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2005 Baseball Season
- Thread starter Sayhey
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MacNut said:
Actually I think it is fair. Plenty of teams have made the playoffs because they won their division even though they weren't very good. Win-loss records can sometimes be deceiving. Witness the Cardinals last year almost not making the World Series despite winning 105 games, nearly beaten in the NLCS by an Astros team that got hot at the end of the year. Or the 2003 Giants, who must have been the most overrated 100-win team of all time, getting spanked by the Marlins in the first round. And then there are all those 100-win Braves teams since 1991 (six, including three in a row), none of which won the World Series.
This is a great argument for the wild card. At least four wild card teams have won the World Series, and at least two others made it there. (Could be more, just off the top of my head.) I can't think of a single team that made the playoffs via the wild card that wasn't at least a very good team. In most years there's a wild card team that's better than one of the division winners, making it that much more unlikely that a crappy team will win the World Series.
"Not fair" describes the plight of the Blue Jays, Orioles, and Devil Rays. These three teams are unfortunate enough to be in the same division as the two highest spending teams in baseball, who can make up for bad decisions by throwing more money around. If the three-division wild card system yields a half dozen really, really good wild card teams and one pathetic division winner in each decade, then I'd say it's doing a good job.
aloofman said:
Actually, the fact that the "wildcard team has won the last four world series" doesn't prove anything. All it proves is who is the hottest team right now, not the best.
And there should be no pitty for the Jays, O's and 'rays. Boston brings in more money than many other bigger market teams. they have done a good job "selling" baseball. (why anybody watches their garbage idk, but thats another issue
) TB, the O's, and Jays need to do some better mkting IMO.White Sox AL Central Division Champs !!!
The Sox played good ball all year and were not going to let the Indians come from behind and take the division.
The Sox played good ball all year and were not going to let the Indians come from behind and take the division.
Yeah, I'm praying for not only a red sox sweep, but the chi sox getting swept by the Indians. That way the Yankees are totally out.Counterfit said:
Just FYI for the thread, the current AL situation is:
Boston - Cleveland are tied for the wild card
Boston is one behind the Yankee's (duh
). Here's where it gets intresting, if the indians win 2 of 3 and the sox win 2 of 3, all three teams finish with identicle records. Boston goes to the bronx for a one game playoff for the winner of the AL east (location was decided a couple weeks ago in a coin toss). The loser of this one game playoff then plays Cleveland for the wildcard spot.
In this possible Wildcard playoff game, NYY would play AT Cleveland, or Cleveland would play AT Boston (due to opposing current records ... I think).
GO SOX!!!
Ben
Koodauw said:
It's on ESPN tonight. It's the fox game of the week on saturday and then it's back on ESPN sunday night.
BEN
MacNut said:
Last I looked they were over .500, but does it matter? What's fair? I remember a '93 Giants team with 103 wins that didn't get in because the rules hadn't been changed yet. Was that fair? Yes, because that what the rules said. The rules say you win your division, you get into the playoffs. That's what's fair. Winning percentage doesn't enter into it.
Hey, aloofman, those 2003 Giants where not that bad! The Marlins did go on to win the Series, right?
Sayhey said:
I didn't mean they were bad as in a crappy team, just that they were the worst 100-win team I've ever seen. IIRC, they had a ridiculously good record in one-run games, which is mostly a matter of luck. And their runs-scored-to-runs-allowed ratio indicated that they won more games than they should have. When that playoff series against the Marlins began, I remember thinking that not only was I hoping the Giants would lose (of course), but I was sure they would lose.
In all fairness though, the Dodgers had similar luck last season. Near the end of the season they went over a month without a non-comeback win. In other words, for about 30 games in a row, they didn't take an initial lead and keep it the whole game. To do that and still stay in contention is just plain lucky. If you were to claim that having Gagne as closer is the only reason the Dodgers didn't finish a few games back, I couldn't really argue with you.
This is going to be a very exciting weekend. A three game series with the Yankees is always exciting. Even more now with the AL East and Wild Card on the line. The Boston Police has learned from last Fall, they plan on having 876 officers on hand for crown control if needed.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/09/30/876_police_to_deploy_after_sox_games/
Go Sox!
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/09/30/876_police_to_deploy_after_sox_games/
Go Sox!
Figures the DBacks would put an actual winning streak together at the end of the season when it no longer matters.
At least they knocked the Giants back into 3rd in the NL West, strange to see everybody in the stadium come to their feet expecting Bonds to pinch hit -- see it not happen, then see him clean out his locker, heading home for the rest of the season.
Two weeks work with the team for Bonds ... and a questionable next year.
At least they knocked the Giants back into 3rd in the NL West, strange to see everybody in the stadium come to their feet expecting Bonds to pinch hit -- see it not happen, then see him clean out his locker, heading home for the rest of the season.
Two weeks work with the team for Bonds ... and a questionable next year.
