I was going to compliment you for your clever analysis of how the Reds don’t stand a chance. Then you took this gratuitous swipe at Pittsburgh. Do you actually know anything about the city of Pittsburgh, or are you just blowing smoke out your a** like most Reds/Bungles fans?

Are the teams themselves crying about the system? If so, I haven’t heard it. All teams knew how this was going to go coming in to the season. Winning your division would be a huge advantage over being a WC and having to win one game. They didn’t play well enough to win the division, so they didn’t earn an immediate series and have to win a one game play-in. In a couple of weeks, the Braves season will be over and they can just stop their whining.

Yes they strikeout too much (but they also hit a ton of homeruns). No their starters don’t have post season experience (could be because they are a young group, at one point Glavine, Smoltz and Avery didn’t have post season experience either). No they don’t seem to have one blatantly obvious star on offense (neither do the Braves or Giants for that matter) but I take the Nats lineup over the Giants and probably over the Braves too. I think it is a push with the Reds lineup wise but in a short series I take Gio, Zimmermann, Jackson and Detwiler over Cueto, Latos and their other starters. The other thing not mentioned enough is the Nats have 2 relievers who can effectively close games (as Drew Storen demonstrated last night by striking out Kemp, Adrian Gonzalez and Hanley in a row). They also have 2 solid lefty relievers and another trio of right handers who have been very effective. The bullpen is deep, the rotation is solid, albeit lacking playoff experience, and the offense is capable of hitting a homerun from top to bottom. There is even power and speed on the bench with Tyler Moore, Lombardozzi, Chad Tracy and Roger Bernadina and the defense has been VERY good all year.

I just think this post over looks a good portion of why the Nationals have been succesful. They are a well rounded team from top to bottom.

If the Braves are so good then they should have no trouble swatting aside the loser team they play in the Wild Card game, especially since they can set up the exact pitching matchup they want to face a team that will probably have to go all out just to make it there.

Either you accept the system, warts and all (stiffer competition in one division, unbalanced schedules, “lesser” team having chance to knock off “better” team), or else you MUST advocate for the pre-1969 style “best record in each league goes to the World Series.”

By definition, teams in a playoff system are going to be of differing quality, and the fun is that it’s not always the “best” team that wins.

He would pick the Braves to win the WS since they are an unstoppable force.

BUT…

They don’t have home field advantage so they are huge underdogs!

Good teams win at home, great teams win on the road and at home.
This article is garbage. He writes about the Jackson’s bad postseason record, yet excludes the Braves post season pitching stats from Hudson(on ATL) and Hanson.

First, Selig doesn’t have ideas. Other people have ideas and he is told to support them. This playin game happened because the owners realized if they expanded the playoffs they would have a game that no one owned the rights to broadcast and they could sell those rights. That profits the owners, not Selig. Again, who thinks Selig EVER has an idea of his own? Anyone?

Second, Selig is not the dictator of baseball. He doesn’t even get a vote. Owners propose and vote on changes to rules or the CBA, not Selig. He just does what he’s told, and in general, does it clumsily.

That said, being the favorite of a 5 game or 7 game series generally means you have a 55% or so chance of winning it. In other words, being the favorite in a short series of baseball games doesn’t mean a whole hell of a lot.

Fuck it, let’s have the parade today!