I can’t believe it, the Astros to the American League, two wild card teams and inter-league play throughout the season.
Do you agree with this new change to America’s pastime? Which one of these would you change if you had the chance?
Nov 20
The Sunday Question
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18 comments
Anonymous
11/20/2011-2:29pm at 2:29 pm (UTC -4)
Doesn’t bother me. I never thought the current alignment was fair (a 6 team division and a 4 team?). And interleague has long since stopped meaning anything. Though I would say this would have been the time to standardize the DH (one way or the other!)
I actually like the change to the WC> It makes winning the title mean something now. There were years where the 2 teams were pretty much set early (I recall the AL east like this) and both teams pretty much coasted in, not really caring that much about WC vs. division, since only home field was in play, and that was not enough to burn out the pitching rotation.
Now, there is a huge incentive to win the division. A couple days off, and no 1 game do or die.
I also don’t think it devalues the playoffs adding 1 more team as a play in. And if anything, can lead to more exciting races (for division crown, and that last WC spot).
I do wonder about all the tie breaker scenarios. What I don’t want to see is multiple tie breaker games, just to get into the WC play in game! Do all those based on regular season results like in football.
Adam "Prismo"
11/20/2011-7:43pm at 7:43 pm (UTC -4)
One more huge advantage for the team playing the wild card winner:
The wild card teams are likely to use their best starter in the 1-game playoff, meaning that “ace” won’t be able to pitch the usual 2 games in a 5 game series, but will only pitch 1 game in the series.
Paul
11/20/2011-3:41pm at 3:41 pm (UTC -4)
The Astros’ move doesn’t matter to me very much. Maybe if I were an NL Central or AL West fan…
I like the move to cheapen the value of winning the wild card, but I’m not crazy about a third of the teams in baseball making the playoffs.
Anonymous
11/20/2011-3:53pm at 3:53 pm (UTC -4)
The only thing that concerns me is an excess of inter league games and the rules regarding the DH. Now that we will have this everyday interleague their may be a push to standardize it one way or the other as previous posters have commented and so I’m concerned the AL wins out because ” the chicks dig the longball” . I’m not interested in AL style baseball that involves s stacked 1-9 and a focus entirely on offensive prowess.
Anonymous
11/20/2011-6:12pm at 6:12 pm (UTC -4)
If they get rid of the DH, they can standardize it all they want.:-D
MetsFan4Decades
11/20/2011-4:49pm at 4:49 pm (UTC -4)
No, don’t like the increased inter league play. I’d rather see less, not more.
As others have mentioned, this seems to be slanted in favor of the AL. The NL very rarely will have an extra power bat for the DH. More often than not, that 25th roster spot is a pitcher.
If I were an Astros fan, I’d not be happy about moving to the AL. But I’m not so C’est la vie.
I haven’t seen all the details yet on the FA compensation picks. Something tells me though, from what I’m reading so far, this is likely to cause more problems than it’s going to solve.
I don’t think we needed another post season one game playoff round but I like the rule that was lifted where if you won the division, you couldn’t play the WC winner in the first round if that team was in your division.
The hard slotting change kind of irks me though. Just when the Mets were looking like making a change to draft and go over slot, if necessary – now it looks like you have to be careful with that or you pay the penalty.
MetsFan4Decades
11/20/2011-4:50pm at 4:50 pm (UTC -4)
One more mention….so they’re going to start testing for HGH in the major league? This should be interesting…
Anonymous
11/20/2011-11:33pm at 11:33 pm (UTC -4)
I thought that they had already implemented that, or am I thinking of something else?
Adam "Prismo"
11/20/2011-11:36pm at 11:36 pm (UTC -4)
They hadn’t because HGH testing requires blood work, and the players union was against that. But I guess they figured it wasn’t worth fighting over anymore.
MetsFan4Decades
11/21/2011-12:24pm at 12:24 pm (UTC -4)
They implemented HGH testing in the minors last year, starting in spring training.
The majors only had ‘drug’ testing, which I believe encompassed all illegal drugs plus any banned substances such as steroids. HGH wasn’t one they tested for – I thought b/c there really wasn’t a reliable blood test for that. Somewhere over the past few years, they mus have come up with a reliable test.
Anonymous
11/20/2011-6:43pm at 6:43 pm (UTC -4)
I didn’t really see enough details on the slotting to know what it means.
for the interleague, I saw someplace that it won’t increase the total number of games played outside of the league, it was just going to spread them out over the entire year (instead of being bunched up). But don’t quote me on that!
MetsFan4Decades
11/20/2011-7:05pm at 7:05 pm (UTC -4)
You might be right on that inter league play.
I guess since I saw that there would be at least one inter league game every day of the season, I just assumed there would be more games played between the two leagues. I could be wrong with that assumption though.
TRS86
11/20/2011-11:13pm at 11:13 pm (UTC -4)
Actually it is going to devalue the sure even more. Now instead of a couple of weeks al teams were giving their dh’s off they will now never get in a groove. I can see more and more al teams going to the rotation method instead of the high priced everyday dh.
Anonymous
11/21/2011-12:47am at 12:47 am (UTC -4)
I thought a lot of teams were doing that already?
All this really does is spread out your interleague play even more. Instead of doing 5/6 series over 6 weeks, you will do the same (or will it be less? still not sure) throughout the whole season.
what this does point out is the inanity of having a league where there are different rules in what amounts to different division/conferences.
Could you imagine in the NBA the western conference played the college 3 point line and the east played the NBA line?
how about in football, maybe the AFC uses a 2 point conversion and the NFC doesn’t.
anyway, you get the idea. The DH is long overdue for standardization (and I vote for it going away of course!)
Anonymous
11/21/2011-5:16am at 5:16 am (UTC -4)
This has got to be a tough time living in Eagle’s land. The Giants just stunk up the joint as they are now two games into their perennial second half slump and with the Saints and Packers coming up on their schedule you are looking at 6-6 and probably another year missing the playoffs. Coughlin’s a good coach but this team needs retooling and the Giants need a young head coach that will be there for the long haul.
Anonymous
11/21/2011-12:11pm at 12:11 pm (UTC -4)
agreed. I was not a happy camper last night. Giving the Eagles life, not a good thing.
Anonymous
11/21/2011-5:23am at 5:23 am (UTC -4)
Glad someone sees the situation in a similar light. It seems kind of silly to have the DH but undoubtedly there will be those who say that pitching is being given the upper hand in an age that may see some truly great performances from the likes of kershaw, lincecum, Cain, verlander etc. It just seems like were getting back to the fundamentas of baseball and I couldn’t be happier with the result so far.
MetsFan4Decades
11/21/2011-12:26pm at 12:26 pm (UTC -4)
I never did understand why MLB allowed one league and one league only to adapt the DH.
And I’m with you, I vote get rid of it.
Not that I’ve read much on it, but whenever I do see it mentioned, most NL fans don’t like it either.