The Baseball Thread

[BigFatHairyDeal]

Still, sometimes it's interesting to see a Cinderella team coming of nowhere to go to the World Series. It would have been fun to see that happening again.

I think it's good for the sport for championships to spread around the various franchises. You want every franchise's fans to believe they have a chance. If it's always the glamor franchises playing for the title, it gets kind of monotonous and you lose engagement from large pockets of the country.

If you want ratings bonanzas, though, the best draws have some combination of big markets and superstars, whether we like it or not.

As for cinderellas, I like the ones that nobody believed in coming into the season, and everyone is expecting them to fall back to earth, but it never happens. These tend to be small market teams. But if you earn your cinderella status because you underachieved for large chunks of the season, I can't get behind you.

EDIT: an example of a cinderella-ish team whose run I really enjoyed was the 2015 KC Royals. They had an old-fashioned approach to baseball and a middle-of-the-pack payroll. And, of course, they played in Middle America. Despite being the best team in the AL that year, a quick Google search indicated that they were underdogs for both the ALCS against Toronto and the World Series against the Mets. They didn't fit the evolving mold of what a winning team should look or play like, so they ran into doubters time and time again.

---
RIP Fernando Valenzuela. Fernando-mania was a little ahead of my time, but I remember the night he and Dave Stewart pitched no-hitters on the same day.

 

[Space Cadet]

Well, Game 1 of the WS got off to a great start with Freddie Freeman of the Dodgers with the walk-off home run. Wonder what Game 2 has in store tonight.

 

[Space Cadet]

Dodgers won Game 2 but Ohtani is hurt, sadly. I hope it's not serious.

 

[Space Cadet]

Not trying to triple post lol but tonight, the Dodgers are looking to sweep the Yankees and win the title.

 

[LinusFan303]

There will be at least one more game , FOX and the MLB are happy and relieved.

 

[BigFatHairyDeal]

There will be at least one more game , FOX and the MLB are happy and relieved.

We're two innings deep into game 5, with Cole on the bump. Aaron Judge finally hit a HR. So far, looking like we'll have November baseball. Outside chance we get that game 7...

EDIT: Big oops. Didn't have 5 unearned runs in my World Series bingo.

 

[LinusFan303]

Well it's now it's over over. The Dodgers have won.
That also means while the Yankees 15 year drought of World Series appearances, they still haven't won one in 15 years. The Dodgers get their first real season series win this century. (2020's shortened season is short)

 

[BigFatHairyDeal]

Well it's now it's over over. The Dodgers have won.
That also means while the Yankees 15 year drought of World Series appearances, they still haven't won one in 15 years. The Dodgers get their first real season series win this century. (2020's shortened season is short)

A lot of people like to dump on the Dodgers for winning the WS in a shortened season, but consider that they've had such few problems in the regular season. There struggles were winning in the postseason. 2020 was unique in that it forced them to go through an extra round of postseason.

When you add playoff teams, it increases the championship odds for the bottom teams. Namely, if you finish 3rd but only two teams qualify, your championship odds drops to zero. But if you expand the playoffs, then every other team who otherwise would've been KO'd under the old rules get assigned positive championship odds, even if they're significantly weaker than the field.

But championship odds are zero sum, so that means it lowers the championship odds for the teams at the top. If you played a round robin season tournament, finishing at the top gives you 100% championship odds. But if you add one playoff opponent, it drops to something like 55-70%, depending on the strength of competition. Add more rounds and those odds keep falling.

Add to that the Dodgers had to do that with no home field advantage after the wild card round, so I think a lot of the undermining of their success that year is off base.

Now if the Astros, who finished 2020 with a 29-31 record but made it to the ALCS, won the WS that year, I'd asterisk it like crazy.

 

[stephane dumas]

Well it's now it's over over. The Dodgers have won.
That also means while the Yankees 15 year drought of World Series appearances, they still haven't won one in 15 years. The Dodgers get their first real season series win this century. (2020's shortened season is short)

Now, let's see if the Yankees will have a longer drought as long as the Blue Jays or even the Guardians (formely Indians).

 

[LinusFan303]

Now, let's see if the Yankees will have a longer drought as long as the Blue Jays or even the Guardians (formely Indians).

