Scoreboard watching

[hutchead]

Dodgers pull off the win in extra innings to pull within 1/2 game of the O's. We're even in the loss column and they have the tie breaker. This might not mean much but it could mean home field advantage if the O's and Dodgers meet in the World Series.

[OriolesMagic83]

25 minutes ago, hutchead said:

Dodgers pull off the win in extra innings to pull within 1/2 game of the O's. We're even in the loss column and they have the tie breaker. This might not mean much but it could mean home field advantage if the O's and Dodgers meet in the World Series.

I won't be too upset if the Dodgers have home field in a series over the O's, because that will mean the O's are in the World Series.

[Babkins]

38 minutes ago, OriolesMagic83 said:

I won't be too upset if the Dodgers have home field in a series over the O's, because that will mean the O's are in the World Series.

Sure. Also doesn’t hurt that the Orioles are 52–29 on the road.

[oriolediehard]

38 minutes ago, OriolesMagic83 said:

I won't be too upset if the Dodgers have home field in a series over the O's, because that will mean the O's are in the World Series.

The O's are good on the road! The best in MLB!

 

 

 

 

[ShoelesJoe]

So I'm trying to understand the playoff format and seeding. If I have it correct this is what the AL playoffs would look like if the season ended today:

Seed #

1) Baltimore Orioles

2) Texas Rangers

3) Minnesota Twins

4) Tampa Bay Rays

5) Toronto Blue Jays

6) Houston Astros

The Orioles and Rangers would have first round byes.

The Twins would host the Astros in a Wild Card three game series, all of the games in Minnesota. The winner goes on to the Division Series.  

The Rays would host the Blue Jays in a Wild Card three game series, all of the games in Tampa. The winner goes on to the Division Series.  This would be kind of strange as it would mean Tampa and Toronto would potentially be facing each other six games in a row, and nine times in fourteen days. 

The Orioles would face the winner of the Tampa / Toronto series. The Rangers would face the winner of the Twins / Astros series. Both of these would be best of five in a 2-2-1 format with the Orioles and Rangers having home field advantage. 

IMO this part of the playoff scheduling is nonsensical. It is almost certain that in the Division Series the #1 seed (the Orioles) would have to play a team with a better record than whichever team plays the #2 seed (the Rangers). It shouldn't be that difficult for MLB to reseed the last four AL teams so as to reward (rather than punish) the team with the best record in the league. 

[Spy Fox]

16 minutes ago, ShoelesJoe said:

So I'm trying to understand the playoff format and seeding. If I have it correct this is what the AL playoffs would look like if the season ended today:

Seed #

1) Baltimore Orioles

2) Texas Rangers

3) Minnesota Twins

4) Tampa Bay Rays

5) Toronto Blue Jays

6) Houston Astros

The Orioles and Rangers would have first round byes.

The Twins would host the Astros in a Wild Card three game series, all of the games in Minnesota. The winner goes on to the Division Series.  

The Rays would host the Blue Jays in a Wild Card three game series, all of the games in Tampa. The winner goes on to the Division Series.  This would be kind of strange as it would mean Tampa and Toronto would potentially be facing each other six games in a row, and nine times in fourteen days. 

The Orioles would face the winner of the Tampa / Toronto series. The Rangers would face the winner of the Twins / Astros series. Both of these would be best of five in a 2-2-1 format with the Orioles and Rangers having home field advantage. 

IMO this part of the playoff scheduling is nonsensical. It is almost certain that in the Division Series the #1 seed (the Orioles) would have to play a team with a better record than whichever team plays the #2 seed (the Rangers). It shouldn't be that difficult for MLB to reseed the last four AL teams so as to reward (rather than punish) the team with the best record in the league. 

You have it right. 

Last year in the first year of this new playoff system it worked out more equitably that in the AL the 1-6 seeds were in the same order they would have been if using W/L record. 

This year the Twins are the 3 seed and are very likely to have the worst record of the six teams. 

If that keeps happening often I could see the instituting a re-seeding process after the WC round. 

[hutchead]

15 minutes ago, ShoelesJoe said:

So I'm trying to understand the playoff format and seeding. If I have it correct this is what the AL playoffs would look like if the season ended today:

Seed #

1) Baltimore Orioles

2) Texas Rangers

3) Minnesota Twins

4) Tampa Bay Rays

5) Toronto Blue Jays

6) Houston Astros

The Orioles and Rangers would have first round byes.

