The field and seedings are finalized now that the last teams standing did the split thing and bounced the Diamondbacks in an indirect act of revenge for the Cubs.
Make your picks. Or don’t. I can’t tell you what to do.
“Granted, none of us are perfect, but it seems to me that Pete Rose is significantly farther from perfection than just about anybody you would want to know.” –Rob Neyer, nearly 30 years ago
berselius:
Seeing some suggestions that now that Rose is dead, his lifetime ban has expired and he can get into the HOF. Which, ???????????????????
My understanding is that his ban doesn’t say anything about lifetime, but rather that he is on the Restricted List and considered permanently ineligible.
An uninspiring slate of National League Playoff teams this year. I usually root NL, but it’ll be hard.
Rather than make predictions, I’ll just list my rooting preferences.
1. Tigers
2. Indians
.
preference gap.
.
3. Brewers (eh, they win divisions a lot and stall. I don’t have much animosity there. They aren’t StL.)
4. Royals/Padres (whatever)
.
.
6. Phillies (to support ex-Cubs; they could be higher with different fans, (dying laughing))
7. Orioles (they could be higher with different owners)
.
.
.
8. Braves
9. Mets
10. Dodgers (Ohtani vs Soto in the Series would be kind of cool, except the teams basically have them because they have unlimited budgets)
11. Yankees
12. Astros (you really have to work hard to fall below the Yankees in my rooting preferences, but they’ve done a great job getting there. They’ll have to fully turnover players, management, and ownership from their cheating days to climb back up. They’ve even fallen below the Cardinals, but not the New England Patriots.)
I mentioned I’ve been playing to maximize rarity scores (without missing blocks). Yesterday I missed by only 5 points. That’s my best so far. I picked A-Rod over Bonds for 100r x MVP and lost 3 points. It’s hard to think like the herd sometimes. 🙂
I mean, if you asked Jordan Montgomery if he had a good year he’d certainly say no, right? Because he had a lousy year. The owner apparently pushed for his signing so it was the owner’s fault. I don’t think it’s a terrible comment, although he might have been better to say “performance” instead of “talent.” The Tigers owner could say that Javy Baez was a bad financial decision for the talent he’s shown on the field too, and he’d be right. Doesn’t mean they don’t have talent, but they didn’t perform last either.
I saw a stat on the Tigers game that in the postseason since 1990, teams entering the 9th down by 3 runs or more were 1-538. I’m pretty sure the Cubs were that 1.
Diamond Sports counsel tells the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas that it plans to drop nearly all of its remaining MLB contracts, with a plan to retain only the Atlanta Braves.
Keep for sure = Tauchman, Paredes, Steele, Pearson
Most likely keep = Merryweather
50-50 = Keegan, Almonte, Alzolay (former because he’s ok, latter two due to their really bad injuries)
Dunno? = Wisdom, Wingenter, Bethancourt
Nontender = everyone else
The bullpen should look a lot better with Alzolay/Almonte/Merryweather back from injury, I say as a guy with no ability to include injury history in pitcher priors.
Garbage human or not, none of the truly terrible stuff about him is why he’s not in the HOF. They’re just not. He’s out for betting on baseball. Personally, I think it hurts baseball more to have him banned than it hurts Rose or his legacy. I’d rather see him granted eligibility and let the voters decide if he belongs, because, as bad as the betting is or was, I don’t think anyone believes he ever failed to compete as a player or manager. The betting punishment has been more than served and baseball is obviously pro-gambling af. Release the pearls from your clutches, Manfred.
THEN let the writers shit on his personal legacy and vote accordingly. If he doesn’t make it, cool. That’s my take.
I kinda think they should just open up a “foibles” wing in Cooperstown where they acknowledge all the gamblers and steroid dudes who were pretty much great at baseball
I’m sure I’ll feel differently when the Cubs are good enough to make the postseason again, but I’m loving these Wild Card series for several days with four games of postseason baseball.
berselius:
Meanwhile on my other monitor, Jake Arrieta pitching game 6 of the 2016 world series
I actually have a pair of cufflinks made of game-used baseballs from his World Series game 2 start. I might wear them next week during my first week at the new job.
