[Senator Clay Davis]

Originally Posted by TheAlpineOracle

Maybe from a math perspective only 10 teams were out of by the trade deadline, but let's be real here. The only teams with a legitmate chance at the playoffs in the Al since the trade deadline were Boston, Toronto, Texas, Seattle, Baltimore, Cleveland, and Detroit/Yankees (if we are being generous). In the NL it's Washington, Chicago, LA, San Francisco, New York, and St. Louis. Basically 50% of the league was out of contention by the trade deadline, and honestly you could almost say were out of contention since the all-star break.

That's brutal as a fan. Baseball doesn't care though because it's all about the tv contracts, and as long as New York, Boston, Chicago, and LA are in the mix each year, it matters not to them.

I can remember so many years when Toronto would be hovering around the playoffs around the All-Star break, and you just knew that by the start of August the season was done because the big boys started playing and augmenting rosters if someone else was close to catching them and people completely lost interest. You can say that for about 15 other franchises as well.

This is not the case in hockey or football at all. It is now in the NBA again with the Lebron's super teams and Golden State, but just like baseball, they don't care so long as everyone is tuning in to watch Lebron and the Golden State Warriors. The other teams are merely there for fodder.

It's funny because NFL fans are generally strongly against expanding the playoffs because it devalues making the playoffs. Making the playoffs shouldn't be easy, and in the NBA we consistently see sub .500 teams in the playoffs, and no one wants that either. System is just fine as is, baseball needs a salary cap way worse than it needs playoff expansion. A hard cap would obviously be much more meaningful to competitive balance and thus the ability for teams to make the playoffs.

Originally Posted by Jiggy_12

No JD again. Time to start worrying about him?

Obviously. Guy is a warrior and they are deep in a playoff race. If he can't keep going the injury is a problem.