Personally..I prefer games not to interfere with football, but not when it potentially gives unfair biased to some teams...like ones that lack SP depth.
Where would the Cards be last year without Weaver/Suppan having to be in the postseason rotation?
TV timeout
New format will make for drawn-out postseason
Posted: Tuesday September 11, 2007 12:28PM
Get ready for an NBA-style postseason, with off days draining the momentum out of every series and rendering roster depth essentially meaningless. Consider this: If the 2006 Tigers had played under the 2007 playoff format, with the same length to their three postseason series, they would have had 16 days off and only 12 days on from the end of the season through the World Series.
"You might see somebody get by with three starting pitchers and two or three relievers," one GM said.
Why all the off days? FOX wants the World Series to start (and end, given a six- or seven-game series) midweek rather than on a weekend, when ratings are lower. So they began with a Wednesday Game 1 of the World Series and worked backward, causing all the open dates. It's the biggest change to the postseason since the three-tiered playoff.
Every team gets at least two days off after the season ends (two American League clubs will have three days off), which will help all teams line up their rotations. Every team gets a day off between Division Series games 4 and 5 and between LCS games 4 and 5 -- those are new off days.
And watch out for rust in the World Series if pennant winners should sweep the LCS. An NL champion that sweeps through the LCS will have eight days off before World Series Game 1. An AL champ coming off an LCS sweep will be idle for seven days.
The biggest beneficiary of the new format might be the Padres, given a healthy Jake Peavy and Chris Young, one of the best 1-2 combinations in the game. In one scenario, Young and Peavy could start 10 times in a 15-game postseason (four-game DS, six-game LCS, five-game World Series) -- including Games 1 and 2 of every round -- while making only one start on short rest.
"The worst news for the league is San Diego [with] homefield advantage," one GM observed, "because Chris Young just does not give up any runs in that ballpark." (Young has a 1.24 ERA at Petco Park and a 4.11 ERA on the road.)
- Home Board index
- All times are UTC-04:00
- Delete cookies