NL Wild Card Game STL Cardinals vs LA Dodgers

[calsnowskier]

It's weird to see Giants fans talking about the integrity of divisions. It's way more interesting to give the wild card teams a shot because playoff baseball is a different animal.

It doesn't matter how many games you win in the regular season was literally your sig, cal. C'mon man.

I don’t see the disconnect.

my sig refers to just winning championships. Doesn’t mean I want to break the integrity of the game to do it.

I am not an Astros or Cardinals fan here…

 

[calsnowskier]

And as for “giving the wild card teams a chance”…

I am of the opinion that the WC game should be considered a regular season game, not a post season game. You take the two ”best” non-Division winners and “give them a chance“ to make the post season. Then, since they didn’t win their division, they get a 2-1-2 HF(D)A.

I know this will never happen. Calling the WC game “post season” makes it much easier to market. If your team lost the WC game last year, it is better for marketing to say you were a playoff team the previous year. I get that. But it would make more sense from a “baseball” POV.

 

[Clayton]

I don’t see the disconnect.

my sig refers to just winning championships. Doesn’t mean I want to break the integrity of the game to do it.

I am not an Astros or Cardinals fan here…

The current system is a weaker product. I realize most Cardinals fans are traditionalists so I'm on a limb here.

Baseballs best product would have the Dodgers and Giants potentially playing a 7 game series. Dodgers and Giants playing 5 with the Cards using up the Dodgers best pitcher really hampers that matchup.

I am also aware that the current system will generally benefit the Cardinals because they have incentive to spend every year because STL doesn't have an NFL team, NBA team or college presence so the Cards own that whole market. They can generally spend their way into a wild card spot without tanking for talent.

 

[calsnowskier]

The current system is a weaker product. I realize most Cardinals fans are traditionalists so I'm on a limb here.

Baseballs best product would have the Dodgers and Giants potentially playing a 7 game series. Dodgers and Giants playing 5 with the Cards using up the Dodgers best pitcher really hampers that matchup.

The Cards eating up Scherzer is part of the disadvantage the doggie get for not winning the division. And typically (again, this year is an outlier) would weaken the WC team enough to make then a somewhat easy matchup for the BRINL.

You may be talking about maneuvering to put up the best product. I am not. Adjusting the playoff structure to “get the best product”, imho, is akin (in a very distant cousin sort of way) to making the sport like WWE. Imho, you set the rules, let the teams play within those rules, and you see what happens. You don’t set up a bunch of arbitrary exceptions to cover the “just in case”.

Win a division, get, at worst, the #3 seed.

Don’t win the division, you get whatever table scraps the league is willing to spare. Right now, that means you get a 1-game play in with the other “best loser”. You don’t think it is fair that your whole season comes down to a single game? WIN YOUR FUCKING DIVISION, YOU LOSER!”

 

[Clayton]

If the Cards beat the Dodgers, the media would've gone crazy for a rule change imo. Don't be surprised if this gets revisited.

 

[calsnowskier]

If the Cards beat the Dodgers, the media would've gone crazy for a rule change imo. Don't be surprised if this gets revisited.

Don’t disagree at all.

Believe me, I fully realize I am on the “losing side” of this argument. Doesn’t make me wrong, though.

Same deal with taking all intelligent thought out of the game, but that will likely happen next year as well.

 

[mr.hockey4242]

If you keep the seeding as-is, but make the 1vWC series a 2-1-2, that solves everything while keeping the integrity of the Division winners.

That would be a more obscure change tho. Randomly have 1 series with a different format? Lol

 

[calsnowskier]

That would be a more obscure change tho. Randomly have 1 series with a different format? Lol

Randomly?

Make it more advantageous to be the #1 seed and make it more difficult for the WC team.

I see no randomness whatsoever in that.

 

[catman]

Brewers have as good a shot as the Giants or Dodgers to advance though

Not sure. With Devin Williams, they have a shut-down bullpen. Without him, they have a good one, but not nearly as deep. Their starters are going to have to have 6 innings or so every game.

 

[Clayton]

Looks like going to Reyes was a bad move for Shildt

 

[Cedrique]

Looks like going to Reyes was a bad move for Shildt

I wonder if he had Jon Gruden in his email contacts or something