Quote:
Originally Posted by JayP
The problem is there's no proof of that. Ball teams have bad games all the time through-out the season - it's going to happen in the playoffs too. And considering they only lost by 2 runs after losing the best player in the AL early in the game, it could've been a whole lot worse. Teams have rested players going into the playoffs and done well before.
It really is stupid. The reason is that the ALDS round only has existed for just over 20 years. Before that, there were only two divisions in the AL and NL and only the four division winners made the playoffs. Adding the wild card and splitting the divisions into 3 per league was such a step away from how the MLB had operated for decades, they had to compromise and only make it 5 games so the playoffs wouldn't go into November.
The problem is now they've changed the playoff system again and added another wild card and everyone couldn't care less about baseball tradition. The ALDS should've been changed to 7 games when they added the second wild card. If the MLB is worried about the season going too late, cut the regular season by 7 games.
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This isn't just a bad game. The Jays have been awful since they shut it down in Baltimore. They took their eyes off the prize and shut it down almost a week and half before the season ended. In a sport like baseball you can't expect to just shut it down and expect for everything to start clicking. Baseball is completely a game of momentum despite how much you seem to disagree with that. They will be lucky to win this series and like a said a week ago, someone is going to have some serious questions to answer about their approach to how the regular season ended.
People were quick to point out that the wildcard often has success in the playoffs so the Jays giving up first wasn't a big deal. Well that is true, but why do the Wildcards generally fare well? Its's because they are riding the momentum they built just to get into the playoffs. The Jays had zero momentum to start the ALDS and I think it's going to cost them severely (though I hope I am wrong as a Jays fan).