Bank Heist

 

At what point is Rob Manfred going to realize something's gone wrong? Does that point exist? Cause his expanded playoff idea led to a World Series matchup between the worst-seeded team in the NL and a strong AL team that rode a lot of September/October momentum to get here. The Orioles, Braves, Dodgers, Astros, Rays and now the Phillies all died just to get to a D-Backs-Rangers World Series that is going to absolutely sink in the ratings. 

At what point does he realize his switching around of shit caused this? The D-Backs stole a ton of bases on the new pitch clock rule, barely snuck into the playoffs, and because they didn't have a bye to calm down on, just kept riding the wave til the end. This never would have happened even 3 years ago. And if the ratings come back and it hasn't fixed anything, he might even just double down and keep dismantling all the things that have made the MLB great because he wants to please corporations and owners rather than fans.

That doesn't mean the Diamondbacks are undeserving per se. They've played beautifully this October, and Ketel Marte, Corbin Carroll, Merrill Kelly and Lourdes Gurriel have become postseason icons. Trouble is, without the expanded postseason and the pitch clock, they don't get here. But it's fantastic to see this team come into their own, and seeing Anthony Saalfrank, Kevin Ginkel and Paul Sewald completely stun teams. I just wish that regular season play factored more into it. Y'know, like it always used to.

The Diamondbacks and Rangers will probably deliver a very exciting World Series, even if this really isn't the sort of thing that should keep happening. 

The Phillies ran out of momentum after Game 2. Two exceptional games at home, then everyone got tired and the D-Backs didn't. And that's why we couldn't seal the deal in Phoenix, or at home. We just got worn out, and went cold pretty quickly. Not even Wheeler or Suarez could save us last night. It was just a slow slog to the end, with the only guy who HADN'T been hot this postseason, Alec Bohm, providing the few runs we got while everyone else limped off. 

If the postseason schematic remains the same, I don't even think it's possible for us to get this far a third time. There's so many momentum things we just lucked out with in both seasons, despite having an improved team this year. Even if we do build on this team, a postseason run can't really be justified because it's all based solely on September and October momentum now. So I don't know what we're gonna look like next year, though hopefully we secure the things that work and dump Kimbrel. 

Rangers-Diamondbacks. At the very least, someone either wins for the first time in over 20 years or wins for the first time ever, and that's a lot better than somebody like Houston or LA taking it again.