Friday, October 4, 2024

Newsletter Excerpt, October 4, 2024 -- "Postseason 2024: Guardians/Tigers Preview"

This is a preview of the Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter, an e-mail newsletter about all things baseball, featuring analysis and opinion about the game on and off the field from the perspective of the informed outsider.

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Both managers can use their pens with impunity because there is just one back-to-back game in this series. MLB has set up this round to provide the same advantage to the bye teams/disadvantage to the wild-card team, opening all Division Series on the same day before staggering the series after that. The ALDS will be played over eight days, with an extra non-travel off day between Games One and Two. This is to minimize the number of days with four games (and avoid days with no games) for television purposes. This used to be done by staggering the start days of the Division Series, but MLB wants to align the two rounds at the start, so we get the extra off day within the series.