Tonight all 8 teams are in play with 2 teams looking to close things out. Houston up 2 games to 1 over the Royals can close it out tonight in Houston. Ventura vs. McCullars. Rangers up 2 games to 1 over the Blue Jays can close it out tonight in Texas. Holland vs. Dickey. Cardinals & Cubs tied at 1 games apiece with game 3 tonight in Chicago. Arrienta vs. Wacha. Mets & Dodgers are also tied at 1 game apiece with game 3 tonight at Citi-Field. Harvey vs. Anderson.
^^^you never know which Holland and which Dickey will show up...if Toronto can win today and send the series back home, I think they'll win it...still don't like the best of 5 format. ...Mets/Dodgers game will be "interesting" to say the least.
I'm okay with the best of 5 series if for no other reason then to shorten the season. Even with the shorter series the world series I believe takes into the 1st week of November & that to me is ridiculous. I still think teams should play 1 double header per month which would give one of two options, it would either shorten the season or you could allow an extra 6 days off for teams during the season. Of course the other alternative would be to do what they've been talking about for years & push the season back to 154 game schedule. Personally I'd rather see the double headers. And to give something back to the fans make at least 2 of the double headers as a one admission (1/2 hour-45 minutes between games). JMO.
...I'd be OK with 2 scheduled DHers vs each team with its division ( 1 home, 1 away)...I know that comes up to 8 DHers a year and I'd doubt the MLBPA would approve but maybe they could also schedule 2 or 3 more off days during the year...this would still shorten the regular season by a net 5 days. ...also, do away with having TWO Wild Card teams play each other for a "win and you're in" format...and also do away with the "best of 5" format...let the ONE team in each league be the WC team which would in turn go on the road and play the team with the best record in its league in a "best of 7" format. ...the other 2 divisional winners would also play each other in a best of 7 series with the one with either the better head to head record OR better overall record deciding the HFA. ...this would still shorten the overall season by 3-4-5 days.
They need to do something but........................................................................................................................................................................they won't.
Anderson does not stand a chance vs the Mets, or Harvey. Now Utley, He's 6 for 18 vs Harvey........ The Met's should win this one tonight..... as for all the others, lets see well played ball, at the highest performance levels possible.........
The two WC teams should play best of 3 series for two reasons, IMO, 1) Don't like the idea of winning one game or out, this isn't the NFL playoffs, MLB teams play 162 reg season games. Play a 3 game set and then begin the LDS as soon as possible afterwards (1-2 days) in order to help "penalize" the WC winner by allowing less breathing room as possible for them to rest their pitching staff. 2) by having a 3 game WC series you at least give a team (or two) which may have a BETTER record than a division winner a fairer chance to advance in a 3 game series instead of getting "eliminated" by losing 1/1 games after a six month 162 game schedule. Case in point.....this year in the N.L - Pirates/Cubs. BOTH of those clubs deserved a more fair chance to advance - MLB just has to come to terms and "properly" handle situations where one or more (WC) teams have won MORE games than division "winners" who were able to win their divisions with less total wins. Just because a team was able to win their division in a given year with 87-89 wins or so we should NOT shortchange "WC" teams which may have won well over 90 games with a "one and done" scenario. If MLB wants to implement some type of "handicap" after the WC series to reward a division winner that's fine with me. Have the LDS begin immediately afterwards or as soon as possible while a division winner has already had a couple days to rest and set up their P rotations, and/or drastically limit the amount of home games the WC winner has in LDS. Schedule a couple of doubleheaders during the reg season....be careful, there could be rainouts and some teams could really be up against it by having to burn up their pitching staffs in a FEW doubleheaders just because they had the misfortune of getting 3 or 4 rainouts combined with the pre-scheduled doubleheaders. I guess 2-3 pre-scheduled doubleheaders should be the max...or maybe MLB should just begin the reg season a week or so earlier and be done with it.
