My two favorite teams, the Yanks and Phils, are among the top contenders in baseball right now, as they have been all season. And that's been a nice luxury. It hasn't been since roughly 2011 that both of these teams have been this consistently good at the same time. The mid-2010s, where both teams were pretty rough, definitely made that gap seem longer, but the last few years, where the Phils have snuck their way in while the Yanks have talked a big game but flopped when it mattered, have been refreshing. And now here we are. The Yankees have the immortal Soto-Judge combo, the Phils have an excellent rotation and Harper, Turner and Bohm on top of their games. You're also seeing great seasons from strong veterans; Gerrit Cole is finally back to his baseline material after rehabbing, as he shut down the Guardians this week, while Aaron Nola's having another strong season of consistent, long starts.
If this were 15 years ago, both would be guaranteed crucial spots in the postseason. But it's not. Thanks to the expanded playoffs, if you're good in the regular season you have to hope that you still have momentum after a week 1 bye, then immediately play teams that have been able to conserve momentum and hope you're a better team than them at this point. The only teams that have been able to break this system are the ones that get a low seed and build momentum throughout October, like the Phils have, or teams that are immune to weakness and are routinely excellent in October, anyway, like those damned Astros.
So both the Yanks and Phils, if they continue at their current paths, will likely notch high seeds in the playoff picture, meaning they both have a chance of losing steam over the bye and coming back to lose to a competitor that, on paper, isn't a better team than them. If that happens, and the ongoing narrative of the season is undone yet again, I'll go mad.
There is a solution to this, even if Rob Manfred will never think of it. During the wild card series, the four advancing teams play a three-game series against an opponent of their choice. For the competitors, it's played like a Spring Training game, primarily to get loose, or even to stretch out the bench subs and lower key guys, in an effort to ensure nobody gets hurt. For whichever team gets to play them, probably a lesser team they matched well enough against, it's an opportunity to showcase players who may be free agents, or trade targets, or provide previews of young players that could be major factors the following years. Essentially making it clear how they would do in October. The games don't count for anything, but the winner gets a friendly prize from the opposing city [i.e., the Phils bet a surplus of soft pretzels, while the Marlins throw in a whole bunch of fresh seafood or something]. And this way, the top seeds don't die out immediately, and keep the playoffs exciting rather than a World Series between six seeds.
But, again, Manfred doesn't realize anything is wrong. It took mass protests early in the season for him to begin to bug Nike, who will likely have improved uniforms for 2025 [but only slightly]. But this is still a working model to him, even if the same thing keeps happening. So even if teams like the Yanks and Phils die out early, which I do not want to happen, he'll still assume there'll be a year where it doesn't. Which...is possible, but the circumstances might need to be changed in order for that to happen.
So yes. I am really happy that both my teams are doing this well with a month or so left in the 2024 season. But I'm worried that a terrific regular season is all they'll have to show, considering the result of the previous playoff schematics. Hopefully this year is different.
Coming Tomorrow- Ironically a former Phillie from the dark ages, going from out of the leagues to a swingman with Cincinnati to a crucial starter for a league standout.
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