The Twins would host the Astros in a Wild Card three game series, all of the games in Minnesota. The winner goes on to the Division Series.  

The Rays would host the Blue Jays in a Wild Card three game series, all of the games in Tampa. The winner goes on to the Division Series.  This would be kind of strange as it would mean Tampa and Toronto would potentially be facing each other six games in a row, and nine times in fourteen days. 

The Orioles would face the winner of the Tampa / Toronto series. The Rangers would face the winner of the Twins / Astros series. Both of these would be best of five in a 2-2-1 format with the Orioles and Rangers having home field advantage. 

IMO this part of the playoff scheduling is nonsensical. It is almost certain that in the Division Series the #1 seed (the Orioles) would have to play a team with a better record than whichever team plays the #2 seed (the Rangers). It shouldn't be that difficult for MLB to reseed the last four AL teams so as to reward (rather than punish) the team with the best record in the league. 

I would also like to see a reseed but it is what it is. Also, Seattle will have a lot to say about the playoff teams as they only trail Houston by a 1/2 game and they host both Houston and Texas this week. They have owned Houston this year winning eight of ten so they have the tiebreaker over them as well.

[Number5]

There was some logic to the seeding method when the schedules were imbalanced, as a wild card team could have a better record than a division winner merely as a result of playing a lot of games against 3 weak sisters within their division, while the other team clawed its way to winning a tough division.  With this year's balanced schedule, there is no logic to keeping the same playoff seeding format.  They didn't think it through.

[dystopia]

9 hours ago, hutchead said:

I would also like to see a reseed but it is what it is. Also, Seattle will have a lot to say about the playoff teams as they only trail Houston by a 1/2 game and they host both Houston and Texas this week. They have owned Houston this year winning eight of ten so they have the tiebreaker over them as well.

I’d rather see the M’s in than the Astros. Astros scare me despite their recent lousy play. 

[Just Regular]

9 hours ago, hutchead said:

I would also like to see a reseed but it is what it is. Also, Seattle will have a lot to say about the playoff teams as they only trail Houston by a 1/2 game and they host both Houston and Texas this week. They have owned Houston this year winning eight of ten so they have the tiebreaker over them as well.

Houston has one off day this week, so they are even at 71 in the Loss column.

The light overall schedule today and Luis Castillo v. Justin Verlander marquee gives a fun playoff atmosphere for the late game.

With the tiebreak, if the Mariners win this series, they'd have an effective 2 game edge on the Astros for the final four days.

[eddie83]

If they simply let the top WC be the 3 seed they don’t have to worry about reseeding. The goal should be to avoid the two best records playing each other in the ALDS.  
 

Tampa #3

Minn #4 

 

Still give the division champ the home field. I guess they don’t want a possible WC team hosting the ALCS over the 4 seed division champ. My point would be the fact that the Twins are even in the playoffs and are still hosting a series gives the division title meaning. 

[eddie83]

Not making an official pick but if I had to guess this second I like the Orioles chances of playing TOR instead of TB. TB is so ravaged by injuries. I know the Orioles have played TOR well but I’m not so sure that TB would not be the better matchup this second.  
 

Either way I’m hoping for a 3 game series with some extra inning games. 

[Just Regular]

Mariners hometown announcers were giddy Verlander only 93 in the first inning, in contrast to Castillo 99.

He threw Julio four straight curveballs, which could have been either a baring your teeth attack plan, or Verlander pitching scared depending on your spin.

[86this]

58 minutes ago, Just Regular said:

Mariners hometown announcers were giddy Verlander only 93 in the first inning, in contrast to Castillo 99.

He threw Julio four straight curveballs, which could have been either a baring your teeth attack plan, or Verlander pitching scared depending on your spin.

And yet the Astros are up 5-0 T6.

[Just Regular]

13 minutes ago, 86this said:

And yet the Astros are up 5-0 T6.

Yep.     Castillo looked like he had plenty of adrenaline and wanted to truck guys with the good fastball, and the lineup wasn't truck-able.    Julio played a Jose Abreu double into a triple with a bobble, and even Martin Maldonado stung one in the big rally....pitch by pitch Castillo was 17 out of 20 fastballs while letting in the 3 runs to take the air out of the stadium.     

Both Yordan and Tucker went yard for add on runs.