CLEVELAND, Ohio — Major League Baseball’s expanded playoff format has its share of fans in the Cleveland Indians clubhouse, but the front office might be another story.
At the 11th hour on Thursday, the league and the MLB Players’ Association agreed to an expanded playoff format for the 2020 postseason that will bring the total number of qualifying teams to eight in each league. The top two teams in each of the league’s six divisions will qualify, plus the two best records among the third place teams in each league.
Opening-round series will be best-of-three and take place entirely at the home park of the higher seed by record.
Indians All-Star shortstop Francisco Lindor was pretty positive when asked about the change on Friday.
“It’s going to be fun,” Lindor said. “There’s going to be more games in October which is definitely more exciting. The more teams in the playoffs, it’s going to add more excitement to the game. We’re all looking forward to it. Hopefully we’re one of the teams that makes it all the way to the World Series.”
Starting pitcher Mike Clevinger agreed with Lindor, calling the move “unprecedented.”
“You got three games,” Clevinger said. “Lay everything you got out there. It’s definitely gonna take the traditional fans into thinking this is not the same.”
Clevinger said teams that can reach the World Series under this format will really have to earn it from top to bottom.
“You can’t just rely on arms the whole time,” Clevinger said. “This is gonna be, you know, coin flips for who ends up in the Series.”
Manager Terry Francona said he’d be surprised if almost every team is not still mathematically alive when the season comes down to its final 10 days or so. He also likes the idea of the opening-round series all being best two-out-of-three.
“That’s going to be a real interesting last couple of weeks of the season for sure,” Francona said.
Indians president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti was a little more guarded in his response to the expansion. Antonetti said he’s generally supportive of more playoff teams during this coronavirus-shortened season of 60 games, noting that now is the time to experiment with different rules because nothing is “normal” in 2020.
“This postseason will be something different for us,” Antonetti said. “At the end of the year we’ll have a chance to reflect back and look at the different things we’ve tried as an industry and see what may make sense.”
Antonetti said there’s value in having more playoff teams this year, but would not go so far as to stamp his approval for any sort of expansion beyond this year.
“Should it be eight teams moving forward? We can look back at the end of the year and see how things played out,” Antonetti said.
-
New Indians face masks for sale: Here’s where you can buy Cleveland Indians-themed face coverings for coronavirus protection, including a single mask ($14.99) and a 3-pack ($24.99). All MLB proceeds donated to charity.
More Indians coverage
Civale was determined to finish what he started in 4-1 Indians intrasquad victory
Logan Allen, Scott Moss reassigned to Eastlake and 3 more things we learned Friday
Are Carrasco, Clevinger ready to roll for the Indians next week? Podcast
Indians sign 2020 draft pick Tanner Burns of Auburn to $1.6M deal
Carlos Carrasco goes five innings and Bradley Zimmer homers -- again
Oliver Perez, Carlos Santana keep rolling and 4 other things about Indians
Francona’s message to Class of 2020: ‘Find what your passion is, grab it with both hands’
Bradley Zimmer making it hard to be overlooked
MLB Network to air Indians vs. Pirates exhibition game on July 18
Yu Chang, Bradley Zimmer continue to mash at summer camp: Podcast
Mike Clevinger struggles in Wednesday intrasquad; Bradley Zimmer, Yu Chang homer
Tyler Naquin keeps making strides and 4 more things about the Indians
"Fun" - Google News
July 25, 2020 at 09:04AM
https://ift.tt/3hz4Osf
Cleveland Indians players on MLB’s expanded playoffs: ‘It’s going to be fun’ - cleveland.com
"Fun" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2ZVoWNN
https://ift.tt/3c6iubT
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Cleveland Indians players on MLB’s expanded playoffs: ‘It’s going to be fun’ - cleveland.com"
Post a Comment