More Playoff Teams? Why Not
Generally speaking BMF has always considered myself a baseball purest, an old skool fan who likes things the way they were. But the older I get the more forgiving I am on a lot of progressive issues: instant replay for instance was desperately needed on HR’s and I fully expect it to eventually progress to correct blown calls at bases and I’m OK with that. In fact so long as we don’t mess with alls and strikes I’m cool with replay.
More wild card teams is cool with me too. Why not add a single game playoff for two WC teams per league? 2 extra teams get to taste the postseason and the WC races should be even wilder.
The truth is baseball, and society, need to evolve and the old fashioned method of 2 divisions and only 2 playoff teams per league seems incredibly boring.
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The first intersquad game will be played today and finally we are getting to the point of some real games.
BMF can’t wait to see the following Mets play: Ike, Duda, Tejada, Rauch, Niese, Ramon Ramirez others too but these guys are on my Watch List.
March 2nd, 2012 at 8:31 am
I’m okay with the 2nd wild card as well in this format but my concern is this format won’t last. The first time the Yanks or Red Sox are the first wild card in and then lose that one game to a team with a worse record the whining will begin and before we know it it will be at least a three game series and maybe even five, sending the World Series half way into November.
March 2nd, 2012 at 9:42 am
I am willing to give this team a chance before I totally discount any hope during the season as I know a lot of Mets fans are. If the team can stay healthy, we will have some good power in the lineup and a nice mix of some younger veterans and young players. I think any chance of being really competitive is going to fall on 3 guys (Bay, Johan, and whoever the official closer will be). I guess it is March so I can hope. And I hope that maybe the size of the park was playing games with Bays head and now with normal dimensions, he can put up some decent numbers. Of course with a healthy Johan, the pitching staff looks entirely different. Santana, Niese, Dickey, Gee are not bad and who knows, maybe even Pelphrey can pitch better going back to being the #4 or #5 on the staff.
The team does not look nearly as bad to me as most people are saying. I know that we lost Reyes but to be honest with everyone, it is nice to know that we can count on our SS to be on the field for most of the games. Now I would take back Reyes in a second but Tejada may not be so bad a replacement.
Its March and everything looks good. I hope I am saying the same thing in June.
Hello to all of the returning Mets fans to the blog.
March 2nd, 2012 at 9:53 am
Ditto IrishMike.
March 2nd, 2012 at 9:56 am
To back up Howard, the Mets led the NL East in runs scored last year and had a bullpen that blew a lot of late leads. It appears the bullpen is now stronger than last year. If the starting lineup stays healthy and produces like last year, I think we can have some fun this summer.
March 2nd, 2012 at 11:39 am
Two reasons for optimism:
1. “The Ewing Theory”
http://proxy.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?id=1193711
2. The fences.
It seems to be commonly accepted that Citi’s dimensions screwed with Wright’s and Bay’s heads, so who’s to say that moving them in won’t have a similar effect. If Wright and Bay can come back to their norms, and Ike and Murph play like they did before they got hurt, then the Mets have the potential to have a pretty balanced and dynamic lineup, 2-6 (Murph, Wright, Ike, Bay, Duda)
March 2nd, 2012 at 9:27 pm
BMF, I don’t think you can claim to be Old School and then spell it Old Skool.
March 3rd, 2012 at 8:58 am
I don’t like the idea of possibly a third place team in a division could end up being the World Series champions.
However after saying that I do like that the wild card team has to do something extra to make it in the playoffs. I always felt there wasn’t enough incentive for a team to win the division as opposed to just getting in as the wildcard.
Heading to opening day on Monday in PSL. I have zero expectations for this team, so I then won’t be that disappointed if they finish in the basement.
Man they have a really tough schedule for the first part of the season.
March 3rd, 2012 at 11:53 am
This quote from Brian Cashman in regards to salaries .. it made me sad .. and jealous ..why?
“We’re still the Yankees,” Cashman said. “We’re still going to outspend everybody else. That’s not going to change. We’re still going to be there for our fan base and try to make sure every year that they have legitimate hope that this can be a special season.”
..”make sure every year they (the fan base) have legitimate hope .. ” - what a concept ..
March 3rd, 2012 at 4:59 pm
“legitimate hope”? Having one of your most expensive players getting the series losing out two years in the row does not sound like a good business plan. It just goes to show that their denial of “buying championships” is pure BS. I wouldn’t be jealous of that, nor is it sustainable from a business perspective, which is what baseball simply is.