As a playoff team in the wild card, would you rather have a 163rd game to your season, or an extra road series?

tjack16 said:

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Me personally… I like the format the way it is.

I like the fact that the better team gets all 3 at home in the wild card. It means the games all season you play matter. You don't see people complaining in college about the super regionals games all being hosted by the better team.

If you want more playoff games, look at the NBA. Their playoffs go for like 2 months and it's very uninteresting in the first round.

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Actually, the college Super Regional round is flawed because you do get underserving teams hosting due to upsets in the regionals. They should reseed after the regional round and again after the Supers if the goal is to reward the teams that earned it during the regular season.

The Sun said:

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iBrad said:

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I say shorten the regular season and make the playoffs 5-7-7-7.

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Yep. Go back to 154.

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Yes. Shorten to 154. 5-7-7-7.

Add two more wild cards in each league. For the 1-2 seeds would play the 8 and 7 seeds respectively, but they got into the 5 game series with a 2-0 lead, so they need one win to advance and the lower seeds need basically a sweep to advance. I would think like a week off with a bye would hurt the top seeds.

Since it didn't work we've ditched the 'everyone else in front of us will lose' strategy and we're moving to the 'expand the playoffs even more' strategy.

Eventually we'll get in again.

Ag_07 said:

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Since it didn't work we've ditched the 'everyone else in front of us will lose' strategy and we're moving to the 'expand the playoffs even more' strategy.

Eventually we'll get in again.

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It's a discussion about the playoff format, one person mentions adding teams, and this is the conclusion you jump to?

Tongue in cheek man

Guess the sarcasm wasn't thick enough

iBrad said:

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Ag_07 said:

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Since it didn't work we've ditched the 'everyone else in front of us will lose' strategy and we're moving to the 'expand the playoffs even more' strategy.

Eventually we'll get in again.

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It's a discussion about the playoff format, one person mentions adding teams, and this is the conclusion you jump to?

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I only suggested to add two teams so the top seeds would have to play and not get the byes.

Since the advent of the byes, how often has the team with the bye laid an egg in Game 1 of the LDS?

If it went to a 5-7-7-7 format with byes, the top teams would effectively be off for a week and lose their rhythm. It may be more of a detrement at that point to get the bye than a positive for the rest.

But he's been a high K guy his entire career. That's nothing new. Yeah there have been an uptick but high K rate is nothing new with CW.

Also I wouldn't say he wasn't accustomed to hitting where did. He's always been a #4 hitter. He may have not expected to hit there when he signed but it's certainly not anything new to him.

Sometimes it's better to not make the playoffs ...

October 3, 1997: Atlanta makes quick work of Houston's post-season. John Smoltz hurls a three-hitter for a 4-1 clincher in Game Three of the N.L.D.S. A solo shot by Chuckie Carr is the lone Astro run.

I went to this game. Think we paid $60 to sit in the center field upper deck of the Dome, about 9,000 feet from home plate. Smoltz was so incredibly dominant it was like watching him pitch to a high school team.

53,688 in attendance for Houston's first home playoff game since Game 6 vs the Mets in '86. Astros got 3 hits, 1 walk, and struck out 11 times. Bagwell and Biggio each hit .083 for the series. Derek Bell did them one better by hitting .000. Thankfully Chuckie Carr aka Carl Everett-lite - crushed one to right when I guess Smoltz was asleep on the mound to give us the briefest of hopes.

Quote:

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Derek Bell did them one better by hitting .000.

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Tracing back the roots of Operation Shutdown to its beginnings.

MaxPower said:

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Drunken Overseas Bettor said:

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In hindsight, the funny thing about Walker is that if Paredes, Pena, and Yordan don't get hurt and he's batting in the right spot, he probably hits 30 and drives in 100 and even if he hits .240 doing so, most of us don't really care.
Instead he's forced into a different role than he was accustomed to and with virtually no protection behind him. What pitcher was scared to pitch to Walker with flailing Yanier behind him?

I still contend the hardest thing for Walker was we had 3 new guys - Paredes was exactly as advertised and was on course for a massive season and Cam Smith was fire out of the gate and so rah-rah that fans loved him from the start.

