Friday, September 26, 2003
Pitching Rotations
It looks like the Giants will play Florida in the Division Series, and because the Marlins are on the verge of closing it out officially tonight, they may not have to go with Dontrelle Willis on Sunday, keeping him for Game 1 against the G-Men. Meanwhile the Cubs are going to have to go with their big guns these next couple of days and keep the rotation occupied. Prior goes today and then Wood will likely go on Sunday if the Cubs haven't beaten the odds and clinched by that time. Which means those two guys may only be available for one game each in the first round. That's certainly not something you're hoping for if you're a Cubby fan.
This is where Bob Costas' idea, or at least one that he passed along from another writer, sounds intriguing. He suggests that instead of one wild-card team going right into a playoff series, another wild-card spot should be brought in, and those two teams would play a best-of-three series in the home park of the higher seed, thereby using their top starters a little more. This scenario would give the top-seeded team in each league an extra advantage: The starters of the wild-card team would be used as workhorses while the top seed's staff rests for a few days. It's an interesting scenario and I, strangely, find myself thinking it's a better option.
This is where Bob Costas' idea, or at least one that he passed along from another writer, sounds intriguing. He suggests that instead of one wild-card team going right into a playoff series, another wild-card spot should be brought in, and those two teams would play a best-of-three series in the home park of the higher seed, thereby using their top starters a little more. This scenario would give the top-seeded team in each league an extra advantage: The starters of the wild-card team would be used as workhorses while the top seed's staff rests for a few days. It's an interesting scenario and I, strangely, find myself thinking it's a better option.
