Laurence Holmes ‏ @LaurenceWHolmes Reply Retweet Favorite · Open
RT @mlb_pr: NEWS: 2012 Postseason to feature 10-team format including 2 additional Wild Cards & elimination game in each league prior to DS.


Bad. Enough teams already make it.

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Team Cutler.

It's fine

The play in games are usually pretty interesting, so I think the 1 game round should be fun.

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doesn't this basically mean the winner of the wild-card play-in game likely goes into the LDS having their #1 or #2 starter unavailable until game 3 or later?

This will just make things look worse when the White Sox and Cubs miss the playoffs again.

This was my first thought as well but usually the teams fighting for a wild card spot dont get the luxury of setting their rotations the way they want to anyway. Be better in the regular season and win your division so this doesn't happen.

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I'm fine with it.

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I'm admitting my irrationality up front as I say that I hate the idea but I have no expressed argument ready to defend that stance other than the damn thing don't need no changing.

I would, however, seriously consider trading this new stipulation for the repeal of the awful DH rule.

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

the format sucks. If you are going to do it, at least make it best of 3.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

I think teams that win their divisions will complain about too much downtime.

It's the equivalent of the NCAA Tournament play in game.

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Which is a horrible idea for a league with a 162 game regular season.

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"There is a high statistical probability of death by gunshot. A punch to the face is also likely."

First I've heard of this...if true, this only adds another layer of bullshit to this whole thing...

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/breaking/141370643.html

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"There is a high statistical probability of death by gunshot. A punch to the face is also likely."

How does this benefit division winners anymore than in previous years?


The only benefit I see is one pitcher getting used in the one game playoff but like Hank pointed out, usually wild card teams have to fight to the last day and its like that anyway.

I dont hate it, but to say this rewards division winners is a stretch

I think it does. An all or nothing game is going to put a team on an emotional peak while the division winners are relaxing. And that's in addition to the burning pitchers component. Just the stress and emotion.

I understand Lipid's argument, but I think that horse left the barn long ago when the Wild Card was instituted in the first place. Maybe the thing to do would be to eliminate the divisions and simply have the first six teams in each league qualify for the playoffs with 1 and 2 getting byes into the second round and 3-6 and 4-5 playing a short playoff before facing them. But something like that would be a radical change and I think it would only make sense after a radical realignment. And we still haven't reached a point where the separate identities of the respective leagues has been totally wiped out. Maybe we never will.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

How often have teams won the wild card or fought for the division down to the last day and won the world series?

I think the teams playing in that one game playoff are gonna be on a hot streak


Yeah thats the only way to truly reward divisioin winners.

I don't know. But I do think there's a different emotional component to a game that everyone knows is winner-take-all and is being promoted as such, as opposed to what amounts to an elimination game that occurs in the course of events like a long season or a seven game series. I remember the Sox players remarking about being the only game on the scoreboard during the World Series. They're setting these one game playoffs up to be the focus of the entire baseball world, which is a little different than elimination games of the past when other games or series were occurring simultaneously. World Series game sevens- and possibly LDS game sevens- notably excepted.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Im gonna look but Id think most wild card winning WS teams were on a hot streak coming in.

We'll see, but I wouldnt bet against those wild card winners in the first round.


Im definitely interested, but I think they rushed it and it will ultimately be a scheduling clusterfuck due to weather at the end of the year.


One more embarrassment for Bud.

Wow, this is terrible.

So its quite possible a team can win 112 games but have to be on the road the first 2 games of the playoffs if you are playing a team with say 88 wins, and not have homefield advantage in the WS and be against a team that has say 92 wins.

How in the fuck does that make sense?

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Team Cutler.

One of them is going to get 2 home games to start the series. You'd be a fool to bet against a team that has 2 home games right off.

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"We believe that home field advantage in the World Series should be entirely determined by the result of an exhibition game in which all teams, no matter how lame and terrible they are, must have at least one (1) representative, no matter how lame that player may be, and in which the majority of the starting, and actually good, players are not even in the game at the end!"

Does that answer your question? Impeach Bud Selig!

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