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Houston, Oakland, New York (A), Tampa, Minnesota, Chicago, and Cleveland are all but assured a postseason spot. Toronto and Detroit are battling it out for the last spot. So, the AL picture is in place as far as teams go, though seeds are wildly up in the air.
Who do you want to face? What teams scare you the most? What are you looking for in this crazy postseason format?
Courtesy of FanGraphs
andrew – I’m kind of surprised the Twins have better odds of winning the WS than the Indians
I do not want to face the As or the White Sox in the first round, although I don’t know if you’re allowed to face teams from your own division in the first round or not.
If you can, I kind of want to play the Twins. Just go head to head, let’s see who is better. It would be really fun to beat the Astros, but they also still scare me a bit. And it would be far less fun beating them without fans.
mgbode – You are.
andrew – I mean, I’d love for the Tigers to sneak in and get to play them, of course. That’s about as close to a bye as you can get for the Indians, right?
mgbode – The first round is a three-game series, so really anything can happen. I would hope that Bieber and Civale would shut down the Tigers, but you never know in such a small sample of what might happen.
mitchell – I know this isn’t the question, but it would be hilarious if the Twins had to face the Yankees
mgbode – How many postseason games in a row is it now?
mitchell – The Yankees have won 13 playoff games in a row against Minnesota!!
andrew – Do the Twins have the worst pitching of any of the contenders?
I’m not counting teams like the Tigers in this. I’m saying of the top tier contenders
mgbode – You should put this in roundtable… but the Twins have good pitching. Falvey has turned that program around quickly.
mitch – Yeah the A’s pitching is worse
Houston’s is probably worse too
mgbode – And White Sox, Rays, Yankees, Houston. A lot of that is injuries.
mitch – Meh I’d say the Rays and Yankees are better
But it’s less obvious
Andrew – Maybe I’m biased from only watching the Twins play against the Indians, but I do not think their pitching looks good at all
mgbode – Right now? Tampa has 8 on IL.
andrew – When you say the A’s pitching is worse, are you talking starters or full staff?
mitchell – Yes.
But their bullpen is really good
And Luzardo and Montas are good
Oh man, I’m sleeping on Oakland
As far as Tampa, they still have Snell, Glasnow, Morton. That’s still super scary.
andrew – For the record, I was talking full staff. I just wanted to be clear on that, not that it changes any opinions here. But I still think Minnesota’s pitching doesn’t look great…..(against the Indians, haha….SMALL SAMPLE SIZES!!!).
mgbode – This brings up an important point … the Indians have the best rotation in baseball. But, in a three-game set, does that even matter? You need two elite starts. A lot of these teams have two elite or near-elite guys at the top of their rotation. How do we get Detroit again?
andrew – So, I don’t know if this is the place to ask this question, but what is the playoff format? I don’t even know. Are there any byes? Does every team have to play a three-game series?
Editor’s note:
Wild Card Series (best-of-three, with all games at the higher seed’s home ballpark):
No. 1 seed vs. No. 8; No. 2 vs. No. 7; No. 3 vs. No. 6; No. 4 vs. No. 5.
Division Series (best-of-five, with traditional 2-2-1 home/road format):
Winner of 1-8 vs. Winner of 4-5; Winner of 2-7 vs. Winner of 3-6. Home-field advantage goes to the higher seed.
League Championship Series (best-of-seven, with traditional 2-3-2 home/road format):
Winner of 1-4-5-8 vs. Winner of 2-3-6-7. Home-field advantage goes to the higher seed.
World Series (best-of-seven, with traditional 2-3-2 home/road format):
AL champion vs. NL champion. Home-field advantage goes to the team with the superior regular-season record.
andrew – So no real advantage for winning your division?
mgbode – Nope. Unless you are the No. 1 seed in the AL getting to face the team no one thinks really belongs (and watch that team win!).
andrew – That wild card round is going to be wild. So many three-game series. Pure chaos. Anything can and will happen.
mgbode – I hate it if it was a full season. For this craziness though, I’m good with it. I’d like it to go back to the previous format, but expand the Wild Card round to three games. That would be fun.
andrew – If ever there was a year for some weird team to get hot at the right time and win a WS, this would be the year. You can sneak by on some luck and timely performance in three and five game series. Now I see what you mean about the rotation. It’s awesome that the Indians have such a good rotation, but boy does that advantage lose a lot of its bite in a three-game series. One off-game from Bieber, and suddenly the season is hanging on the edge of a cliff.
mgbode – And, our bullpen has been great. Truly has. But, I cannot kill this suspicion in my head that it is not as good as the numbers have indicated.
I trust Karinchak, Maton, and Hand (again! that’s big). I should trust Oliver Perez, and I do to an extent… but he and Wittgren are guys where “the stuff” is less and they get by. That worries me. Maybe it shouldn’t.
mitchell – Yeah, I completely trust Oliver Perez at this point
But maybe that’s because he looks so wise
andrew – What about Quantrill? Too early to feel any kind of way?
mgbode – Good point. Quantrill should be good. And he’d make a sixth man in the bullpen, which is more than most teams can feel confident calling upon in the postseason. I’m mostly being paranoid here because I prefer the guys who come out and breathe fire to blow everyone away.
