Bellhorn04

To be fair, the vilification took place when the series was 2-1. And it did seem like a crushing loss at the time. Thankfully the team turned right around and pulled off an amazing comeback the next game.

Something tells me that after a short grace period you're going back to saying mean things about Dave again.

Yes, absolutely. Comparing Red Sox teams on their postseason records is just SO much more fun than it once was.

As you mentioned earlier, I think, a team with a 60% probability of winning a game or series has only a 21.6% probability of doing this 3 times in a row. The flip side is that a team with a 40% probability of winning a game or series has only a 6.4% probability of doing this 3 times in a row.

There's another item that I forgot to list: the growing paranoia about sign-stealing, forcing teams to have multiple sets of signs and changing them frequently. One unsightly by-product of this is all the instances of wild pitches and passed balls resulting from catchers getting crossed up on the signs.

We had that moment this year when Mookie Betts pulled out and flashed his 'cheat card' after making a catch. A lot of folks found this funny/entertaining. Personally it made me a little queasy. No reflection on Mookie, of course. Just the fact that fielders now need these cards to know where to position themselves on every play.

They were a longshot, though. Not impossible-longshots do come in sometimes. I guess the only real question here is, how much better of a chance does the favorite actually have vs. the longshot.

Colorado had no chance, seriously. They were not a very good team.

This year, I think Atlanta and Colorado had very little chance of going all the way. I think the Vegas guys were right.

This year the biggest longshots on the Vegas board were Atlanta and Colorado. They were leaning heavily toward the AL to win it. The top 3 favorites were 1) Astros 2) Red Sox 3) Dodgers.

Some teams come into the postseason as longshots on the Vegas board. If you really think those teams have the same chance, you should be betting those longshots every year.

I hear what you're saying. But before they made the changes, the incidence of ties was getting to be ridiculous, because the games were also lower scoring.

Some divisions are consistently weaker than others, are they not?

Yeah, I get that. But some teams are clearly better than their record. Some are not. The franchises of Oakland, Minnesota and Atlanta have remarkably bad postseason records over the last 20 years or so. I don't think it's all randomness.

You are on a roll, man.

I disagree with this a bit. I think there are some teams that come into the playoffs with virtually no chance to win.

MLBTR seems to think baseball is still on the upswing financially, judging by their predictions for Harper and Machado: Harper 14 years 420 million Machado 13 years 390 million

It wouldn't be so boring if they sign Eovaldi...and Buchholz.

Cole? Let's hope.

Miller would be worth considering if his issues knock down his price to something reasonable. :D Like that's gonna happen.

I think sk7326 has a point. And it's not so much about age discrimination as it is about experience discrimination.

In the pro sports and entertainment businesses, awards ARE marketing tools. We're not talking about the Nobel Prize.

Kinsler also had a respectable ALDS against the Yanks with the bat, including a key RBI in Game 4.

Is the great game of baseball in trouble? Certainly the game is still extremely popular and the men who own major league franchises or otherwise have their fingers in the financial pie are still making tremendous piles of money, as are the players. But there are some indicators that its popularity is on the decline-downturns in attendance and most recently the TV ratings for the game’s ultimate showcase, the World Series. There have also been some rumblings and grumblings in various quarters, including right here on this forum, about the quality of the game itself as sporting competition and as entertainment. Let’s enumerate what seem to be the most widespread and most recent complaints. 1) The games are too long, because of all the time between pitches, the mound visits, the pitching changes, and now the replay reviews. 2) The game has become dominated by stat geeks and computer analysts. They decide who the best players are, who the best players for the money are, and how to win more games. 3) All the fielding shifts are annoying and frustrating to watch. 4) Too much emphasis on the long ball. Too many hitters taking an all or nothing approach. Increase that launch angle so you can launch the ball over that damn shift and into the seats. 5) Thanks in large part to 4), there is not enough emphasis on the finer points of the game. 6) Bullpen games are now a thing, and the pitching ‘opener’ is a thing. The idea of a starter trying to throw a complete game now is a joke. You don’t really expect any of your pitchers to attempt to make it through the order three times, do you? 7) Two leagues with different rules, with opposing views on whether the pitcher trying to hit and run is a good idea. This creates a mess when the two leagues play against each other. 8) Umpires continue to call balls strikes and strikes balls at an unacceptable rate. Why not try robot umps? So what should be done to improve the game? What CAN be done? Will the game start to show the impact of declining popularity on the bottom line and will that motivate the powers to do something about it?

Kershaw stays with Dodgers.