RealGM

Since it's almost the end of the regular season it's time for a thread to discuss the playoff races and then the playoffs.

As of now this is how it would shake out.

AL East Champion - Yankees
AL Central Champion - Tigers
AL West Champion - Rangers

AL Wildcard 1 - Orioles
AL Wildcard 2 - Athletics

NL East Champion - Nationals
NL Central Champion - Reds
NL West Champion - Giants

NL Wildcard 1 - Braves
NL Wildcard 2 - Cardinals

So, if things hold? Who do you want to win the wildcards and who do you want to win it all?

I want the Braves and Orioles to win the wildcards and in order of who I want to win the World Series.

1. Nationals
2. Orioles
3. Reds
4. Athletics
5. Giants
6. Rangers
7. Tigers
8. Braves
9. Yankees
10. Cardinals

It won't happen, but a Giants/A's WS would be something.

Ill just use twirlys formula.

I want the Braves and Orioles to win the wildcards and in order of who I want to win the World Series.

1. Rangers
2. Orioles
3. Braves
4. Athletics
5. Nationals
6. Tigers
7. Reds
8. Giants
9. Yankees
10. Cardinals

I'd be apathetic about the Orioles, Nationals, Giants, Athletics, and Rangers. I'm opposed to seeing the Braves, Tigers, Reds, Yankees, and Cardinals winning. No particular order.

Anyone but the Cards. I'd kinda like to see Rangers/Nats or Reds/As

Have to say that I'm not a huge fan of the wild-card play-in game. Doesn't seem right that a team like the Braves can be 7 games better all year and still basically miss the playoffs if they lose one game. I understand the excitement factor, especially since the Brewers were in the hunt this year, but there has to be a way to make it more fair.

coolhandluke121 wrote:Have to say that I'm not a huge fan of the wild-card play-in game. Doesn't seem right that a team like the Braves can be 7 games better all year and still basically miss the playoffs if they lose one game. I understand the excitement factor, especially since the Brewers were in the hunt this year, but there has to be a way to make it more fair.

I'd like to see the Orioles grab the Division and see the Yankees lose in the play-in game, that would be delightful.

I kind of agree with chl. I like that there's an added emphasis on winning your division so you're guaranteed to actually get in the playoffs but I don't like how a 95ish win team like the Braves could get knocked out because of one game.

The problem is baseball is a routine oriented game so you can't really have a 3 game series determine it because then their opponent would be sitting for three days. That would help the pitchers, but not the position players.

Kohl Is A Mome wrote:

coolhandluke121 wrote:Have to say that I'm not a huge fan of the wild-card play-in game. Doesn't seem right that a team like the Braves can be 7 games better all year and still basically miss the playoffs if they lose one game. I understand the excitement factor, especially since the Brewers were in the hunt this year, but there has to be a way to make it more fair.

I'd like to see the Orioles grab the Division and see the Yankees lose in the play-in game, that would be delightful.

I guess any mention of the Yankees does serve to remind us how inherently unfair MLB is. And yet I still have a problem with letting an inferior team in over a superior team.

This AL stuff is getting fun.

I'd love to see the Angels hold on tonight. That means the A's and the Rangers are squaring off in Oakland for the division. Oakland takes 2 and they have to play off the division. Oakland takes all 3 and there is a chance that Texas has to play it off even to get a Wild Card spot.

Go A's/O's

DaveMeyers wrote:Go A's/O's

Definitely rooting for this to happen. I have loved the Athletics since I was little.

Me too. I love how the A's do things.

I hope one or both of the O's/A's can win their division. Since the Angels didn't hold on to last night's nightcap of the doubleheader, the A's need to sweep at home to win the West.

Would be awesome to see the O's take the East. It would be kinda messed up, but I'd also like to see a division playoff and then Wild Card playoff for the Yankees where they lose both. I'd LOL @ that one.

I don't think it's possible anymore for the A's and Rangers to have a "playoff" for the division, though if the A's win the first two, then the final game of the season will be for the division.

Ken Rosenthal muses that Major League Baseball might not need much pushing to alter course from a one-game Wild Card playoff.

An additional Wild Card berth was introduced this season and the two Wild Card entrants will play one game to determine who makes it to a division series.

Rosenthal writes that if the Yankees fail to win the American League East and are then eliminated as a Wild Card, Bud Selig could be forced to change the rules.

"The Yankees would scream," Rosenthal writes. "The networks would seethe. And Commissioner Bud Selig might think, 'Uh, why did I just allow the sport's No. 1 attraction to go down in the blink of an eye?'"



Read more: http://baseball.realgm.com/src_wiretap_ ... z284DjIcRf

This one will be great to see if the Yankees finish as the 5 seed and wouldn't have made it anyways...

Moneyball 2 anyone?

Go A's!

I really hope Cabrera doesn't win the Triple Crown and give writers the excuse to vote him as MVP over the deserving MVP Mike Trout.

What's WAR and UZR? BATTING AVERAGEZZZ!!!

Turk Nowitzki wrote:Moneyball 2 anyone?

Go A's!

Get Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill on board and Im in for the sequel.

Who's going to play Brandon Moss? That seems to be the undervalued theme this time around. Platoon bats (as we've discussed in other threads).