OK, so I happened upon this craziness. Franmil Reyes, your current batting (average) leader in the American League. 2020 is wild.
Courtesy of FanGraphs
andrew – AL Central representing in the top five
mgbode – Reminder that Reyes starting the season 7-for-43 and had the team-friendly broadcast team openly questioning whether or not he should be benched for a few games to reset his mind.
I love baseball so much.
gerbs – That Franmil
mgbode – I know @andrew said he didn’t want to face the White Sox… but, honestly, I still view them as our main rival, and I would like nothing more than to shove them out of the postseason in a two-game sweep. They have the hitters for sure and potential with pitching, but their team is way more unpredictable, which leads to higher error bars. Bring on the White Sox.
andrew – I don’t really know why they scare me so much. I’d like to think in the postseason when pitching really matters, our strength would beat their strength. But there’s something fearless about that White Sox team that makes me uneasy.
mgbode – They have the potential to be a really tough out. I’d just rather face them than many of the other teams that also are with more stability in their results. Also, it’s just more fun to beat the White Sox.
andrew – I do agree on that.
mitchell – Tom Hamilton said yesterday on the broadcast that no one nationally is respecting the AL Central this year, and I’m kind of with him. The division is good, and for all the talk about how terrible it was in the past, national media people have been awfully quiet about how competitive it is now
andrew – I’m not sure how much I believe in the Tigers just yet, but yeah, absolutely. The Royals are the only sub-.500 team right now. It’s the only division in baseball with four teams .500 or better.
mgbode – There was a lot of thought the NL Central was full of quality teams before the season (except the Pirates). The AL Central has embarrassed them.
mitchell – Correct. I mean, we already knew there was a coastal bias. This is just more proof
Anyway, that’s why, from a purely fan perspective, I’ll root for the division if the Indians get eliminated
mgbode – Another odd thing I noticed was a lot of White Sox writers claiming that the Clevinger trade was a “White Flag Trade.” Now, they know those better than most (haha), but it feels like they didn’t quite understand that the Tribe might have helped themselves given how much they needed a couple bats in the bottom third of the lineup (and here’s the Naquin appreciation for catching fire too since the Tribe only picked up one).
Also, I’ll never root for the White Sox.
andrew – I, too, cannot root for the White Sox. Ever.
mgbode – I still root against A.J. Pierzynski and he’s just a broadcaster on FOX Sports now.
Who do you want to face? What teams scare you the most? What are you looking for in this crazy postseason format?
Courtesy of FanGraphs
andrew – I’m kind of surprised the Twins have better odds of winning the WS than the Indians
I do not want to face the As or the White Sox in the first round, although I don’t know if you’re allowed to face teams from your own division in the first round or not.
If you can, I kind of want to play the Twins. Just go head to head, let’s see who is better. It would be really fun to beat the Astros, but they also still scare me a bit. And it would be far less fun beating them without fans.
mgbode – You are.
andrew – I mean, I’d love for the Tigers to sneak in and get to play them, of course. That’s about as close to a bye as you can get for the Indians, right?
mgbode – The first round is a three-game series, so really anything can happen. I would hope that Bieber and Civale would shut down the Tigers, but you never know in such a small sample of what might happen.
mitchell – I know this isn’t the question, but it would be hilarious if the Twins had to face the Yankees
mgbode – How many postseason games in a row is it now?
mitchell – The Yankees have won 13 playoff games in a row against Minnesota!!
andrew – Do the Twins have the worst pitching of any of the contenders?
I’m not counting teams like the Tigers in this. I’m saying of the top tier contenders
mgbode – You should put this in roundtable… but the Twins have good pitching. Falvey has turned that program around quickly.
mitch – Yeah the A’s pitching is worse
Houston’s is probably worse too
mgbode – And White Sox, Rays, Yankees, Houston. A lot of that is injuries.
mitch – Meh I’d say the Rays and Yankees are better
But it’s less obvious
Andrew – Maybe I’m biased from only watching the Twins play against the Indians, but I do not think their pitching looks good at all
mgbode – Right now? Tampa has 8 on IL.
andrew – When you say the A’s pitching is worse, are you talking starters or full staff?
mitchell – Yes.
But their bullpen is really good
And Luzardo and Montas are good
Oh man, I’m sleeping on Oakland
As far as Tampa, they still have Snell, Glasnow, Morton. That’s still super scary.
andrew – For the record, I was talking full staff. I just wanted to be clear on that, not that it changes any opinions here. But I still think Minnesota’s pitching doesn’t look great…..(against the Indians, haha….SMALL SAMPLE SIZES!!!).
mgbode – This brings up an important point … the Indians have the best rotation in baseball. But, in a three-game set, does that even matter? You need two elite starts. A lot of these teams have two elite or near-elite guys at the top of their rotation. How do we get Detroit again?
andrew – So, I don’t know if this is the place to ask this question, but what is the playoff format? I don’t even know. Are there any byes? Does every team have to play a three-game series?
