it’s not that bad at all no. As others have alluded to: baseball is chaotic bc there are a zillion variables and weird things that can happen, and this chaos is magnified in the context of a best of 5 playoff series. The Dodgers have been an elite, playoff team for the last 11 years and ate shit all but one of those seasons
Just to be clear: not arguing you should feel any sympathy for richie rich frontrunners like the dodgers, yankees, etc. They still deserve your resentment
Spending more absolutely helps win but that’s less important than just making the playoffs. The Dodgers have 1 championship to show for leading the league in spending the last 15 years or so, the Yankees none since 2009, and the biggest dynasty has been the Astros who tanked and traded to start things off. Baseball without the long season lets a team get hot at the right time have a shot. Which can be fun. Just not reflective.
Rooting hard for Cleveland and KC to go far.
I’m not disputing most of what you’re saying, but spending money is exactly what gets a lot of these teams into the playoffs in order to have a shot. There is a strong correlation between payroll and winning championships. The lowest two payrolls to win a championship in the last ten years is 13th and 17th in the league. Two of the ten teams who were the highest payrolls in that particular year have won a championship.
there are probably more variables to consider here, though I suspect it’ll be broadly correct.
Theres the phenomenon on lower-payroll teams opening the checkbooks for a year or three once they think they’ve got the skeleton of a contending team (cubs in the mid 2010s, O’s at present) vs those handful of teams that are always burning cash
then there’s that playoff bottleneck to consider. Is this a case of a preponderance of high-payroll teams knocking eachother out, or are the lower-payroll teams that make the playoffs similarly dangerous?
would take a bit of effort maybe if its slow today I can figure it out
There’s definitely a lot of things just in the accounting alone to sorta skew the numbers. Like spending on players that shows up in different parts of the ledger than payroll or shows up in deferred years. That Shohei Ohtani sure is a cheap get at 2 million a year.
I feel like both the central divisions muddy things a bit too. Two divisions that are full of small and mid-budget teams (the Sox and Tigers occasionally stretch that a bit) all piled together, effectively giving two of the “little guys” a shot every year.
Edit: Fangraphs Has an older article on correlation of winning and payroll. If their findings are transferrable to championships and holds up over the past handful of years, than payroll would be a moderate correlation to championships.
the stats are crazy
Sumo news: ex-ozeki Takakeisho has retired
With such a dominant performance this is hardly a surprise:
We’ve seen two impressive records this year in sumo: Takerufuji with the first debut top division win in 110 years, and now Onosato with the fastest ever promotion to Ozeki.
We have to wait until near the end of October to see the full set of updated rankings. I’m real curious to see if Takerufuji manages to get back up to the top division or not. I suspect he won’t, given that he is coming from so far down in Juryo (J11) – but there’s a chance. Especially since an extra top division spot has been vacated by Takakeisho’s retirement.
Assuming they both manage to avoid injuries, I expect Onosato and Takerufuji to end up defining the sport for the next 5-8 years. I don’t think it is outlandish to say both have good prospects of making it to Yokozuna.
Yay sports
(Specifically the dodgers and the lakers)
Honestly this whole mess with the A’s is one of those episodes that makes me question whether I’d rather just rather stop following sports entirely. I can’t help but feel somewhat complicit.
Whether it’s billionaire sports owners taking their ball and going home or tech conglomerates firing thousands while boating record profits, no ethical consumption under capitalism. At least the fans took some seats and memorabilia with them.
I know this makes me a grumpy old man but the product for baseball has really deteriorated in the last decade or so too. Everyone throws 100 mph so offense has tanked, but the pitchers throwing that hard are destroying their bodies and missing years at a time anyway. No one can go deep into games anymore so it’s constantly a boring ass bullpen battle. The commissioner is actively hostile to the sport and adding weird new rules to change it all the time. The playoffs have been expanded so much that the regular season feels pointless and random crap ass teams keep making the world series. Increasingly the owners like John Fisher seemingly seek out ways to kill good will and engagement for the fans. We probably won’t see any pitchers last 7 innings in a playoff game this year.
I’ve always said it was my favorite sport by far, but the last few years I have found it harder and harder to believe that.
I’m a bit of a curmudgeon when it comes to baseball rules changes, like I hated the DH being brought to the NL. I do think the MLB pitch clock might be the best rule change I’ve ever seen. They are saving me nearly 30 minutes of my life every game I watch, that would otherwise be dedicated to watching players reapply their gear, rub dirt on their hands, fiddle with their jewelry, adjust their junk, etc etc
yeah I agree tbh. I like sports a lot, but I like when it’s chill and fun and when they become a rich asshole concern they get unfun and I check out 
Sending love to the Oakland A’s fans.
I would say that it improves the home viewing experience but detracts from the live viewing experience because it’s made the game a lot less chill than it used to be.
