In the postseason, should there be a 7th umpire for replays? Having a LF umpire in the Yankees/Twins series didn’t help in calling that Joe Mauer ball down the left field line correctly.

Except I would just give them the “red flag” once per game. But I’m not 100 percent sold on losing the tradition of managers going out to yell at umpires, kicking and screaming. Imagine if this had existed when [name redacted] blew his knee after being tackled by his coach in San Diego. Different career? Different man, perhaps?

Champagne on Divisional Series is like my boss’ “performance” bonus: pointless, somewhat offensive, but here to stay.

It only took them until 2009 to figure out they need replay for home run calls. So it might be a while before MLB wakes up again and adds more replay. How is it this hard to figure something like getting the correct call added to the game? And don’t give me that tired old excuse “the human element.” Because if that was your team that got screwed you would be wishing for replay.

what stands out for me. Making tough outs, and freaking Bobby Abreu can hit, get on base and steal a base and should of been the Cubs rightfielder this year.
 Phillies lineup is tough, I love there lineup.
 I am ok with two challenges for a manager, only in the playoffs.

judgement. Adding another member to a regular crew and including booth/scoring as part of the regular rotation may ease fatigue. It also as another ump on premises to go on field in case of injury.

I like the idea of manager initiated challenges on fair/foul, fan interference, and tag plays. Not interested on force plays unless “in the area of second base” is eliminated or, dog forbid, a chalk circle is drawn around second establishing the set parameters of the vicinity play.

I’d rather see managers forced to not just argue, but burn a challenge if they are so certain the ump has it wrong. Better yet, give a manager one challenge. If they’re correct, give them another.

With trained eyes in the booth, I would also want the upstairs umpire to be able to change a call without challenge if the call is clearly wrong (not balls/strikes) without requiring managerial challenge – fair pole, etc.

I don’t believe I heard Brian Anderson at all, but I thought Ron Darling did a good job during the little baseball I was able to watch.

If the players want to celebrate with champagne, and it is provided for them, knock yourself out. I am not a member of the celebration police. :-P

The rest is pretty bad.

Didn’t catch him much this week, but he overreacts to every fly ball the Brewers hit.

He’s somewhere in the middle. He doesn’t seem to Cub-bash, as his partner does. That’s another part of the equasion with a “homer” announcer. Does he bash the opposition without reason, just to score points with the home audience?

Game length is already a problem. In baseball (unlike football) there are a ton of bang-bang calls. I think most managers would be inclined to use all replay opportunities in every game. Imagine the Cubs trailing by a run in the 9th inning and the leadoff batter gets thrown out in a close play at first. The thinking will be “might as well use the replay. He was probably out but who knows”. This will lengthen the game and could cause some problems for pitchers. Imagine a 9th inning in a close game where there are 2 or 3 challenges in the same half inning. Are there some pitchers who would be impacted by that. You betcha.

I’m not really in favor of replay but I think at most you have a replay official and let him review calls. But no challenges. In baseball, you could install “base” cams that are automatically set on each base. The replay umpire could review each call pretty quickly and buzz the home plate ump in the event that he needed more time.

Ultimately you could just eliminate the umpire entirely. The technology is already there to call balls and strikes. A single umpire with some sophisticated video equipment could make the calls via a scoreboard. Or something like that….

…of Orange County, and greater Southern California!!!!

The problem that needs to be fixed is getting ALL calls right (Balls and strikes aside). If you have 2 poor umpires like Angel Hernandez or C.B. Bucknor working a game, a manager could burn through his 2 flags by the 5th inning. That would punish teams for bad umpiring.

Something needs to be worked out to where that 5th umpire on hand has the authority, and more importantly, the responsibility to over-rule the blown call. If he doesn’t, the whole world knows he screwed up. Keep it somewhat limited as to what calls the 5th umpire could over-rule, and test it in ST. If it works, great!

The problem with all of this is how it’ll change the game. Arguments and ejections are all part of the game. If a manager WANTS to get himself tossed to inspire his team, replay would change that.

Did we expect anything else from MLBud?

I agree 100%, Al. Added bonus from your proposal: We don’t have to wait for the umpires to go into the clubhouse and back to review the replay. The additional umpire can do it from his seat upstairs. The call would take less time than the endless discussions between managers and umpires we have now.

The elimination of the Cardinals and Boston proves that the playoffs are about the teams that are hot at this time. It’s not about overall records. Learn, please, Hendry and Lou.

On the other hand, we don’t have any wild card teams in the championship series this year. So, most division winners stayed hot in late September, early October.

Interesting column by Jim Caple today. If you look down in his standard “tell your statistics to shut up” section, there are some interesting notes about player’s stats during the playoffs. The results seem very surprising at first, but less so upon further reflection.

The bottom line is that some people who were known as clutch post-season players had some terrible playoff series, sometimes the first several. The best approach is to get there as often as possible and keep trying until you break through.