I’d be happy to see any of the Tigers, Yankees, Padres, or Phillies win the World Series. Also super happy the Astros got swept out of the first round.
The Mets have scored seven runs in this series directly tied to a Brewers pitcher being unable to cover first base. There's still a lot of ballgame left tonight, obviously, but that's a number that, given the stage, seems….unfathomable?
Yeah it’s a local billionaire who’s a longtime fan. Also a big private equity guy whose company was neck deep in various GWB era shadiness, but we’re grading on the billionaire curve here (dying laughing). The fact that he’s admitted that he enjoys baseball probably puts him in the top third of owners.
Ah yes, like clockwork it’s the time of year where I try not to argue with nfl fans if a sample size of 13 plays is enough to declare that a player is bad.
I was wondering if it made sense to force the lower seed to travel right away to the top overall seed the next day to give top seed a perceived greater advantage
What they probably should do is the win-one (high seed)/win-two (low seed) doubleheader to give the higher seed at least some advantage since they bat last anyway. That would reduce the wild card round and tire out whoever comes out, and reduce the amount of down time for the bye teams.
I don’t much like the idea of intentionally fatiguing the players to that extent. I’m surprised from a business/ratings perspective they don’t take advantage of the Friday sports vacuum and have series commence a day earlier, but sure, start against college and pro football for the first three days of the DS.
I enjoy the WC series for sheer volume of playoff baseball, but I actually think the 2012-21 format was about the perfect blend of drama and fairness. At least in years that the three best teams in a league didn’t all come from the same division.
Comments
Go beers and O’s
berseliusQuote Reply
American League:
Detroit over Houston
KC over Baltimore
Detroit over Cleveland
Yankees over KC
Yankees over Detroit
National League:
Mets over MIL
Padres over Atlanta
Phillies over Mets
Padres over Dodgers
Padres over Phillies
World Series:
Yankees over Padres
If I’m being honest, I have no idea what will happen because every team is so close and also so flawed.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Go Tigers, go Padres, go Phillies
PerkinsQuote Reply
“Granted, none of us are perfect, but it seems to me that Pete Rose is significantly farther from perfection than just about anybody you would want to know.” –Rob Neyer, nearly 30 years ago
berseliusQuote Reply
Oh, if we’re being more specific
Astros over Tigers
O’s over Royals
Cleveland over Astros
O’s over Yankees
O’s over Cleveland
Beers over Mets
Dads over Barves
Dodgers over Dads
Beers over Phillies
Beers over Dodgers
O’s over Beers
berseliusQuote Reply
If it’s o’s Yankees in the ALDS, I’m not sure if the city of Baltimore is more likely to be standing if they win, or if they lose (dying laughing)
berseliusQuote Reply
Brewers need to lose early so the Cubs can steal their coaches and more magic
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Seeing some suggestions that now that Rose is dead, his lifetime ban has expired and he can get into the HOF. Which, ???????????????????
berseliusQuote Reply
berselius,
I wasn’t sure about that either, I think they will probably form a committee but he really was a trash person
Rice CubeQuote Reply
My understanding is that his ban doesn’t say anything about lifetime, but rather that he is on the Restricted List and considered permanently ineligible.
PerkinsQuote Reply
The HOFers and frigging Nick Punto
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Rice CubeQuote Reply
HOFers were tough. Proud of my 1st rounder column, though.
⚾️ Immaculate Grid 548 9/9:
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PerkinsQuote Reply
An uninspiring slate of National League Playoff teams this year. I usually root NL, but it’ll be hard.
Rather than make predictions, I’ll just list my rooting preferences.
1. Tigers
2. Indians
.
preference gap.
.
3. Brewers (eh, they win divisions a lot and stall. I don’t have much animosity there. They aren’t StL.)
4. Royals/Padres (whatever)
.
.
6. Phillies (to support ex-Cubs; they could be higher with different fans, (dying laughing))
7. Orioles (they could be higher with different owners)
.
.
.
8. Braves
9. Mets
10. Dodgers (Ohtani vs Soto in the Series would be kind of cool, except the teams basically have them because they have unlimited budgets)
11. Yankees
12. Astros (you really have to work hard to fall below the Yankees in my rooting preferences, but they’ve done a great job getting there. They’ll have to fully turnover players, management, and ownership from their cheating days to climb back up. They’ve even fallen below the Cardinals, but not the New England Patriots.)
