Four division winners had five-day breaks before playing in the Division Series, but for baseball players, two days off in a row “are a lot,” and five “is an eternity,” according to Peter Abraham of the BOSTON GLOBE. The Braves and Dodgers were “knocked out in four games” and the Astros “played three tight games” against the Mariners before “advancing on Saturday in an 18-inning thriller.” The Yankees extended their series against the Guardians to Game 5. Abraham wonders “was the break too much of a break?” Teams have high-tech pitching machines for hitters to “stay sharp” and pitchers can “work in the bullpen.” Braves manager Brian Snitker “dismissed the idea of making the Division Series seven games,” with the system being “fine in his mind.” One year is “not enough to judge,” but this season has shown that the “‘reward’ of getting a bye wasn’t much of a reward at all” (BOSTON GLOBE, 10/16).
TOO SOON TO JUDGE: THE ATHLETIC’s Ken Rosenthal wrote all of this upheaval about the new postseason format is “rather dramatic,” and “depending upon your rooting interests, quite compelling.” As opposed to the NFL and NBA playoffs, which “generally result in predictable outcomes,” the baseball postseason is “giving off an anything-can-happen, NCAA-basketball tournament vibe.” For a sport “intent on honoring teams that best navigate the 162-game regular season,” will a NLCS between the fifth and sixth seeds “be truly desirable?” The “upstart” No. 6 Phillies would “not even have qualified for the postseason under the old format.” The new, expanded format is an “easy target for criticism,” but the first year of the new format is “too soon to pass judgment” (THE ATHLETIC, 10/16).
NOTHING NEW: USA TODAY’s Gabe Lacques writes the elimination of three teams who won between 101 and 111 games before they could reach the NLCS is “not great for the viability and purpose of a 162-game season.” The presence of an 89- and an 87-win team in the NLCS does “not speak well for the concept that the best team will make off with a World Series championship.” Yet the “most recent round of bellyaching” over an expanded field that added one team and two extra series to each league “only illustrates how wrong the general public has been about how we perceive greatness, especially in baseball.” The idea the “best team won’t win the World Series” is “old news.” Since divisional play began in 1969 through 2021, the team with the best record in baseball won the World Series “just 14 times in 52 years — or 27% of the time.” Just last year, the Braves won 88 games and a World Series and “nobody seemed to have a problem with it” (USA TODAY, 10/17).
POSTSEASON’S PURPOSE: In L.A., Bill Shaikin wrote the postseason is “not about determining the best team.” That is “what the regular season is for.” The postseason is about “determining a champion, in the process enlivening and exciting an ever-growing number of fan bases by sending more invitations to a tournament.” This is “not about extending the first round to a best-of-seven.” If the league wanted to “bestow a truly significant advantage upon the best teams,” it would “spot the Dodgers and other teams that earn a bye one victory — that is, the Dodgers would have started the division series with a 1-0 lead on the Padres.” That is “not happening” (L.A. TIMES, 10/16).
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