The Yankees copied my team, we had 15 years without going the World series then went and lost. Of course, mine has never won one.

 

[Space Cadet]

No surprise but the ratings for this year's World Series was excellent for both MLB and FOX:

World Series Game 5 Scores 18.6 Million Viewers For Fox Sports as Dodgers Clinch the Title

Fox Sports averaged 18.6 million viewers on Wednesday as the Los Angeles Dodgers clinched the World Series in Game 5.

variety.com

 

[LinusFan303]

The Oakland A's are just the A's now , still a very bad thing that happened here

 

[LinusFan303]

ESPN is walking away! After this season they are opting out of their rights to baseball.

Baseball Strikes Out at ESPN: Sports Giant to End TV Rights Deal With MLB After Current Season

ESPN and Major League Baseball will break up after nearly 40 years together after the current season

variety.com

 

[PF9]

My top candidate to replace ESPN is Paramount Network with production by CBS Sports, last involved with MLB in 1993.

For the initial three years before new long-term deals begin in 2029, PN can air the Sunday night package currently on ESPN, with alternate telecasts of select games aimed at a youth audience on Nickelodeon, similar to the NFL broadcasts.

In 2029, I'd like to see Paramount Network start airing a Friday night doubleheader, then the Sunday night package can go to the CW, which would then start alternating the rights to the World Series and All-Star Game with Fox.

 

[LinusFan303]

Here are the Roku Sunday brunch time ( and a 4pm game) games this year

 

[Space Cadet]

ESPN is walking away! After this season they are opting out of their rights to baseball.

Baseball Strikes Out at ESPN: Sports Giant to End TV Rights Deal With MLB After Current Season

ESPN and Major League Baseball will break up after nearly 40 years together after the current season

variety.com

Wow, maybe Warner Discovery will try to get games on TNT and TruTV.

 

[LinusFan303]

Wow, maybe Warner Discovery will try to get games on TNT and TruTV.

Would be interesting to see NBC go for it, they are already going to be sports on Sunday from September-April, might as well fill the rest of Sundays with the Sunday Night Baseball. But TBS , where Tuesday Night games air, probably wouldn't mind trading up for the exclusivity of the Sunday Night game. FOX probably won't be getting that part of the package since they already get an exclusive game on Saturday. But I could see the wild card ground getting split between current post season holders of TNT Sports and Fox Sports. That's if they decide to carve up the ESPN rights.

 

[PF9]

Would be interesting to see NBC go for it, they are already going to be sports on Sunday from September-April, might as well fill the rest of Sundays with the Sunday Night Baseball. But TBS , where Tuesday Night games air, probably wouldn't mind trading up for the exclusivity of the Sunday Night game. FOX probably won't be getting that part of the package since they already get an exclusive game on Saturday. But I could see the wild card ground getting split between current post season holders of TNT Sports and Fox Sports. That's if they decide to carve up the ESPN rights.

NBC wouldn't be able to air MLB on all Sunday nights during the season due to NBA and NFL commitments.

That's why I suggested CBS getting the package for Paramount Network, using the 1990-93 MLB on CBS theme.

Plus CBS still has a sister kid's channel, Nickelodeon, that they can air alternate telecasts on like with NFL games. NBC won't have that anymore in a couple weeks.

 

[LinusFan303]

NBC wouldn't be able to air MLB on all Sunday nights during the season due to NBA and NFL commitments.

That's why I suggested CBS getting the package for Paramount Network, using the 1990-93 MLB on CBS theme.

Plus CBS still has a sister kid's channel, Nickelodeon, that they can air alternate telecasts on like with NFL games. NBC won't have that anymore in a couple weeks.

If CBS gets it , it would be on CBS. Not a channel that people can't get on the basic package of Comcast Xfinity. NBC could still do it, and NBC Sports will still access to USA Network and CNBC, no matter anything else happening. (And there's peacock)

 

[PF9]

If CBS gets it , it would be on CBS. Not a channel that people can't get on the basic package of Comcast Xfinity. NBC could still do it, and NBC Sports will still access to USA Network and CNBC, no matter anything else happening. (And there's peacock)

Another option is The CW, which currently primarily airs movies on Sunday nights.