BVSQuote Reply
Perkins,
tough to find low rarity scores?
I mentioned I’ve been playing to maximize rarity scores (without missing blocks). Yesterday I missed by only 5 points. That’s my best so far. I picked A-Rod over Bonds for 100r x MVP and lost 3 points. It’s hard to think like the herd sometimes. 🙂
BVSQuote Reply
The obligatory Jed presser via BN
https://www.bleachernation.com/cubs/2024/10/01/live-jed-hoyers-end-of-season-press-conference/
Rice CubeQuote Reply
It would appear the Dbacks owner threw Jordan Montgomery under the bus and then ran over him several times
https://x.com/TalkinBaseball_/status/1841157998476988910?t=MaVbfMnxlUvRcRdHvTcFbw&s=19
Rice CubeQuote Reply
BVS,
Yeah I mean for rarity. Each of mine was all the way up at 3% (dying laughing)
PerkinsQuote Reply
Perkins,
You gotta memorize the HOF’ers from the 1910s to get the 0.01 rarities there!
BVSQuote Reply
Rice Cube,
I mean, if you asked Jordan Montgomery if he had a good year he’d certainly say no, right? Because he had a lousy year. The owner apparently pushed for his signing so it was the owner’s fault. I don’t think it’s a terrible comment, although he might have been better to say “performance” instead of “talent.” The Tigers owner could say that Javy Baez was a bad financial decision for the talent he’s shown on the field too, and he’d be right. Doesn’t mean they don’t have talent, but they didn’t perform last either.
BVSQuote Reply
The Angelos family is gone – or are you talking about the new folks.
berseliusQuote Reply
BVS,
I agree in principle with what you said but it’s still not something you say out loud even if everyone knows it to be true (dying laughing)
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Get your shit together, Tigers. Or don’t. I can’t tell you what to do.
PerkinsQuote Reply
Royals and Tigers doing their part to drive the chaos
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Milwaukee contact and speed very pesky
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Mets tied it on a stupid play
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Those runs were more conventional
Rice CubeQuote Reply
I saw a stat on the Tigers game that in the postseason since 1990, teams entering the 9th down by 3 runs or more were 1-538. I’m pretty sure the Cubs were that 1.
PerkinsQuote Reply
Perkins,
The comeback against the Giants I believe
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Haven’t seen this written up anywhere yet, but just FYI in case the Marlins really did fire everyone
https://x.com/IsaacAzout/status/1841247165986795841
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Mets win so that certainly makes things tougher for the Brewers
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Go Padres
Rice CubeQuote Reply
That’s the one I was thinking.
PerkinsQuote Reply
Tatis tattooed
Rice CubeQuote Reply
What a throw by Machado
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Arb projections
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/10/projected-arbitration-salaries-for-2025.html
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Hmmm, that seems big
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Re: this, methinks…
Keep for sure = Tauchman, Paredes, Steele, Pearson
Most likely keep = Merryweather
50-50 = Keegan, Almonte, Alzolay (former because he’s ok, latter two due to their really bad injuries)
Dunno? = Wisdom, Wingenter, Bethancourt
Nontender = everyone else
Rice CubeQuote Reply
RoY column was death.
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PerkinsQuote Reply
Rice Cube,
The bullpen should look a lot better with Alzolay/Almonte/Merryweather back from injury, I say as a guy with no ability to include injury history in pitcher priors.
berseliusQuote Reply
Found some obscure(r) ones given how few ROY choices there are
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Rice CubeQuote Reply
Bullpen game for Detroit, interesting
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Rice Cube,
tbh it’s what got them here in the second half of the season. Johnny Wholestaff has been their MVP
berseliusQuote Reply
berselius,
Ah yes, Skubal and Associates
Rice CubeQuote Reply
oof Astros clogging the bases
avoid the NOBLETIGER
berseliusQuote Reply
Re: Rose and the HOF
Garbage human or not, none of the truly terrible stuff about him is why he’s not in the HOF. They’re just not. He’s out for betting on baseball. Personally, I think it hurts baseball more to have him banned than it hurts Rose or his legacy. I’d rather see him granted eligibility and let the voters decide if he belongs, because, as bad as the betting is or was, I don’t think anyone believes he ever failed to compete as a player or manager. The betting punishment has been more than served and baseball is obviously pro-gambling af. Release the pearls from your clutches, Manfred.
