for them to win it all? One wins one loses. The winner moves on and has just as much of a chance to win it all as the divisional winners. Once again the one game playoff is just dumb.
Metal Man Posted October 9, 2012 Posted October 9, 2012 How does the one game playoff make it harder for them to win it all? One wins one loses. The winner moves on and has just as much of a chance to win it all as the divisional winners. Once again the one game playoff is just dumb. They have to win one extra game, 12 versus 11 for a championship. But on top of that and maybe more importantly they lose the advantage of setting their line-up to make sure they get their number 1 starter more turns in short series. Unless they want to gamble and not play their best pitcher in that one game play-off but that would seem too risky to me. I get the argument about hating making the season last longer, but how is having more teams in the hunt later a bad thing for baseball fans?
ajzepp Posted October 9, 2012 Posted October 9, 2012 I'm with Chipper Jones...when asked what he thought about the new format, he replied, "it's stupid."
Metal Man Posted October 9, 2012 Posted October 9, 2012 I'm with Chipper Jones...when asked what he thought about the new format, he replied, "it's stupid." I have a lot of friends who are Braves fans saying the same thing and rightly so because their team would have been in the divisional series no matter what last year. However ask the Cards and Os players/fans and I'm sure they'll all say they love it because if it was last season they would be sitting at home right now instead of still playing for a championship.
ajzepp Posted October 9, 2012 Posted October 9, 2012 I have a lot of friends who are Braves fans saying the same thing and rightly so because their team would have been in the divisional series no matter what last year. However ask the Cards and Os players/fans and I'm sure they'll all say they love it because if it was last season they would be sitting at home right now instead of still playing for a championship. Braves didn't deserve it last year....
Chef Jim Posted October 9, 2012 Posted October 9, 2012 I'm with Chipper Jones...when asked what he thought about the new format, he replied, "it's stupid." Oh come on, what the hell does he know. He's only been playing professional ball for 20+ years.
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