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In hindsight, I wonder if the brass didn't do a good job scouting him. His swing doesn't seem a fit for MMP, which is odd because we got Paredes specifically because of park fit so it's clearly something we care about. Crane decision?

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I think he was the best 1B they thought they could afford after getting priced out of some of the others. But Ketch can probably clear up some of their thinking on that.

Who didn't know he strikes out? Without the injuries he's hitting 6 and his numbers are great for that spot.

As to the playoffs. Keep the season 162. 3 division winners and 1 WC. 7-7-7.

jja79 said:

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Who didn't know he strikes out? Without the injuries he's hitting 6 and his numbers are great for that spot.

As to the playoffs. Keep the season 162. 3 division winners and 1 WC. 7-7-7.

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I think it was obvious he strikes out. I don't think it was obvious that he would hit with an OPS .170 lower at Daikin. That was the bigger disappointment. Having he and Yainer hitting back to back for so much of the season really was a black hole in the lineup when he would K and Yainer would ground out with runners on.

Luis Garcia’s elbow surgery included a reconstruction of his UCL and a repair of the flexor tendon in his forearm, the Astros announced. Garcia had the procedure on Wednesday. As previously stated, it will sideline him for the 2026 season — his final under team control.

— Chandler Rome (@Chandler_Rome) October 3, 2025

EastCoastAgNc said:

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Luis Garcia’s elbow surgery included a reconstruction of his UCL and a repair of the flexor tendon in his forearm, the Astros announced. Garcia had the procedure on Wednesday. As previously stated, it will sideline him for the 2026 season — his final under team control.

— Chandler Rome (@Chandler_Rome) October 3, 2025

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At least we only signed him to a one year deal so he won't be costing us LMJ money next year.

So he's having TJ basically after having TJ?

Is that a record?

texasaggie2015 said:

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Before anyone says "fire the medical staff"… this is almost solely on Luis for not rehabbing and conditioning properly

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Yeah this one seems different. Him and Lance you can't blame on the med staff

Iambob said:

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If you don't rehab properly is that not a reason to void his contract?

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I've heard Joe Mixon is about to find that out.

Mathguy64 said:

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Quote:

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Derek Bell did them one better by hitting .000.

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Tracing back the roots of Operation Shutdown to its beginnings.

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I wish I could have been a fly on the wall when Derek Bell went in the clubhouse and explained to the coaches that instead of hitting cleanup like they were paying him for, he'd actually be more comfortable hitting second between Biggio and Bagwell.

Ag_07 said:

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But he's been a high K guy his entire career. That's nothing new. Yeah there have been an uptick but high K rate is nothing new with CW.

Also I wouldn't say he wasn't accustomed to hitting where did. He's always been a #4 hitter. He may have not expected to hit there when he signed but it's certainly not anything new to him.

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If he has a similar uptick next season he'd be over 200ks and within hailing distance of the league record.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/w/walkech02.shtml

He combined that with a career low walk rate as a starter, which aided his career high in strikeouts.

Iambob said:

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If you don't rehab properly is that not a reason to void his contract?

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He's arbitration eligible so we can just not offer him a contract.

Faustus said:

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Ag_07 said:

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But he's been a high K guy his entire career. That's nothing new. Yeah there have been an uptick but high K rate is nothing new with CW.

Also I wouldn't say he wasn't accustomed to hitting where did. He's always been a #4 hitter. He may have not expected to hit there when he signed but it's certainly not anything new to him.

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If he has a similar uptick next season he'd be over 200ks and within hailing distance of the league record.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/w/walkech02.shtml

He combined that with a career low walk rate as a starter, which aided his career high in strikeouts.

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Looking at it a little further, it was more than an "uptick". He went from 133 in 2024 (highest in his previous 5 seasons) to 177 in 2025 (14% higher than his previous worst in 2019, 1st season playing full time), a 33% year over year increase.

His PA/K rates look like this:

2019 3.89
2020 4.86
2021 4.20
2022 5.09
2023 5.20
2024 4.15
2025 3.62

As you said, if he has a similar increase next season (33% increase to 235), he is going to blow past the MLB record for Ks in a season (223).

This is wild.

The Padres dugout was HEATED at the umpires after the game yesterday

pic.twitter.com/mRci7qDcrB

— Ben Verlander (@BenVerlander) October 3, 2025