Editor’s note:
Wild Card Series (best-of-three, with all games at the higher seed’s home ballpark):
No. 1 seed vs. No. 8; No. 2 vs. No. 7; No. 3 vs. No. 6; No. 4 vs. No. 5.
Division Series (best-of-five, with traditional 2-2-1 home/road format):
Winner of 1-8 vs. Winner of 4-5; Winner of 2-7 vs. Winner of 3-6. Home-field advantage goes to the higher seed.
League Championship Series (best-of-seven, with traditional 2-3-2 home/road format):
Winner of 1-4-5-8 vs. Winner of 2-3-6-7. Home-field advantage goes to the higher seed.
World Series (best-of-seven, with traditional 2-3-2 home/road format):
AL champion vs. NL champion. Home-field advantage goes to the team with the superior regular-season record.
andrew – So no real advantage for winning your division?
mgbode – Nope. Unless you are the No. 1 seed in the AL getting to face the team no one thinks really belongs (and watch that team win!).
andrew – That wild card round is going to be wild. So many three-game series. Pure chaos. Anything can and will happen.
mgbode – I hate it if it was a full season. For this craziness though, I’m good with it. I’d like it to go back to the previous format, but expand the Wild Card round to three games. That would be fun.
andrew – If ever there was a year for some weird team to get hot at the right time and win a WS, this would be the year. You can sneak by on some luck and timely performance in three and five game series. Now I see what you mean about the rotation. It’s awesome that the Indians have such a good rotation, but boy does that advantage lose a lot of its bite in a three-game series. One off-game from Bieber, and suddenly the season is hanging on the edge of a cliff.
mgbode – And, our bullpen has been great. Truly has. But, I cannot kill this suspicion in my head that it is not as good as the numbers have indicated.
I trust Karinchak, Maton, and Hand (again! that’s big). I should trust Oliver Perez, and I do to an extent… but he and Wittgren are guys where “the stuff” is less and they get by. That worries me. Maybe it shouldn’t.
mitchell – Yeah, I completely trust Oliver Perez at this point
But maybe that’s because he looks so wise
andrew – What about Quantrill? Too early to feel any kind of way?
mgbode – Good point. Quantrill should be good. And he’d make a sixth man in the bullpen, which is more than most teams can feel confident calling upon in the postseason. I’m mostly being paranoid here because I prefer the guys who come out and breathe fire to blow everyone away.
OK, so I happened upon this craziness. Franmil Reyes, your current batting (average) leader in the American League. 2020 is wild.
Courtesy of FanGraphs
andrew – AL Central representing in the top five
mgbode – Reminder that Reyes starting the season 7-for-43 and had the team-friendly broadcast team openly questioning whether or not he should be benched for a few games to reset his mind.
I love baseball so much.
gerbs – That Franmil
mgbode – I know @andrew said he didn’t want to face the White Sox… but, honestly, I still view them as our main rival, and I would like nothing more than to shove them out of the postseason in a two-game sweep. They have the hitters for sure and potential with pitching, but their team is way more unpredictable, which leads to higher error bars. Bring on the White Sox.
andrew – I don’t really know why they scare me so much. I’d like to think in the postseason when pitching really matters, our strength would beat their strength. But there’s something fearless about that White Sox team that makes me uneasy.
mgbode – They have the potential to be a really tough out. I’d just rather face them than many of the other teams that also are with more stability in their results. Also, it’s just more fun to beat the White Sox.
andrew – I do agree on that.
mitchell – Tom Hamilton said yesterday on the broadcast that no one nationally is respecting the AL Central this year, and I’m kind of with him. The division is good, and for all the talk about how terrible it was in the past, national media people have been awfully quiet about how competitive it is now
andrew – I’m not sure how much I believe in the Tigers just yet, but yeah, absolutely. The Royals are the only sub-.500 team right now. It’s the only division in baseball with four teams .500 or better.
mgbode – There was a lot of thought the NL Central was full of quality teams before the season (except the Pirates). The AL Central has embarrassed them.
mitchell – Correct. I mean, we already knew there was a coastal bias. This is just more proof
Anyway, that’s why, from a purely fan perspective, I’ll root for the division if the Indians get eliminated
mgbode – Another odd thing I noticed was a lot of White Sox writers claiming that the Clevinger trade was a “White Flag Trade.” Now, they know those better than most (haha), but it feels like they didn’t quite understand that the Tribe might have helped themselves given how much they needed a couple bats in the bottom third of the lineup (and here’s the Naquin appreciation for catching fire too since the Tribe only picked up one).
Also, I’ll never root for the White Sox.
andrew – I, too, cannot root for the White Sox. Ever.
mgbode – I still root against A.J. Pierzynski and he’s just a broadcaster on FOX Sports now.