Sure it makes a difference, it was well into August when folks here claimed that the Red Sox, even though they were in last place, were in contention because they were only x games away from the last wild card.
MLB playoffs suck (at picking the best team)
- Thread starter Phil Plantier
- Start date
But that’s a bad thing
Under an older system with fewer WC’s, they’d have been more likely to sell and rebuild for the future (Paxton, Duvall, etc)
In late August when the Red Sox beat the Astros 17-1, they were X games back of the last wild card and X + 1.5 back of the 2nd wild card. Is that game and a half the difference between thinking they're in the race and eliminated? That's my point, the 2nd and 3rd wild cards are usually really close in the standings, so you're not really expanding the hope bubble with the extra team.
But you are expanding that "hope bubble" because a team has an extra spot to nab. We spent all summer doing the calculations for [X amount of teams] trying to land [Y playoff spots]. Instead of 4 teams competing for 1 spot there were 4 teams competing for 2 spots. Better odds = mopre hope.
Just look at the NL this year. Miami, Arizona, Chicago, Cincy and San Diego were all within 2 games of 2 spots, rather than 2 games of 1 spot.
And yet, was there playoff fever in these places? I have a few friends who are either Cubs fans (didn't make it) or Blue Jay fans (who did) and they were all saying "well, I'm kind of interested and I hope we make the playoffs but our team really isn't that good so we probably won't go anywhere if we do."
I don't know what happened the last month, but Wrigley attendance was way up over last year in August:
Well I guess watching the playoffs will get people to change their minds. Any team can get hot in the playoffs and that's the general idea of having them.
For the purposes of this thread I guess it reinforces the idea, but these are competitive teams that can win it all if things fall into place in the playoffs. This is not Panama making the 2018 World Cup where we all knew they weren't goin anywhere.
The problem is that, in baseball, there is no equivalent of Panama in the World Cup, i.e. a team with no chance of winning the tournament. Baseball is too random for that. A sub-.500 team could absolutely win the World Series if they snuck into the postseason; probably all but the few very worst teams in baseball could do it once they get in. And if/when that happens, it renders the whole thing meaningless. MLB is playing with fire by continually expanding the field.
Is it playing with fire when MLB HQ and the owners probably don't care?
The D-backs as we all know by now had a negative run differential and only won 84 games, the lowest for a pennant team since the 2006 Cardinals. Small market teams (owners) can further justify only spending up to the mid 80s on the win curve. MLB can continue to market, truly, just get in and any team can win. Win-win!
I also might be in the minority here but I think it's interesting to see a team be constructed that is both good enough to make the postseason and also be able to win all these short series in a row. There's a lot of luck involved but postseason baseball roster is an entirely different construction from regular season baseball. For example the Orioles really did not have a chance, neither did the Dodgers with the specific injuries they suffered. The Rays and Braves seem to have a mental block offensively, to the point that they would still make the playoffs in a 8 game field but it's hard seeing either go deep this year anyways. So who can truly proclaim the "wrong" teams make the World Series?
The D-backs as we all know by now had a negative run differential and only won 84 games, the lowest for a pennant team since the 2006 Cardinals. Small market teams (owners) can further justify only spending up to the mid 80s on the win curve. MLB can continue to market, truly, just get in and any team can win. Win-win!
I also might be in the minority here but I think it's interesting to see a team be constructed that is both good enough to make the postseason and also be able to win all these short series in a row. There's a lot of luck involved but postseason baseball roster is an entirely different construction from regular season baseball. For example the Orioles really did not have a chance, neither did the Dodgers with the specific injuries they suffered. The Rays and Braves seem to have a mental block offensively, to the point that they would still make the playoffs in a 8 game field but it's hard seeing either go deep this year anyways. So who can truly proclaim the "wrong" teams make the World Series?
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