THEN let the writers shit on his personal legacy and vote accordingly. If he doesn’t make it, cool. That’s my take.
andcountingQuote Reply
Well this game got interesting again
Rice CubeQuote Reply
andcounting,
I kinda think they should just open up a “foibles” wing in Cooperstown where they acknowledge all the gamblers and steroid dudes who were pretty much great at baseball
Rice CubeQuote Reply
That go-ahead hit couldn’t have happened against a nicer guy
Rice CubeQuote Reply
🐅🐅🐅!
berseliusQuote Reply
Rice Cube,
you love to see it
berseliusQuote Reply
Hader’s gonna hade.
andcountingQuote Reply
Oof, bad bunt and then a TOOTBLAN
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Oreos offense needs to pick it up
berseliusQuote Reply
andcounting,
I guess he’s back to “I only pitch the ninth” land (dying laughing)
berseliusQuote Reply
berselius,
Won’t have to worry about that much longer this year 😜
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Too bad Benetti isn’t calling this
berseliusQuote Reply
I’m sure I’ll feel differently when the Cubs are good enough to make the postseason again, but I’m loving these Wild Card series for several days with four games of postseason baseball.
PerkinsQuote Reply
Perkins,
Perhaps the Cubs will be the sweeper and not the sweepee
Rice CubeQuote Reply
berselius,
The possibility of there being three central teams in the ALDS is delicious for some reason.
andcountingQuote Reply
Hell yeah, Tigers
PerkinsQuote Reply
*bangs on trash cans in celebration*
berseliusQuote Reply
Meanwhile on my other monitor, Jake Arrieta pitching game 6 of the 2016 world series
berseliusQuote Reply
I actually have a pair of cufflinks made of game-used baseballs from his World Series game 2 start. I might wear them next week during my first week at the new job.
PerkinsQuote Reply
The Royals should probably score more than this one run but I guess it has worked for them before
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Rice Cube,
Yup
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Rice Cube,
O’s with the rare inning including a run and a NOBLETIGER
berseliusQuote Reply
Let’s go Oreos love da O’s
berseliusQuote Reply
I’d be happy to see any of the Tigers, Yankees, Padres, or Phillies win the World Series. Also super happy the Astros got swept out of the first round.
PerkinsQuote Reply
The Royals should definitely score more than these two runs so far
Rice CubeQuote Reply
I don’t know what NOBLETIGER means and at this point I’m afraid to ask.
PerkinsQuote Reply
Perkins,
I believe it is something like
No Outs Bases Loaded Totally Incapable of Getting Easy Run
Rice CubeQuote Reply
The Googles tell me that it is more appropriately
No-Outs Bases-Loaded Ending with Team Incapable of Getting Easy Run
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Royals tho
Rice CubeQuote Reply
berseliusQuote Reply
FARTSLAM is my favorite of the TOOTBLAN successors – fielder allows runner to score like a moron
berseliusQuote Reply
berselius,
Pitcher not covering first seems like a FARTSLAM
Rice CubeQuote Reply
At(dying laughing)ta
Rice CubeQuote Reply
That wildcard home field advantage is a lazy bitch.
andcountingQuote Reply
andcounting,
Padres are making it work pending my jinx
Rice CubeQuote Reply
You’d make good money betting against me (dying laughing)
berseliusQuote Reply
Jackson Cheerio!
Mets better watch out for Caden Froot Loop
berseliusQuote Reply
Beers!
berseliusQuote Reply
Something called a Garret Mitchell!
berseliusQuote Reply
No sweep!
Rice CubeQuote Reply
RIP ATL
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Smell ya later Barves
berseliusQuote Reply
I thought the sons ran the Os now?
If not the case, I’ll rank them…never mind.
