The lowest-rated playoffs in history!

[John C]

These are the 2009 playoffs in my solo league:

American League
Kansas City (91-71) vs Tampa Bay (98-64)
Seattle(87-75) vs Cleveland (98-64)

National League
Atlanta (93-69) vs Arizona (106-56)
Philadelphia (95-67) vs Milwaukee (101-61)

I am the Phils.

The O's finished tied for second with the Yanks, while the Red Sox finished with the worst record in the AL (61-101). The Royals are led by 1B Billy Butler (.320-28-133, led the AL in RBI), and Zack Greinke (19-6, 3.62) and Jamey Wright (???, 19-10, 4.72). The M's have the best pitching staff in the AL, led by King Felix. They also have, far and away, the worst offense in baseball.

The Phils, of course, have the best offense in baseball. Everyone in the NL is led by the usual suspects (though we did sign Ben Sheets and claimed Andy Pettite off waivers when injuries hit us hard...he went 2-5 anyway).

Very oddly enough, Trevor Hoffman is the Brewers' #3 starter right now. He started 11 games, and is 8-5 with 22 saves. Braden Looper stopped cutting it, and the Brewers' traded for Takashi Saito at the deadline.

The DBacks had two 20-game winners (Max Scherzer, Brandon Webb).

It may very well be the best playoffs nobody watches!

[Kelric]

Ouch. Were the Sox/Yanks hit by injuries much, or did the teams just fall apart?

[John C]

Yanks tied for second with the O's.

The Sox fell apart. Pedroia was lost for most of the season in May and they lost 2/3 of their starting outfield to injuries. They had a 13-40 stretch in July/August that obviously destroyed their season.

[canadiancreed]

hmm...

Kansas City (91-71) - youd' get better ratings from Montreal, or at least more tv sets
Tampa Bay (98-64) - iffy makret that would be larger after the WS appearance last year
Seattle(87-75) - well at leas thte pacific northwest will be watching.
Cleveland (98-64) - ...and Northern Ohio

National League
Atlanta (93-69) - TBS. No ratings death there
Arizona (106-56) - here on the other hand.....
Philadelphia (95-67) - it's not New York, but Philly has what Eastern PA and some of Jersey? Not too bad of a market
Milwaukee (101-61) - Wisconsin? Maybe?

Ya the American League looks like a mess ratings wise. The National league? Depends on how far Atlanta and Philly make it. Either gets in the WS, there's your ratings source.

NOTE: Purely hypothetical, just did it up for fun.

[kq76]

Here's a challenge: try to come up with a worse one than that!

Cleveland & Kansas City (KC actually has the highest pop of the 3, but Cleveland and Minneapolis are quite a bit more dense and I get the sense from this board at least that the Twins have a larger fanbase than either)

Tampa Bay (none of the rest of the AL east are small cities, easiest to pick)

Oakland (are a lot San Franciscans and San Joseans As fans? maybe Seattle fits better, but I doubt it as they're popular not only here but Japan as well)

Florida (Atlanta has more pop than Miami, but Miami is far more dense so I'm guessing Miami just doesn't include suburbs that it should, but still, I'm sure Atlanta's fanbase is huge)

Colorado (Phoenix has exploded in recent years and SD is no slouch either)

Cincinnati & Pittsburgh (did you know that Milwaukee is apparently more populated than St. Louis now? I'm surprised by that... still, the Cards are a pretty popular team so I'm not willing to put them in the bottom yet which leaves the Reds and Pirates)

List of United States cities by population - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[damientheomen3]

downtown st. louis has the highest crime rate in the whole world, as far as the highest death rate, so i'm not overly surprised that milwaukee is more populated than st. louis

[John C]

Philadelphia has become one of the most popular teams in the league, which is rather stunning to long-term fans of the team. This team is ridiculously enjoyable to watch, which makes it easy to understand.

But it's the fact of having a team that many other casual fans enjoy watching...that's what gets me.

Anyway, to update...

Cleveland vs Tampa in the ALCS
Philadelphia vs Arizona in the NLCS

The Phillies/Brewers series was very enjoyable. Three of the four games were decided in the ninth or later. Two were blowouts, but that was due to a five-run tenth for the Phils (the Phils won Game 4 10-2). Takashi Saito lost the first two games, blowing the save in Game 1 as the Phils scored three in the ninth, then withstood a Brewers rally, to win 4-3.

The Brewers came back and won Game 3 in stunning fashion; but Cole Hamels and the bats sent the Brewers packing.

Cleveland put up a six-spot to the eighth to stun Seattle 8-7 in the decisive Game 4. The ALDS was, for the most part, well-pitched. It will be interesting to see how the ALCS goes.

[John C]

The Phils and DBacks are making a case to get people to watch.

The Phils stole Game 1 in Arizona, and were looking to do so again. After staking Arizona a 4-0 lead, the Phils tied it with a nice hitting display in the sixth. It stayed that way until the top of the ninth.

Carlos Ruiz doubled to open the inning. Chris Coste came up as a PH and doubled him in, making it 5-4. After Matt Stairs grounded out (Coste going to third), Jimmy Rollins struck out. Shane Victorino came up and singled Coste home, making it 6-4.

Closer Chad Qualls then made a huge 0-2 mistake to Chase Utley, which he took out to right-center. 8-4 Phils, and what appears to be a 2-0 series lead heading back to Philly.

Clay Condrey comes in. He had a nice year, and will do the job. He gives up a harmless walk to Conor Jackson, then a harmless single to Stephen Drew.

