16 teams…for reference, that would mean last year the Rangers would have been in at 78-84.
Yuck. Making the playoffs in MLB has always been more challenging than other sports, and Manfred’s grand idea is to use the NBA’s method of letting a bunch of bad teams water the postseason down.
And I say the Rangers because they finished 8th in the AL. I guess there’s no guarantee that it will be 8 teams from each league. For all I know Manfred is wanting to let in 12 teams from the NL and 4 from the AL, and hoping for a Yankees/Red Sox matchup in the World Series.
This is an owners thing, Manfred is just carrying their water.
I dont have a huge issue with doing it this season, its a 1 off anyway, so Im good with more playoff baseball. But it sounds like there is a chance it carries over to the future…unless the Yankees get bounced in the opening round.
According to Buster Olney: All second-place teams in the six divisions qualify. Then the 7th and 8th teams will be chosen by best record among other teams.
The team with the 16th best record last season was the Phillies at 81-81, which isn’t much better than a sub-500 team getting in.
As commissioner, Manfred has the requisite authority to push back against bad ideas from the owners, and luckily, it’s only in effect for this season. However, when plans for this season were in the discussion phase, I seem to remember this playoff format also potentially remaining in place for 2021. I hope this doesn’t become the norm once a normal MLB season can be played again.
They’re just trying to minimize financial loss in a boondoggle of a ‘season’.
In other words baseball being baseball.
Nationals announced today that Juan Soto is only 21 years old had his Tuesday COVID swab test positive. He’s asymptomatic and doing fine, but they are not quarantining the rest of the team. The Nationals played the Orioles on Tuesday, in which game Soto got four ABs, advanced to third once and came around to score another time, yet neither the Orioles catcher and infielders nor the home plate umpire are self-quarantining.
How does that work? What a fucking disaster.
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Juan Soto is COVID-21
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Damn, you’re quick. (TWSS?)
It appears MLB has adopted President Trump’s stance of ignoring all CDC-recommended COVID-19 guidelines and procedures in the name of money. Gross.
I admit to hating the conditions in which it is being played but I still welcome MLB baseball commencing. I’ve been confined inside for 4 weeks and I have really missed watching baseball.
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Buy you some DVDs. This is not baseball, and there are more things to do.
I need games where I don’t know the outcome. It is baseball. Just not the kind we’re used too.
I’m with you. I think it’s utter lunacy to have a season at all, and the hamfisted manner in which MLB is operating it at least doubles down on the idiocy.
But, if they’re doing it, I’m happy to watch the games.
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Same here. If for nothing g else, the LA and NY fans not getting to boo the Astros, and a chance for the Astros to give the biggest FU ever to Manfred, baseball and opposing teams and fans.
Spite season 2020, LFG.
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i guess this has become a no sarcastic zone. sigh i miss the old days
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Kershaw to the DL.
If Cole beats the Nationals tonight, I will be even more pissed about his failure to show up for Game One.
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