The best hitters stuff, including designated fielders (DF), follows tournament comments.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/majors/2023-standings.shtml
2023 Postseason
In the regular season:
Texas won 90 and finished tied for first with Houston in the American League (AL) West division.
Arizona won 84 and finished second in the National League (NL) West, 16 games behind the LA Dodgers.
2023 World Series teams: lowest regular season Win Total & Win% of any WS pairs. Friday, November 3, 2023
Arizona 84-78 .5185
Texas 90-72 .5556
Combined Totals: 174-150 .537 fewest wins, most losses, lowest winning average (not percent)
2023 difAve: #63: 0.0370370 ...
Three teams in 2023 won at least 100 games but all three lost the first series that they played:
Baltimore: 2023 AL Division Series Texas Rangers over Baltimore Orioles (3-0)
Atlanta: 2023 NL Division Series Philadelphia Phillies over Atlanta Braves (3-1)
Los Angeles: 2023 NL Division Series Arizona Diamondbacks over Los Angeles Dodgers (3-0)
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Some attribute this to the addition of an extra wildcard (non first place team) qualifying in 2023 in each conference ("league"). Of the two teams in the finals, only Arizona qualified because of that.
Any complaints are largely due to the fact that 30 teams play 162 games each and then 10 teams play in a tournament. If the only legitimate tournament winner should be among the three teams that won 100 games, why include any other teams?
Rhetorical question. Answer: money, the same incentive that initiated the modern World Series in 1903 between the champions of two independent leagues: AL and NL.
The current regular season has all 30 teams play all 29 other teams. Here is the 2023 Yankees breakdown (remember, odd number of games in the same "league" means that one team gets an extra home game, which happens with all division rivals):
Divisions with only five teams are ridiculous, especially with a 162 game schedule. Teams should play at least 66% of their games in division for the division to have any meaning.
The Yankees played less than half of 66% in division: 32%. They played 71.6% in their conference ("league").
The Yankees played two series against the cross-town Mets: 2 games at Yankee Stadium, 2 games at the Mets park. Yanks played all other NL teams in one 3 game series. So the Yankees might play the Dodgers in Yankee Stadium but division rival Baltimore might have to travel to Los Angeles to play the Dodgers. Big difference.
Notice that the Yankees played 2 of the 5 teams in the AL Central and AL West 7 games, not 6. Some team gets an extra home game. The Yankees four division rivals must do the same but with various mixes of opponents.
Bottom line: teams do not play the same schedule. And some people are upset that the tournament finals in 2023 was between teams that won 90 and 84 games, while the 100 win teams were eliminated as soon as possible.
Number of teams qualifying for the tournament in 15 team conferences:
NBA: 8 (plus additional teams play off to qualify)
MLB: 6
Baseball is dumb. That's because it's old. Mistakes made 150 years ago are still at its core. For example, the best hitter must wait his turn to bat after 8 teammates.
Baseball still cannot do something intelligent about the pitcher being such a specialist that he is not a baseball player.
Imagine in the NBA Michael Jordan restricted to every fifth shot, especially if the final shot went to Dennis Rodman. Or the soccer style place kicker replacing Tom Brady at quarterback every 9 plays.
MLB finally pretty much eliminated having the pitcher bat but still could not eliminate the designated hitter (DH). Players stand around 90% of the time even playing the field and the DH isn't required to do that.
The simplest solution, which eluded MLB for a century: 8 men bat. Duh. Nope, MLB couldn't go there. Have a designated fielder (DF), who probably would be the pitcher but it leaves room for Babe Ruth and Shohei Ohtani.
I prefer two other approaches, which could be combined:
1. Start each inning with the top of the order.
2. Three designated fielders (DF): six man batting order. That's the fewest you could have without the batter coming up with himself on base.
OK, you get the point. Baseball is by and for dummies. The current schedule and tournament sloppiness are small potatoes compared the the fundamental problems that prevent the best hitters from batting 1,000 times a season and significantly more than their worst teammates in the starting lineup: the bottom of the order. Yuck.
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