Brad Lidge comes on, just to put this little grease fire out. Miggy Montero comes up and singles, loading the bases for Mark Reynolds. Lidge promptly goes 1-2 on him.

Then Mark Reynolds promptly makes a sandwich...one of the grand salami variety.

Tied up.

Chris Young follows him.

"Lidge sets...the 1-1 to Young. Swung on, and that's belted down the left field line...if it's fair, it's gone...home run! Chris Young hits the foul pole, and the Diamondbacks have just stolen a series tie from the Phillies!"

Just...wow. Momentum has shifted.

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by John C

These are the 2009 playoffs in my solo league:

American League
Kansas City (91-71) vs Tampa Bay (98-64)
Seattle(87-75) vs Cleveland (98-64)

National League
Atlanta (93-69) vs Arizona (106-56)
Philadelphia (95-67) vs Milwaukee (101-61)

The above cities ranked by 2006 Metropolitan Statistical Area population estimates:

Philadelphia = #5
Atlanta = #9
Phoenix = #13
Seattle = #15
Tampa = #19
Cleveland = #25
Kansas City = #28
Milwaukee = #37

The same cities ranked by 2006-07 Nielsen television market size:

Philadelphia = #4
Atlanta = #9
Tampa = #12
Phoenix = #13
Seattle = #14
Cleveland = #17
Kansas City = #31
Milwaukee = #34

Originally Posted by kq76

Here's a challenge: try to come up with a worse one than that!

Going by the four smallest television market sizes in each league that could theoretically qualify (and let's face it, television is by far the most important consideration for MLB when it comes to the post-season), it'd be the following:

American League

Seattle (#14)
Cleveland (#17)
Kansas City (#31)
Toronto* (no ranking)

*Note that for U.S. television ratings purposes, Canadian cities do not count whatsoever. Thus, Toronto has the smallest television market size possible—zero—as far as U.S. television ratings are concerned. If you wish to make the comparison more fair, you can substitute Baltimore (#24) for Toronto.

National League

Florida (#16)
San Diego (#27)
Cincinnati (#33)
Milwaukee (#34)

Originally Posted by kq76

...(did you know that Milwaukee is apparently more populated than St. Louis now? ...)

That's only true if you're looking at the population of the city proper. If you instead look at the population by the metropolitan area (or, as the U.S. Census Bureau calls it, the Metropolitan Statistical Area), St. Louis is considerably larger.

The 2006 population estimates for the relevant MSAs: Milwaukee, 1,540,525; St. Louis, 2,793,720.

[John C]

That may be good for local ratings, but you would expect local ratings to be up in the playoffs anyway. The market sizes of these cities have no bearing on the network ratings, looking at the national audience, which is what I was getting at.

[kq76]

Originally Posted by Le Grande Orange

That's only true if you're looking at the population of the city proper. If you instead look at the population by the metropolitan area (or, as the U.S. Census Bureau calls it, the Metropolitan Statistical Area), St. Louis is considerably larger.

I knew I should have looked into it closer, but I was being lazy. I'll have to look at those Nielsen rankings now too..

The one that surprises me the most after your post is Tampa. I'm shocked it ranks that high.

I know it's not baseball, but after quickly looking at the wikipedia, Jacksonville struck me as very surprising. I keep hearing how bad a market it is and how the NFL wants to get out of there so I was surprised it ranked high, but by MSA it's only 40.

Originally Posted by John C

That may be good for local ratings, but you would expect local ratings to be up in the playoffs anyway. The market sizes of these cities have no bearing on the network ratings, looking at the national audience, which is what I was getting at.

And I was looking at the international audience, which probably doesn't come across well since I was looking at city pops, but I was more using those for teams that I don't figure have far-reaching fanbases.

[John C]

Originally Posted by kq76

And I was looking at the international audience, which probably doesn't come across well since I was looking at city pops, but I was more using those for teams that I don't figure have far-reaching fanbases.

I think it's just cementing the fact that they don't have far-reaching fanbases.

[John C]

As if the series (and the Phils) had enough trouble...we lost Chase Utley and Shane Victorino in the ninth inning of a gut-wrenching Game 4 loss. We lost them both for the season.

Now, in the third inning of Game 6 (we are currently up 2-1), we lose Jimmy Rollins.

Here is the Phillies lineup as of right now:

SS Bruntlett
CF Werth
LF Ibanez
1B Howard
RF Mayberry, Jr.
2B Donald
C Ruiz
3B Dobbs

How the hell will this team win it all without our first three hitters (I do not know about Rollins' status for the rest of the year just yet)? I have no idea how we'll win this series, in all honesty.

[John C]

Okay...a two-out, two-run double by Bruntlett (who is now hitting .375 for the series) and a two-run jack by Werth make it 7-1. Werth is now waking up (hitting .211 in the playoffs, did not have a hit in the first three games of the NLDS).

Maybe there's hope for this team yet.

[John C]

Phils 9, DBacks 2. Phils win the NLCS in six games. Amazing.

Bruntlett went 3-for-3 with a pair of doubles, a pair of RBI, and four runs scored. Werth went 2-for-4 with the homer and 4 RBI. The leadoff spot, overall, went 5-for-5 with 5 runs scored. That's how you win ball games.

The Indians beat the Rays in six as well...that'll be an interesting matchup. And probably the best possible outcome for MLB in terms of ratings!

[John C]

This may be the first time I've actually silently rooted against my team. Anthony Reyes took a no-hitter into the eighth in Game 1 of the WS. Ryan Howard just broke it up with a single to open the inning.

It would have been the first no-no I've seen from start to finish. Oh well. There's always next time!