Neither Covid nor Manfred can spoil postseason
I’mnot sure what to call this animal. Perhaps aManfredpottimus wouldbe anappropriateword.
The creature is capable ofmoving very fast on 16 legs. It is also capable of sitting on its haunches and refusing tomove for days at a time. Moreover, it’s dangerous. It candevour anentire baseball teamwith two quick gulps. It’s calledthe baseball playoffs, 2020 style.
Ready or not, itwillbehereon Tuesday, 16 teams strong. Okay, on Tuesdaywewill see only the eight American League teams in action. We’ll have towait untilWednesday tosee this thing runat full throttle with eight postseason games played ina singleday. Wemight see that many games again on Thursday but thenumberwillprobablybe less. By the end of Friday the first stagewill be over and the animalwill go into a mind-bending stall.
At least that’s the plan. Thefirst part of theplayoffswill be thenewpart— somethingnew calledtheWildcardSeries. Every teamthat reaches the playoffs, 16 in all, will engage in a best-of-three eliminationseries. The games of every serieswill be played on consecutive days and the higher-seedwill be the home team throughout.
Generalmanagerswillhave a chance tobecome creativewith their rosters for this roundof theplayoffs. Since the serieswill consist of no more than three games, therewill be noneedfor a fourthor fifth starting pitcher. The hurlerswho filled those roles during the seasonwill probablybe assigned to thebullpenand that couldallowaGMtodroponeor twootherpitchers fromthe roster. That couldopen spots for some luxuries thatweren’t availableduring the season. A pinch running specialist, for example, couldbe activated, or a third catcher. Perhaps a late-inning defensivewhiz.
Whatever happens, theWildcard Serieswill be awhirlwind experience for everybody involved. When it’s over eight teamswill be on the sidelines and somewill probably be wonderingwhat hit them. It’s quite possible— even likely— that somebodywho
sparkled all season and won a division championshipwill become a footnote to theplayoffs in just 48 or 72 hours.
The eightwinnerswillmove on to thenext round, butnot right away. After playing three games in three days or two games in two days everybodywill have plenty of time to regroup. The four American League Wildcard Series are scheduled end nolater thanThursdaybut thenext roundof theplayoffswillnot begin untilMonday. For theNational League the gapwill run fromFriday to Tuesday.
Like anyweek, therewill be a Saturday and Sunday in between— dayswhen millions of people are home, watching television. None of them, however, willbehomewatchingbaseball on television.
It appears that baseball has surrendered unconditionally to football or at least to the television networks who spend countless hours every weekend airing football. They apparently told baseball tomake itself scarce for a couple of days andbaseballmeekly complied.
When the postseason comes out of hibernation therewill be two games onMonday, fouronTuesday, etc. This round is called theDivision Series and it’s somethingwe’ve seen before. Or havewe?
Never before has a Division Series been played totally in one ballpark— aneutral stadium— but that’swhat’s planned for this year. Therewillbenotravel and therefore no travel days. Eachwill be a best-offive serieswhichmeans potentially five games played over five days.
ThoseWildcardSeries rosterswill probably have tobe overhauled before theDivisionSeriesbegins. Every teamwill need to have a fourth starting pitcher ready and perhaps afifth. Thatwillbeuptothemanager. If a series goes toafifthgame the respectivemanagerswillprobably have to decide whether to trust their fifth starterwithado-or-die assignment or ask their GameOne starter to come backon short rest.
Call it the fifth-starter dilemma and itwill probably becomemore andmorepalpable as theplayoffs proceed. Itwill be a factor inways that it never has been before.
After two rounds of the playoffs only two teamswill remain in eachleague and theywill engage in the League Championship Series to determine the participants in theWorld Series. Each LCS and the World Serieswill be best-of-seven battles conducted2020 style— that is sevengames played inaneutral ballparkwithout a scheduled day off.
This will likely forcemanagers to makefifth-starter decisions that no manager before has ever faced. The last time a postseason series consisted of seven games in seven days was theWorldSeries of 1955. Back then every teamroutinely used a four-man pitching rotation and nobody gave any thought to a fifth starter in the postseason. Five-man pitching rotations began to evolve in the 1970s andby theneverypostseason series included travel days. No onehas everhad to contemplate a fifthstarter in thepostseason. Until now.
Once again, amanager could bypass his fifth starter and send his Game One pitcher to themound onshort rest. But if hedoes that he might have to use two other starters onshort rest aswell. Ifhe’snotwilling todo that hemight aswelluse thefifth starter foroneof thefirst five games andkeepeverybody else on their regular schedules.
The compact schedulewill also causemanagers to regulate theuse and potential over-use of relief pitchersmuchas theydoduring the season. Theymight alsohave to think about giving their catchersadayoff. Perhaps some of the younger catcherswill attempt tobe ironmenduring the playoffs, but mostmanagers orwill probably look for an opportunity to slide the number-two backstopbehind theplate at somepoint during a series.
Besidesmanagers andgeneral managers, therewill be one other groupwhose roles in theseplayoffs will differ drastically from the past.
The scouts havenotbeenpermitted to sitbehindhomeplatewith their radar guns and stopwatches this year. They’vehad to rely on television pictures to produce reports and thatwill probably continue tobe the case. But there’s a newwrinkle to that issue during the postseason.
During the regular season there was a certain amount of familiarity. Eachteamwas part of a selfcontained group and played games against onlynine rivals. Therewere nogameswithanyof the 20other teams or evenwithcommonopponents. Most postseasonmatchups, therefore, will be pairings that did not occur at any timeduring the season.
In that case the scoutswill have to do a lot of work in a short time, and they’ll have only television pictures at theirdisposal. Yet their reports could be critical in the outcomes of games.
All inall thispostseasonfigures tobeunique andfar fromideal. Most of the abnormalitieswere caused bymatters beyond the control ofMajor League Baseball. Nevertheless, I fear the guyswhowear suits and ties havemanaged to make a bad situation worse.
I, for one, strenuouslyobject tothe decision to allow 16 teams into the playoffs or a scheme that caneliminate a teamafter only two postseasongames. I thinkthe lengthybreak between round one and round two of theplayoffs isdeplorable, nomatterwhat the reason.
But, youknowwhat? I’mexcited about thewhole thing, inspite of everything. Like every year, I expect tospendasmuch time as possible watching the games.
After all, it’s baseball, isn’t it? It takesmore thanCovid-19 to spoil baseball. It even takesmore than RobManfredtospoil baseball.
Let the games begin.