2024 MLB Wild Card Round Gamethread
- Thread starter DeadlySplitter
- Start date
Yeah - I'd be happy to have them win it all. Round one, I'm pulling for the Tigers and Orioles... then the Royals against the Yankees (obviously).
I'd be fine with either the Tigers or Guardians advancing to the ALCS, and then the World Series. I'd prefer either of those teams over the Royals.
AL Champion Preference:
1a: Tigers
1b: Guardians
3: Royals
4: Astros
5: Player Strike, Playoffs Cancelled. (The Orioles and Yankees can fuck off.)
NL Champion Preference
1: Diamondbacks
2: Brewers
3: Padres, but only if it's after Manny Machado is arrested for murder or something, and he doesn't get to play, and MLB refuses to give him a ring
4: Phillies
5: Mets
6: Braves (I like the Braves more than most teams, but I also want the Yankees to fall lower on the list of teams to recently win a world series... so they Braves lose out here for me)
7: Dodgers (I like Mookie, and I like Dave Roberts, and I like Ohtani... but I hate that the team bought like every single fucking free agent this year - so fuck 'em... I hope they get eliminated by a wild card team again)
I pretty much agree on the AL. In the NL, I'm putting the Diamondbacks behind the two teams who've never won a WS.
I probably could have and should have had the Padres, Dbacks, and Brewers be 1a, 1b, and 1c - with the same stipulations for the Padres. No World Series for them unless some sort of misfortune befalls Manny Machado and he’s not involved.
Unfortunately afternoon baseball in October is almost always via national telecasts, which almost always suck.
I'm somewhat torn. On the one hand, the last time I probably rooted for the Mets is the 2000 Subway Series (and probably every Mets/Yankees regular season game). On the other hand, watching the two NY baseball teams compete for time on the back pages of the tabloids is always a good thing simply because it pisses off Yankee fans.
I know this is a make-up DH for a rain out due to Helene, but I'm surprised by the number of empty seats in the park.
I'm late to the party - how will this work? Three teams, only two playoff spots available (SD is already in as WC1):
Ari - 89 wins
Atl - 88 wins
NYM - 88 wins
If NYM sweep, then WC2 is NYM and WC3 is Ari.
If Atl sweeps, then WC 2 is Atl and WC3 is Ari.
If NYM and Atl split, then three teams are all tied at 89 wins. How do the tiebreakers work then?
Ari - 89 wins
Atl - 88 wins
NYM - 88 wins
If NYM sweep, then WC2 is NYM and WC3 is Ari.
If Atl sweeps, then WC 2 is Atl and WC3 is Ari.
If NYM and Atl split, then three teams are all tied at 89 wins. How do the tiebreakers work then?
So.... if the Braves win this..... they're the no. 5 seed no matter what happens in the 2nd game right? They'd likely rest their starters but would there be any attempt to steer the Diamondbacks into the 6th seed for any sort of long-term advantage from their PoV or just because... if you're the Braves, you hate the Mets?
As someone pulling for the Brewers these playoffs, the dream scenario is the Braves winning game one and the Mets winning game two. That means the Mets went from losing two out of three at Milwaukee this weekend, to having to go all out in two games in Atlanta today, to go back to Milwaukee to start the series at 5:30 tomorrow.
Atlanta and NY both hold the tie-breakers over Arizona. A sweep by either team today, lets Arizona into the playoffs. A split today, puts both the Mets and the Braves in the playoffs.
Maybe it's because of the season I just finished watching, but it's hard to imagine the Mets catching up down 2-0 in the third. Mets working to achieve a more believably unsurmountable deficit as the inning unfolds.
If the Braves win both: Braves are 5 and Diamondbacks are 6
If they split: Braves are 5 and Mets are 6
If the Mets win both: Mets are 5 and Diamondbacks are 6
If they split: Braves are 5 and Mets are 6
If the Mets win both: Mets are 5 and Diamondbacks are 6
Asked before but no response.... but if the Braves win game one of this, they're guaranteed the 5 seed no matter..... so do they rest all their regulars and throw out a AAAA starter in the 2nd game. The scenario being that the Mets would likely win.... so do they hate the Mets enough to actually play to win the 2nd game then???
And also wondering how Sox fans would think if the Sox fans were in this exact scenario but lost both games......
Yes, Braves win game 1 then they're guaranteed the 5 seed, so there'd be no reason to play anyone they don't have to in game 2. At the very least you have to imagine they don't throw Sale in game 2. Sure, they hate the Mets, but I don't think they hate them that much to go all out in a game 2 that means nothing to them.
Luis Severino and Chris Sale are the scheduled starters for the second game. Only one of those guys is actually going to do that. It's more important to the first game winner to keep that guy ready for the first game of the playoffs.
EDIT: That said, it's not like it's unusual for the worse team on paper to win any given game.
It wouldn't be a fun time for me for a couple of weeks. A split seems the most likely scenario as the winner of the first game is going to trot out a team that would have a tough time beating this season's White Sox. The added variable is when the team that wins the first game starts celebrating.
View: https://twitter.com/BNightengale/status/1840758612572209393
"The Arizona Diamondbacks will come to the ballpark today with their suitcases packed for a week, watch two baseball games on TV, and sit around wondering whether they’ll be popping champagne, flying to Milwaukee, or driving home and unpacking their bags for a long winter."
"The Arizona Diamondbacks will come to the ballpark today with their suitcases packed for a week, watch two baseball games on TV, and sit around wondering whether they’ll be popping champagne, flying to Milwaukee, or driving home and unpacking their bags for a long winter."
Watching this on SNY out of NY. This announcing team is tremendous, just a pleasure to listen to. From pace, voices, information transmitted, analysis, everything. I can't say enough about how impressive they are.
I've grown tired of most things about NESN being second rate, mickey mouse. There is no reason why everything associated with the Red Sox shouldn't be, or at least strive to be, excellent. I can understand that the on field product takes time, but everything off the field, from broadcasts to field conditions to services, etc, should be top of the line. A market like Boston should have that. No acceptable reason why not. Avarice is not an acceptable reason for mediocrity.
I've grown tired of most things about NESN being second rate, mickey mouse. There is no reason why everything associated with the Red Sox shouldn't be, or at least strive to be, excellent. I can understand that the on field product takes time, but everything off the field, from broadcasts to field conditions to services, etc, should be top of the line. A market like Boston should have that. No acceptable reason why not. Avarice is not an acceptable reason for mediocrity.
There is pretty general agreement that the SNY booth is the best in baseball.
As for NESN, it isn't only the booth that bothers me, but the bad camera work. The whole broadcast needs a new production team. But we have been grousing about all this for years, and nothing has changed.
Losing Remy and Eck over a couple of years really killed the quality of the broadcasts. Finding a replacement takes time and both Youk and Merloni have been good. But there's no excuse to still be trotting out Dave O'Brien, the personification of mediocrity, out there every day.
Vocabulary too. A throw to first earlier was "true," can you imagine DOB ever saying that?
For a while, Laureano was the best thing on the Oakland team. IIRC, he used to hit homers against the Sox on a regular basis.
Overall, he's been worse vs. the Sox than his norm, with a .602 career OPS (compared to his overall .748). Only 2 homers in 22 games, compared to career 81 in 608 - you'd expect him to hit 2.9 every 22 games overall.
https://stathead.com/tiny/FpZbR
He did, however, hit 2 homers in his first 3 games against us, April 1-3, 2019.
