DENVER — Bud Black doesn’t have any problems with the Wild Card being decided through a single play-in game. For now.
Facing a postseason where the Rockies will likely have to battle the Diamondbacks in the one-game showdown, it is possible the Rockies could miss a playoff series despite currently having the third best record in the NL.
But Black accepts that as a tradeoff for the two-team Wild Card postseason, and points out that dismissing a Wild Card series protects teams from a potentially worse playoff scenario.
“From the time the regular season ended until the time the next series starts…that could be four or five days,” said Black. “That’s too long of a window before a series should start. Baseball is not meant to be played that way.”
A few days ago, Drew Creasman wrote about five ways baseball could improve the postseason. He pointed out the pacing issues of the unusual amount of postseason off-days after the consistent near-daily grind of the regular season. In a game that is based on rhythm, it fundamentally changes the way players approach games after six months of a routine.
That is one adjustment Black pointed too as well, and if the possibility of a short series to admit a team into the postseason is the causality, so be it.
“It’s meant to be played daily, it’s meant to show your roster and your pitching staff,” said Black. “And even, I think…there should be, within reason, less days off between series.”
While Drew pointed to the oddity of a sudden-death ending for teams that have maintained one of the strongest records in the division, Black sees the incentive in the arrangement: win more games.
“It (the Wild Card game) is a representation of having a good season and getting in, it is a representation also of not winning the division, which gives you the opportunity to play.” Black said.
The designated hitter is another postseason rule that forces teams to adjust to a game structure their roster has not had to accommodate throughout the season. As Drew writes, “The National League is at a disadvantage during interleague play. Whoever has home-field advantage in the World Series also has advantage because the other team is forced to play a style that their squad was not built to play for the seven months prior.”
But again, Black draws no issue with that, saying he, in fact, likes a system of switching use of the designated hitter between AL and NL parks.
If there is one quibble Black holds with the current structure of postseason play, it comes not in the playoffs, but in September roster expansion as teams decide their October fate.
“In a way I think it’s a little unfair that teams can strengthen themselves greatly or aid themselves and make a lot of moves that you don’t make during the first five months,” Black said. “It becomes a different strategic game by far.”
As the Rockies and the Diamondbacks duel for home-field advantage in what is increasingly looking like a two-team Wild Card chase, both will face a completely different squad than the one they have become intimately familiar with throughout the season.
Maybe this is what should draw Rockies fans’ concern, but even Black is leaving the door open to change his position.
“There’s got to be a concession somewhere, everything can’t be perfect,” he said. “ don’t think, right now, presently, without thinking long and hard about it I’m ok with it.”
Hopefully for the Rockies, he’ll still be ok with it come October 5th.
