I don’t know about you, but I really can’t get excited about the baseball playoffs this year – and not just because the Mets are blowing what little chance they have of sneaking in.
There are just too many mediocre teams vying for a spot this year. “Wild Cards” were introduced back in the 90s, after two teams in the same division each won over 100 games. That the sport expanded to fifteen teams per league soon after that season helped, but that year there was a good deal of whining about how the second best team in all of baseball had to go home.
There’s not a singe team this year with a real chance to win more than 100 games, and even winning 95 games seems a stretch for most teams. While the races for divisional crowns are still not completely settled, a LOT of the “wild card” spots have people talking about which teams have won the season series against the other teams. When you have to start bringing tiebreakers into the mix at the lower levels, you have to admit it’s not that interesting….
And as we’ve seen recently, it’s all too likely that one of the lower seeds can get hot at the right time and defeat a much better team that’s having a cold spell and win the pennant. Having a pair of just barely above average teams playing in the World Series is not really what you want.
Even the “awards races” are pretty much locked up, so there’s not much excitement there. “Will Paul Skenes win the Cy Young with a losing record?” is about all there is. Maybe Cal Raleigh will get the AL MVP if he hits 60 home runs, but too many writers are still favoring Aaron Judge.
As to what World Series matchup would be coolest to see? I’m going to root for Mariners vs Brewers. There’d better be a LOT of talk about the Seattle Pilots in the lead-in!
(Yes, this is a blatant “space wasting” post…..)
Pure Blather 