glory

Don't even care if Ray f***s this up. Unless Shoe is hurt, there's no way his pitch limit was 35 pitches when he threw 54 in his last start. Jays can f*** off if they want to be bootleg Rays. /rant

Shoe is out? ********. He’s thrown 35 f***ing pitches!

Rays are going to catch everything that stays in the park. I truly hate that team/stadium.

Yeah the slow throw by Biggio made that DP nearly impossible, although I’ll never trust Villar defensively to do anything.

This is the most Trop start to a game possible.

Joel Sherman had an idea on the MLB Network that I really liked regarding the Wild Card round (assuming expanded playoffs sticks): if the higher seed wins Game 1, then they win the series, but if the higher seed loses Game 1, then it's officially a 3 game series. Which means every game in that round would be an elimination game for one of the teams. It would solve this thread's argument about which game(s) matter more.

No idea why the Jays place less importance on who bats 3rd, maybe there's some analytical reasoning behind it. I feel like they've made some weird decisions on that spot in particular a lot of the season (Jansen, Tellez when he was struggling, Shaw, and for some reason I vaguely remember Villar in that spot). Whatever. At least the right guys are playing.

I think the World Series might have breaks in between games, but not the WC, DS, or LCS.

If the Jays made the ALDS and Ryu started Game 1, he'd have to pitch on 3 days rest to come back in Game 5. No way that happens. He'd start one game in the DS. That's likely the Jays reasoning here. He can only start once in the WC round, and he apparently prefers more rest, so as long as he pitches one of the first two games, that's all that really matters. Just have to fluke into a Game 1 win.

I despise openers and all the nonsense the Rays do, but I'll make an exception for this series. Beat them at their own annoying game.

Canadian team faces team with non existent fan base. Get ready for some really early games.

Indians have taken the lead so, yeah, while Tampa is the better team, the Indians rotation is scary. I wanted the White Sox, but if that’s out of the question then pick your poison.

White Sox. Jays would have to win, of course.

Seriously, the Jays traded a good prospect for Stripling so he could come out of the pen while Roark starts. Disgusting.

Man, everything looks right in the scoreboard (Indians losing, Yankees losing), yet the Jays had to throw Roark/Guch out there to f*** everything up.

Hopefully the Jays score a bunch of runs here so that they can keep Roark in for 125 pitches. f*** it. Who cares about his arm? Save pen bullets for Tuesday.

Gotta keep Roark in. He's only going to get better from here.

Like I said in the other thread, probably the 14 team format that was rumored before.

I actually like the White Sox a lot, but they would be the much more favorable opponent for the Jays than the Rays. Edit: Indians and White Sox about to be tied in the standings. I want no part of the Indians rotation in a playoff series.

Yamaguchi paying tribute to his good friend Font with this performance.

If they do what Manfred apparently suggested months ago (7 teams in each league, 1st seed gets a bye, seeds 2-7 play wild card rounds, division winners get top 3 seeds), then this is how the 2019 standings would have been: 1. Astros (auto bye into ALDS) --- 2. Yankees: 103-59 3. Twins: 101-61 4. A's: 97-65 5. Rays: 96-66 6. Indians: 93-69 7. Red Sox: 84-78 1. Dodgers: 106-56 (auto bye in NLDS) --- 2. Braves: 97-65 3. Cardinals: 91-71 4. Nationals: 93-69 5. Brewers: 89-73 6. Mets: 86-76 7. Diamondbacks: 85-77 So, the worst teams would have won 84 and 85 games in each league. If you do that same format in 2018, the Mariners get the last seed in the AL with 89 wins, and the Pirates get the last seed in the NL with 82 wins (there was a few teams with 82 wins so probably some type of tiebreaker would have been needed). So yes, probably looking at 82-85 wins being a playoff team most years, but if they use this model, then getting the 1st seed would mean a bye into the DS (avoid the randomness of a WC round), and they can do the choose your opponent gimmick for the first two seeds in the WC round to give the other division winners an incentive to finish first. Not perfect, but probably doable. I would agree the 16 team format in 162 games would be overkill, unless they add two expansion teams to make it 32 teams total, and then maybe it would be more acceptable, but I'm fine with expanded playoffs in general. Just have to fine tune it for next season and beyond.

I think the biggest thing to keep in mind is that leagues that don't have any issues rarely make changes. The reason MLB is making so many changes is fairly simple; it needs to attract more/younger fans. The 2020 playoff structure is clearly a revenue grab to compensate for Covid related losses, but in the long run, they need more national TV exposure. They need more fanbases to be engaged during a longer season. They (badly) need attendance to rebound after fans are allowed back in. Expanded playoffs is going to help with some, if not all, of that. It's not about the "purity of the game" anymore. It's about adapting to the current climate. Right now, had the league not implemented the expanded playoffs, the following teams would be out of playoff spots in the AL: Yankees, Jays, Astros. You have the biggest franchise in the entire sport, the biggest villain in the sport, and the Jays (ok, this just benefits us fans, but still). Who the hell wants to see the playoffs with the Rays, 3 Central teams, and the A's battling it out? In hindsight, expanded playoffs saved the AL playoffs this season, assuming the standings remain as they are. We'll all get used to this eventually. Just like we did the initial Wild Card implementation, then the 2nd WC implementation.

Jose got a pretty good send off. The 4/80 offer to Edwin might have been a PR offer that they knew he would decline, and they could move on without looking bad to the public, but it ended up being $20m more than he actually got from Cleveland. Donaldson's beef seemed to be with the Jays medical staff, not the front office, but I'm not 100% on that.

You're going to hate baseball from this point on because expanded playoffs isn't going anywhere. I like the original idea floated around a few months ago better (14 teams make it, #1 seed in each league get a bye, 3 Wild Card rounds in each league), and maybe they go with that next year, but whatever they end up doing, it's going to lead to more playoff teams every year. Might as well enjoy this one. The 2012-19 version of the playoffs won't be coming back, for many reason$. Or maybe just one.