How much do you care about winning the division?

[DrungoHazewood]

9 hours ago, Billy F-Face3 said:

Over the past few seasons the World Series teams have been Wild Card teams and the division winners with the best records had a bye, but got knocked out by the wild card teams. 

The Orioles experienced this 1st hand in 2023.

This season the Orioles are in a division pennant race against the Yankees, much the same way they were against the Rays last season. 

If it were a race against the Rays again, I'd probably think the Wild Card would serve us better for the Playoffs. Hitters need their timing & practice, and pitchers need their routines.

But I hate losing to the Yankees on anything. It's a pride thing that we would want to beat out the Yankees to defend the AL East Championship.

How does everyone else see this? Is it better to be a Wild Card team in the playoffs?

No, it's not better to be a wild card team, it's better to win the division. But all you can do is play your best and hope the Yanks come back to the pack. You don't make short-term transactions and punt future wins to try to pass a 107-win Yankee team for the division title.

[DirtyBird]

With the balanced schedule, there should only be 1 wild card team. 
It is ridiculous to have a 162 game schedule that still puts 40% of the league into the playoffs.

[Flash- bd]

27 minutes ago, DirtyBird said:

With the balanced schedule, there should only be 1 wild card team. 
It is ridiculous to have a 162 game schedule that still puts 40% of the league into the playoffs.

I like the current format, it means that the top 2 teams basically have the same amount of competition effectively as they have had for the last number of decades (2 other teams) to get the WS. To me it makes sense. 

Ridiculous is the NBA which allows 2/3 of its teams into the playoffs (16/30 after the play-in, over 50%), in a 82 game season. 

[Matt Bennett]

Alot. It's our division. Keep it. 

[Sports Guy]

41 minutes ago, DirtyBird said:

With the balanced schedule, there should only be 1 wild card team. 
It is ridiculous to have a 162 game schedule that still puts 40% of the league into the playoffs.

Thats how pro sports are.  Playoffs mean a ton of revenue.

I actually think it’s fine. The best way to do it is probably just have the best record in each league play for the title and end it there but that will never happen. 

[sportsfan8703]

Winning the division is huge or it means we could potentially play the first 5 on the road. 

Will these damn Yankees lose?  We took 3/4 from them. Which points out, how much our ballpark is an advantage over them. Judge’s roids can’t reach over that wall. 

[DirtyBird]

10 minutes ago, Flash- bd said:

I like the current format, it means that the top 2 teams basically have the same amount of competition effectively as they have had for the last number of decades (2 other teams) to get the WS. To me it makes sense. 

Ridiculous is the NBA which allows 2/3 of its teams into the playoffs (16/30 after the play-in, over 50%), in a 82 game season. 

I just don’t think byes are an advantage and are often a disadvantage.

[Just Regular]

50 minutes ago, DirtyBird said:

With the balanced schedule, there should only be 1 wild card team. 
It is ridiculous to have a 162 game schedule that still puts 40% of the league into the playoffs.

Any key player good enough for the Dodgers to care about rostering, the regular season part of their career is in some respects over.

Please Trout orchestrate yourself to the Phillies.

[Moose Milligan]

It’d be nice to have and it’s be nice to beat the Yankees. But I’m more concerned with advancing in the postseason more than anything. 
 

I don’t think anyone here would complain if we didn’t win the division but made a deep playoff run. 

Edited June 4 by Moose Milligan

[AlbNYfan]

I will be blasphemous. I enjoy the team being good, watchable and competitive over the 162-game schedule. I suppose I prefer the Division crown. The playoffs and WS makes the season too long IMO, just like the NBA and NHL seasons. World Series games are just too late for me to enjoy. I am of the age that in elementary school, teachers would turn on a WS game on the radio if the class behaved, yes, day games. Things change and that's fine, but IMO, the game loses something if an 8, 9 or 10 year old can't watch the WS because it's too late.

[SilentJames]

1 hour ago, DrungoHazewood said:

No, it's not better to be a wild card team, it's better to win the division. But all you can do is play your best and hope the Yanks come back to the pack. You don't make short-term transactions and punt future wins to try to pass a 107-win Yankee team for the division title.

What Soto and judge did the last month is not sustainable - right? 

 

RIGHT?

I mean, probably not but yeah the Yankees have certainly found their swagger the last five weeks. That said, the Orioles (who arguably have not been playing their absolute BEST ball) have held right with them. 

I want the division, the playoffs are a total crapshoot in baseball and there need to be more evidence to see if the super-long layoff for winning the division really hurts or was last year's bye teams all losing just a fluke? I want that flag man. 

[Sports Guy]

The best thing about winning the division is the one less series you have to play.

Now that can obviously be a good thing, as you don’t sit around for several days and go cold but still, one less round means one less chance of losing.

[DirtyBird]

Just now, Sports Guy said:

The best thing about winning the division is the one less series you have to play.

Now that can obviously be a good thing, as you don’t sit around for several days and go cold but still, one less round means one less chance of losing.

They should give the top division winner the option of swapping playoff position with the 3rd division winner. That way, there can't be any "cold and rusty" excuses.

[DrungoHazewood]

15 minutes ago, SilentJames said:

What Soto and judge did the last month is not sustainable - right? 

RIGHT?

I mean, probably not but yeah the Yankees have certainly found their swagger the last five weeks. That said, the Orioles (who arguably have not been playing their absolute BEST ball) have held right with them. 

I want the division, the playoffs are a total crapshoot in baseball and there need to be more evidence to see if the super-long layoff for winning the division really hurts or was last year's bye teams all losing just a fluke? I want that flag man. 

I look at phrases like "found their swagger" as narratives that ESPN makes up to describe teams who are playing well, similar to how a good team loses four of seven and there's the inevitable story about how their unaddressed weaknesses are coming back to bite them, or wondering aloud if they have leadership issues.

When someone's full time job is to write or talk about sports they need so say something, and people generally don't like endless stories of the form ".575 team sees short-term fluctuations due to random variation".

[dystopia]

The O’s are 8-4 in Burnes’ starts, and it’s highly correlated with the offensive performance in those games rather than Burnes’ performance.