BVSQuote Reply
BVS,
Think they sold to a new group but that isn’t final yet
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Rice Cube,
Yeah it’s a local billionaire who’s a longtime fan. Also a big private equity guy whose company was neck deep in various GWB era shadiness, but we’re grading on the billionaire curve here (dying laughing). The fact that he’s admitted that he enjoys baseball probably puts him in the top third of owners.
berseliusQuote Reply
Lots of people remembered Randal Grichuk on those teams, plus I guess also figured they could use the Greinke trick
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Rice CubeQuote Reply
CJ Wilson and EJax were my landmines today.
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PerkinsQuote Reply
Ah yes, like clockwork it’s the time of year where I try not to argue with nfl fans if a sample size of 13 plays is enough to declare that a player is bad.
berseliusQuote Reply
berselius,
The average kicker is just as likely to miss 4 kicks as a .300 hitter is likely to go 1-13 to start the season.
berseliusQuote Reply
berselius,
/complains in Packers
berseliusQuote Reply
berselius,
I’m still holding Justin Tucker on my fantasy bench out of hope, but he has been kinda ass to start the year.
PerkinsQuote Reply
Go Mets I suppose
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Go Mets. But then go Phillies against whomever wins this series.
PerkinsQuote Reply
berseliusQuote Reply
Oh right
Quintana
Rice CubeQuote Reply
If no one scores, this series will last forever
andcountingQuote Reply
andcounting,
Joe Buck oh god yes dot tweet
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Ope
Mets lose
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Ouch.
andcountingQuote Reply
3 outs for either the inevitable and/or the funniest thing to happen in Brewers/Mets postseason history
Rice CubeQuote Reply
(dying laughing)
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Is this Metsing or anti-Metsing?
Rice CubeQuote Reply
oh no beers
berseliusQuote Reply
Woooooow
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Die Beers die.
Smokestack LightningQuote Reply
Terry Francona –> Reds?!
Rice CubeQuote Reply
https://x.com/UnfortunateMLB/status/1842024408866500998?s=19
(dying laughing)
berseliusQuote Reply
What a crazy 4 days for the Mets.
andcountingQuote Reply
berselius,
(dying laughing)
andcountingQuote Reply
This is incomprehensible, but good for the Reds, I guess.
andcountingQuote Reply
https://bsky.app/profile/celebrityhottub.bsky.social/post/3l5nnqazv7t2p
(dying laughing)
berseliusQuote Reply
I got to use Jim Bouton, so that’s cool.
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PerkinsQuote Reply
Let’s go Cleve-land I guess. Or maybe I should put my stink on the Dodgers.
berseliusQuote Reply
berseliusQuote Reply
The absence of postseason baseball on a Friday feels weird and wrong.
PerkinsQuote Reply
Perkins,
I was wondering if it made sense to force the lower seed to travel right away to the top overall seed the next day to give top seed a perceived greater advantage
Rice CubeQuote Reply
It was a choice between Jon Lester and Bartolo Colon to try to reduce rarity and it seems I chose poorly
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Rice CubeQuote Reply
Rice Cube,
I like that idea, though I’m guessing they build in the buffer day in case of a postponed or suspended game.
PerkinsQuote Reply
Nice, he’s doing an NFL game with Greg Olsen this week.
berseliusQuote Reply
To-day’s afternoon background video
berseliusQuote Reply
Perkins,
What they probably should do is the win-one (high seed)/win-two (low seed) doubleheader to give the higher seed at least some advantage since they bat last anyway. That would reduce the wild card round and tire out whoever comes out, and reduce the amount of down time for the bye teams.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Rice Cube,
I don’t much like the idea of intentionally fatiguing the players to that extent. I’m surprised from a business/ratings perspective they don’t take advantage of the Friday sports vacuum and have series commence a day earlier, but sure, start against college and pro football for the first three days of the DS.
andcountingQuote Reply
Pretty awesome that Senga’s rehab start is Gamr 1 vs. the Phillies.
andcountingQuote Reply
I enjoy the WC series for sheer volume of playoff baseball, but I actually think the 2012-21 format was about the perfect blend of drama and fairness. At least in years that the three best teams in a league didn’t all come from the same division.
PerkinsQuote Reply
Perkins,
I really liked how they did it in ‘16. 10/10, no notes.
andcountingQuote Reply
Newer postseason shit –> https://www.obstructedview.net/about-the-mlb-postseason/
Rice CubeQuote Reply