2020 AL Wild Card Round

jon abbey

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We're all set, starting Tuesday:

1) TB
8) TOR

4) CLE
5) NY

2) OAK
7) CWS

3) MIN
6) HOU
 

jon abbey

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I will go with:

TB
CLE

CWS
MIN

MIN over TB in the ALCS, what the hell.
 

LogansDad

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@jon abbey , Thanks for being so on top of this stuff. I haven't had a ton of time to pay attention to baseball this season, so i appreciate the single stop sourcing.
 

E5 Yaz

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I don't think so because the way they have been showing it on MLBN and on the Wiki page for MLB 2020 shows it as a bracket a la March Madness.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Major_League_Baseball_season
Yep, that's right ... from MLB.com

Division Series (best-of-five, with traditional 2-2-1 home team/road team format at neutral sites):Winner of 1-8 vs. Winner of 4-5; Winner of 2-7 vs. Winner of 3-6. Home-field advantage goes to the higher seed.

League Championship Series (best-of-seven, with traditional 2-3-2 home team/road team format at neutral sites): Winner of 1-4-5-8 vs. Winner of 2-3-6-7. Home-field advantage goes to the higher seed.

World Series (best-of-seven, with traditional 2-3-2 home team/road team format at a neutral site):AL champion vs. NL champion. Home-field advantage goes to the higher seed.
 

Sad Sam Jones

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The great thing about the Indians drawing the Yankees is that they get time slots where I might actually see some of the games. Tito is officially not coming back this year, so expect the Indians to blow at least one of these when Sandy Alomar inexplicably brings Phil Maton in to pitch in a 1-run game.
 

The Gray Eagle

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I’m really curious what would happen if teams were allowed to choose their opponents, as was rumored briefly.
That would have been a fun way to get the postseason started. Would the top seeds have just chosen in the order we have now. Or would some teams have chosen a higher seed for matchup reasons?
I wish they had tried it, this would have been the perfect season for it.
 

InsideTheParker

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The great thing about the Indians drawing the Yankees is that they get time slots where I might actually see some of the games. Tito is officially not coming back this year, so expect the Indians to blow at least one of these when Sandy Alomar inexplicably brings Phil Maton in to pitch in a 1-run game.
Won't the ending of the first game conflict with the presidential debate? (If so, good thing, because I can't watch those debates, they make me too nervous.)
 

jon abbey

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8 staggered games on Wednesday, good luck with those three hour time slots:

12p ET: CIN at ATL (ESPN)
1p: HOU at MIN (ESPN2)
2p: MIA at CHC (ABC)
3p: CHW at OAK (ESPN)
4p: TOR at TB (TBS)
5p: STL at SD (ESPN2)
7p: NYY at CLE (ESPN)
10p: MIL at LAD (ESPN)
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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I see a couple of three hour windows for games. I expect delays in starts for the later ones, like CWS v. A’s and Milwaukee v. LAD on Wednesday.
Why would they delay starts? For TV? ESPN can start broadcasts on ESPN2, ESPNews or ESPNU in the (likely) event that games run over 3 hours.
 

E5 Yaz

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Why would they delay starts? For TV? ESPN can start broadcasts on ESPN2, ESPNews or ESPNU in the (likely) event that games run over 3 hours.
Yep, one of the schedules I saw listed the TV programming as "ESPN Family"
 

Lose Remerswaal

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Why would they delay starts? For TV? ESPN can start broadcasts on ESPN2, ESPNews or ESPNU in the (likely) event that games run over 3 hours.
ESPN2 is already booked. I don’t think playoff games have been on ESPNEWS or U before
Yep, one of the schedules I saw listed the TV programming as "ESPN Family"
Game threes are listed there, likely as a placeholder
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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ESPN2 is already booked. I don’t think playoff games have been on ESPNEWS or U before
How often has ESPN had rights to this many different series at one time? Prior to this post-season, there's never been more than four series being played at any given time, and typically the broadcast rights were split between two networks (one AL, one NL). So at most, ESPN has only ever had two post-season games to broadcast on any given day. I don't think we can look at past seasons for precedent in these unprecedented times. I think they're far more likely to shift the start of White Sox-A's or Brewers-Dodgers to ESPNews than they are to delay the start of the games.
 

jtn46

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ABC will have 2pm games Thursday and Friday (if necessary, there need to be at least 2 series still going, ESPN will take 1 for primetime since ABC has the NBA Finals that night).
 

jon abbey

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Interesting, mlb.com’s #27 prospect overall but with only OK numbers in AA last year.

The Twins reporter on MLBN just said she saw Donaldson and Buxton both work out today and they seemed fine, maybe as a pinch-hitter who no one has been able to scout all year.
 

VORP Speed

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This 3 game crapshoot is nerve-wracking as heck for strong teams that really deserve to be in the playoffs. Gives all these minnows who snuck in through the back door of expanded playoffs a chance to get some fluky luck and knock them off.
 

InsideTheParker

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The post about Donaldson made me wonder. Who are the teams most impacted by injuries?
I think that Oakland was hurt by the injury to Chapman. Who else?
 

jon abbey

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The post about Donaldson made me wonder. Who are the teams most impacted by injuries?
I think that Oakland was hurt by the injury to Chapman. Who else?
NY is missing quite a few pitchers who would be playing big roles in the postseason: Severino, Paxton, German (eligible to return now but will not do so since he has been out all year), Kahnle.
 

Leather

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Well if we're going with players that were out a long time ago, the obvious answer is Verlander.
 

VORP Speed

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Rays have added their #6 prospect, 23 y/o LHP Shane McClanahan, to the Wild Card round active roster. He pitched at AA last year. If he gets called on in this series, it will be his MLB debut. Deep Depth.

I hope this sets a precedent for calling on prospects for reinforcements in the playoffs.....
 

E5 Yaz

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Is this for game threads, or should we make this news only?
 

NJ_Sox_Fan

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Well, in case it is game thread, Maeda made it out of inning 1 with 16 pitches; 8 of which were sliders.

Buxton is fast
 
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S. H. Frog

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Greinke is in the soup here. Bases loaded, one out, bottom of the first, not throwing strikes.
 

S. H. Frog

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He's out. Greinke dodges a bullet on a rocket caught off first and a slow roller 5-3.
 

S. H. Frog

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My sentimental ranking: As, Rays, Cleveland, Twins, Blue Jays, White Sox, Astros, Yankees.
 

NJ_Sox_Fan

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Cannot believe Greinke got out of that inning. The expected hit % on the Rosario line out was .690!
 

InsideTheParker

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I never watch the networks anymore, and I wonder if the shows being advertised, like Supermarket Sweep, go some way toward explaining our current political atmosphere.
 

E5 Yaz

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I never watch the networks anymore, and I wonder if the shows being advertised, like Supermarket Sweep, go some way toward explaining our current political atmosphere.
It more has to do with the networks emptying the barrels of programming they have in the vault ... since production halted in the spring and the "new season" which would be up and running by now, has been delayed because of the pandemic