Game Day: Wednesday, July 29th

The Orioles are down 7-0 into the eighth inning after getting drubbed 14-0 in yesterday's game with the Detroit Tigers.  

They lost a series against the Braves over the past weekend and with the loss today, they will have lost a series against the Tigers too. 

I had said in a post last week that the Orioles could use their next three series as a thermometer (or barometer) in making a decision on whether or not to add to this ball club.

Win all three series and it's an easy decision to add players and make a run at the playoffs.  Lose a series or two and the decisions become murky.  

Even with the loss today, Baltimore could potentially sweep the Phillies over the weekend.  If they manage to pull off the sweep, they will sit at 56-56 at the trade deadline.  A mere series win against Philly is good for a 54-58 record and that is likely to be, at worst, 3.5 games back of a Wild Card in the AL heading into the month August.  

The O's aren't completely out of contention but they didn't take care of business into the trade deadline and they were playing good baseball heading into the week.  

I think they can safely make any and all trades that come their way.  They got blanked by two good pitchers in Troy Melton and Tarik Skubal but in the playoffs they are going to face the same sort of competition.  They didn't prove that they are a team that can win a tough game.  I'm officially writing the O's as out of contention heading into the trade deadline and am looking forward to seeing how they approach their roster over the weekend.  

The likely trades include RF Taylor Ward and C Adley Rutschmann.  SP Trevor Rogers is also likely on his way out of town and the O's have more than a few bullpen arms that could be traded as well.  The O's join the Mets, A's, Rockies, Blue Jays, Royals, Angels and Giants as the teams who will be trading at the deadline with their sights set on building a roster in 2027.  8 teams squarely set to be sellers.  The Cardinals and Reds are likely to make it 10 teams out of contention.  The Marlins are likely sellers at the trade deadline too.  11 teams down.  

19 contenders for 12 playoff spots.  It feels anti-climactic in some sense.

Imagine if there were eight divisions of five teams all playing for top 3 in their respective divisions.  

The Divisional Series Round would include three teams and two 3-game series with the higher seed spotted a win in each series.  Win the division and you only have to win one game to reach the Championship Series.  

The Championship Series would feature eight teams, one from each division.  The first round would be a five-game series, the Championship Series Eliminator Round.  Win three games and advance to the Championship Series Final for your respective league.

Each Championship Series Final would be a seven-game series, winners represent their respective league in the World Series of Baseball.

I think that's the best setup for MLB.  72 MLB organizations would be awesome too.  36 organizations in Asia (Japan, Korea, China) and 36 organizations here in the Continental USA.  Two 16 team complex leagues compete every season in what is essentially a pair of B leagues.  One Vegas Complex league and One Macao Complex league.  40 teams across 8 divisions annually with 8 teams facing relegation every season for finishing last in the division.  A relegated team then has to finish in the top 4 of a 16-team complex league to return to the Major League circuit.  

That sort of league would require owners to be very astute with how they sign player contracts and what they pay players.  Imagine the Yankees with a 300M dollar payroll, relegated to the Vegas Complex league.  They'd play half their games in the complex with the other half at Yankee Stadium.  The Vegas Complex League would feature round-robins every week with double and triple headers everday of the week in the dome in Las Vegas, Neveda.  Its a very big and ambitious idea that would merge the KBO, CPL and Nippon in some way.  

That would be something.  That's it for Game Day today.  I racked 2.0 units and am going to press 0.93 units on the Yanks tonight.  Davis Martin has a dead arm and Cam Schlittler has been dominating.  Stay tuned for Today's Pick.



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