2018 Standings and Playoff Race Discussion

[coolhandluke121]

The loss of wild cards would be very bad for small market teams like the Brewers. Imagine being placed in a 4-team division with CHC and STL where only the winner makes the playoffs. Not good.

 

 

Truth. I have no patience for that. The smaller your divisions, the more likely it is that you can have some kind of statistical fluke with an exceptionally hard or easy division. I hate seeing bad teams in the playoffs and good teams out. Any scenario where 2 of the 3 best teams in the league could miss out on the playoffs completely, despite having one of the toughest schedules, is really obnoxious. The current system can't leave any of the 3 best teams out, but even that's not fair because the 2nd-best team probably deserves a series.

 

With 30 teams, it makes sense to have 6 divisions. The current divisions also line up really well by geography and travel, and they're not even that competitively imbalanced by market size. The AL East has been too tough many times, but it's not like you can separate NYY and Boston and it's not like Tampa, Baltimore, and Toronto will consistently be as good as they've been over the last 10-15 years. Market size advantage is a separate issue anyway, and it's gotten better. They've come a long way with revenue sharing, pool money, and compensatory picks.

 

I think they had it right with 1 wild card. I would like to see slightly fewer division games to balance the schedule more. My outside-the-box idea is flexible scheduling in September. Convene an NCAA-style committee to decide match-ups, balancing out strength of schedule discrepancies and rewarding teams that have played the best while maximizing playoff chase suspense. It would be tough to not know who you're playing, but you could stick to your home/road schedule. It could be like the playoffs before the playoffs.

[coolhandluke121]

I think I'd just go with expanding the wildcard play in to a 3 game series so that it's slightly less up to luck, but on the other hand that would but the wildcard winner in a bit more of a disadvantage from fatigue than they already have from 1 extra game.

 

What if you could just schedule ~155 games for each team and then schedule the last 7 games for everyone with this sort of thing in mind? Division leaders get easy games because they earned a "bye", but wild card contenders play each other and have one last chance to grab the last playoff spot. That gives baseball what they want (more revenue from more teams still being in the hunt) while ending that stupid wild card game and basing it on record.

[DuWayne Steurer]

My plan.

 

Expand to 32 teams, with no divisions, and everyone plays a balanced schedule.

 

Play a 124 game schedule and then do a knockout round style round robin tournament seeded based on record, with all 32 teams, grouped into 8 groups of 4 (just like the World Cup!), and then take the group winners and re-seed them 1-8 into a regular playoff format. That way, everyone is playing for something throughout the entire season.

 

Problem solved.

 

That should all probably be in blue.

[istanbultaye]

My plan.

 

Expand to 32 teams, with no divisions, and everyone plays a balanced schedule.

 

Play a 124 game schedule and then do a knockout round style round robin tournament seeded based on record, with all 32 teams, grouped into 8 groups of 4 (just like the World Cup!), and then take the group winners and re-seed them 1-8 into a regular playoff format. That way, everyone is playing for something throughout the entire season.

 

Problem solved.

 

That should all probably be in blue.

 

[sarcasm]Get rid of extra innings and implement tie games in the regular season, and the group play. Then in the playoffs any game tied after 9 is decided with a home run derby![/sarcasm]

[owbc]

The idea of a postseason tournament involving all teams has been gaining traction. The NBA will probably be the first to implement it. The interesting idea I've seen is that the bottom teams will compete for the #1 draft pick.

 

The NBA and MLB seasons drag on too long so it would certainly be interesting to turn the last couple weeks into something with higher stakes.

[MoreTrife]

Per Nightengale, Cubs game in Washington is a GO.

[DuWayne Steurer]

I would honestly love a format where 32 teams played a double elimination tournament where each round was a best-of-five series. There would be plenty of games and I think that would just be an absolute riot

 

I'm not advocating for something like that to happen, I just think it would be a blast to watch.

 

That being said I also like the idea of the regular season being 155 games, and then the last week of the season still being played with the last 7 games being the wild-card schedule while the rest of the teams are playing games based on a random draw. That way your Wild Card round isn't a single game, and the rest of your playoff teams aren't sitting around getting cold.

[KeithStone53151]

Per Nightengale, Cubs game in Washington is a GO.

 

I saw so much crying from Cubs fans on twitter and such about how bad the weather's going to be, how mlb is trying to screw them, etc. Reality is they feel entitled to special treatment and are crying foul because they aren't getting it. I don't see Baltimore cancelling their game that day and that stadium is no further away from the hurricane. Their arguments are general on par with the level of intelligence that wildly cheers for the 200 foot fly ball. They really should just thank their lucky stars that Scherzer will be given an extra day of rest and won't be pitching tomorrow.

[hurricanecrush]

I would honestly love a format where 32 teams played a double elimination tournament where each round was a best-of-five series. There would be plenty of games and I think that would just be an absolute riot

 

I'm not advocating for something like that to happen, I just think it would be a blast to watch.

That would be crazy! Can you imagine losing early and having to run the gauntlet on the back side only to have to beat the front side winner in back to back five game series to win it all?

[MrTPlush]

It’s a race. The Brewers now sit just one game back of the Cubs in the NL Central race. Wow almighty.

[pacopete4]

With this one, Friday night becomes another must win game.

[adambr2]

Hypothetical: If we won the division, who would you "cheer" for in a Cubs/Cardinals Wild Card game?

 

I would say the Cardinals. I hate the idea of us not really having a true home field advantage for an entire playoff series which would likely be the case if the Cubs won.

[Eye Black]

Hypothetical: If we won the division, who would you "cheer" for in a Cubs/Cardinals Wild Card game?

