The worst thing about expanded playoff systems is they somehow manage to promote bogus theories that it’s sometimes better to finish second than first. Or fourth rather than third, sixth rather than fifth, etc. etc. etc. You get the drift.
A lot of my friends believe the Orioles would’ve been better off as a wild-card team than as American League East champions. I don’t buy that theory — and not just because one looks better on a T-shirt than the other. (Really, how many AL wild-card champion items do you have from 2012?)
In the case of the Orioles, and this year, the Dodgers and Braves, the five days of rest after the regular season is being theorized as the reason the teams with the three best records were eliminated in their first round of postseason play. But, and you can believe me on this one, each one of those teams would much rather have the extra time to reset their pitching rotations and have home-field advantage in a best-of-five series than run the risk of losing a best-of-three series.
And, oh yeah, have I mentioned that division winners start out with a bigger slice of the playoff payoff? You might want to keep that under consideration. Nobody plays for second-place money.
Does anybody really believe the Rangers were better off to lose a 1-0 game on the last day of the season so they could spend the next week in St. Petersburg and Baltimore, where they played a “bullpen game” in the crucial series opener? I don’t think so.
Actually, if any team might’ve been tempted to “tank” for second-place money it would’ve been the Astros, who finished stronger and beat out the Rangers for the AL West championship — despite being the only playoff team in memory to have a losing record at home. As of this writing, the Rangers were 7-0 in the postseason and two games away from the World Series — all after losing three of their last four regular-season games.
I don’t think that’s the way manager Bruce Bochy had it drawn up.
When baseball did away with the one-and-done format (which EVERYBODY hated) and added a third wild-card team to the mix, it created a scheduling nightmare that offers no reasonable solutions other than the ones presented. We might be able to agree that the best-case scenario would be to have eight divisions of four teams, with each winner advancing, but that requires 32 teams and baseball is still one expansion away from that possibility. And you can be sure that still would not eliminate wild cards.
Don’t think so? Check out the NFL, NBA, NHL, NCAA, ABL, NSL, ABC, XYZ, or any other alphabetical combination. Wild cards will always be in play.
Unfortunately.
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Orioles fans in the area who have followed the progress of prospects as they come through the system, especially those who made stops at Delmarva, Aberdeen, Frederick and/or Bowie, have more than a passing interest in both League Championship Series.
Texas catcher Jonah Heim and Arizona first baseman Christian Walker were prospects who were at least temporarily blocked in the O’s system more than a decade ago.
Walker was a fourth-round choice in 2012 who showed promise as a right-handed power hitter in the minor leagues while Chris Davis was having career years in Baltimore. In a somewhat strange sequence of events, he was claimed on waivers three times within a month in 2017, by the Braves on Feb. 25, the Reds on March 6 and, finally, the Diamondbacks on March 28.
Walker hit 18 homers with 64 RBIs for Triple-A Norfolk in 2016 before becoming a casualty of a 40-man roster crunch, a decision the Orioles came to regret. He followed that with 34-homer, 114-RBI season in the Arizona system the following year and eventually becoming a Gold Glove first baseman for the Diamondbacks. Now 32, he has another year of arbitration before becoming a free agent following the 2024 season.
Heim was one of four catchers the Orioles selected in 2013, when Matt Wieters was in his prime, and three of them made it to the big leagues. Chance Sisco was taken in the second round that year and played parts of five seasons with the Orioles and one with the Mets. Alex Murphy (Calvert Hall), whose career was short-circuited by a shoulder injury sustained in a freak collision while playing first base, was a sixth round choice. Austin Wynns, who has played five seasons with the O’s, Giants, Dodgers and Rockies, was taken in the 10th round.
At the age of 28, Heim has developed beyond the “catch and throw” stage of his career into a power hitter just reaching his prime as he goes into his first year of arbitration, with three more years before becoming a free agent. He was traded to the Rays in 2016 in a deal remembered best as the one that brought Steve Pearce to Baltimore for a third time.
It seems safe to say that both ex-O’s will be on the big league stage in the immediate future.
Jim Henneman can be reached at JimH@pressboxonline.com
Photo Credit: Colin Murphy/PressBox