 

I would say the Cardinals. I hate the idea of us not really having a true home field advantage for an entire playoff series which would likely be the case if the Cubs won.

I would absolutely agree with the Cardinals. I would rather the Brewers play in the Division Series versus the Cardinals than the Cubs. In that scenario if the other Division Series was the Rockies-Braves, the Brewers would have about as good of a chance as anybody to emerge as the National League Champions.

 

One other irony in looking at that possible scenario (where the Rockies win the NL West) is one of the best things that could happen to the Brewers in that case is having the Braves go on a hot streak to end the season. If the Brewers won the division, but the Braves finished with a better record then the Brewers would face the Rockies in the Division Series instead of the Cubs-Cardinals winner. Probably too many stars to align for that scenario.

[Eye Black]

Cubs Remaining Games (84-61)

@ Nationals (1 Game)

Reds (3 Games)

@ Diamondbacks (3 Games)

OFF DAY

@ White Sox (3 Games)

Pirates (4 Games)

Cardinals (3 Games)

 

 

Brewers Remaining Games (84-63)

OFF DAY

Pirates (3 Games)

Reds (3 Games)

OFF DAY

@ Pirates (3 Games)

@ Cardinals (3 Games)

OFF DAY

Tigers (3 Games)

 

 

A few of the more likely scenarios needed for the Brewers to win the division outright....

 

If the Cubs finish 11-6, Brewers need to finish 12-3.

If Cubs finish 10-7, Brewers need to finish 11-4.

If Cubs finish 9-8, Brewers need to finish 10-5.

If Cubs finish 8-9, Brewers need to finish 9-6.

If Cubs finish 7-10, Brewers need to finish 8-7.

[MrTPlush]

Win our series and we have a legitimate shot to do it. Maybe trade a sweep for a series loss. I don't think 10-5 is all that crazy will how well we have played. Hopefully it can continue. It is pretty fun to have a wild card spot virtually wrapped up. Now they can just focus on getting the division.

[Ennder]

Brewers at a 98% chance to make the playoffs. It sure doesn't feel that easy though. I'll feel much better when we are down to single digit games.

[pitchleague]

None of this matters! The Red Sox or Astros are going to win the World Series! I've been told this countless times on television and in articles that I've read. We're all wasting our time!!!!!!

[tmwiese55]

Hypothetical: If we won the division, who would you "cheer" for in a Cubs/Cardinals Wild Card game?

 

I would say the Cardinals. I hate the idea of us not really having a true home field advantage for an entire playoff series which would likely be the case if the Cubs won.

I would absolutely agree with the Cardinals. I would rather the Brewers play in the Division Series versus the Cardinals than the Cubs. In that scenario if the other Division Series was the Rockies-Braves, the Brewers would have about as good of a chance as anybody to emerge as the National League Champions.

 

One other irony in looking at that possible scenario (where the Rockies win the NL West) is one of the best things that could happen to the Brewers in that case is having the Braves go on a hot streak to end the season. If the Brewers won the division, but the Braves finished with a better record then the Brewers would face the Rockies in the Division Series instead of the Cubs-Cardinals winner. Probably too many stars to align for that scenario.

 

Interesting thought and one that's probably very unlikely. But another thing to consider though is that you might give up home field in the NLCS by going that route. I don't know the answer, but I think I'd lean towards not having to play the Cubs in the NLDS over the risk of not having home field in the NLCS vs ATL

[82brewcrew82]

We are going to, most likely, have the first or second best record in the NL. Why do we care who it is?

[tmwiese55]

Because you'd always prefer to play as worse a team as possible (or at least best matchup vs us) to increase your chances of winning.

[82brewcrew82]

Because you'd always prefer to play as worse a team as possible (or at least best matchup vs us) to increase your chances of winning.

But it'a all a crapshoot, right? And if it's not then those teams should be worried about playing us, not us worried about them. If this really is an elite team, then it shouldn't matter who we play.

[Warning Track Power]

I think in an ideal world, the Brewers would have the following schedule:

 

1. Win the Division with the best record in the NL;

2. Cubs lose to the Rockies in the NL Wild Card;

3. Brewers beat the Rockies in the NLDS;

4. Braves beat the Dodgers in the NLDS; and

5. Brewers beat the Braves in the NLCS

 

The Brewers pitching staff matches up better with the Braves and Rockies than the Dodgers, who are the only team in the NL with an SP I am afraid of (Kershaw) regardless of playoff history. Rivalry series, Cubs and Cardinals, while fun are always toss ups regardless of record. I would prefer to avoid those as a result.

[tmwiese55]

Because you'd always prefer to play as worse a team as possible (or at least best matchup vs us) to increase your chances of winning.

But it'a all a crapshoot, right? And if it's not then those teams should be worried about playing us, not us worried about them. If this really is an elite team, then it shouldn't matter who we play.

 

But in a crapshoot there is still odds and every little bit counts. hitting a 7 is more likely than hitting a 6 or a 5. yes of course if you want to win it all you should do it regardless, but the easier the better. Take the NCAA tournament as an example. Would you rather play high seeds the whole way or a bunch of underdogs that pulled off upsets. tough guy speak you can say it doesn't matter just win the game, but reality is the easier it is the better. I know I'd have rather played MSU than Duke in that title game.

[pacopete4]

In an ideal world, the Brewers beat the Cardinals, Cubs, Dodgers and then the Red Sox or Stros to win the whole thing. Knock em all off. They'll never forget you. Make em do a Disney movie about you.

[phnxcrew]

Unless I’m missing something, the talentless, roid loving, unwritten rules cardinals own us and id much rather play the cubs. You know Molina is gonna spit on some one and their gnome center fielder is going to hit .750 in the series against us. No thanks