msstate7
Well-known member
If you do the 3-game series, you really put the screws to the winner unless it's a longer delay till divisional round. I'm fine with that though... reward the best team in regular season
Around The Majors 2019
- Thread starter CrimsonCowboy
- Start date
If you do the 3-game series, you really put the screws to the winner unless it's a longer delay till divisional round. I'm fine with that though... reward the best team in regular season
CrazyTrain
Well-known member
I agree with you that a 3 game series puts the WC at an extreme disadvantage in the divisional round. Too much, in my opinion. I'd be in favor of getting rid of the 2nd wild card all together. The WC game is fun for everyone but the fans and players who have a 162 game season riding on a single game.
The Rays are pretty much screwed until 2028...
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-legal-ramifications-of-the-two-city-rays/
A guy in the comments summed this up micely:
"St. Petersburg is under no obligation to accommodate the team in the slightest until the 2028 season. Seriously, this would be like Juan Soto declaring that the MLBPA has given him permission to explore playing left field for other teams."
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-legal-ramifications-of-the-two-city-rays/
A guy in the comments summed this up micely:
"St. Petersburg is under no obligation to accommodate the team in the slightest until the 2028 season. Seriously, this would be like Juan Soto declaring that the MLBPA has given him permission to explore playing left field for other teams."
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BeanieAntics
Arbitration Eligible
I don't see any major issues with delaying the 2nd round a few extra days. I think 3 days in between would be sufficient to give the 1st round winner enough time to rest their top starter. If the MLB were worried about the playoffs dragging on too late into the fall, you could always push up the start of the regular season 3-4 days in order to compensate.
I think a 3-5-7-7 playoff format bracketed NFL style makes a lot of sense for the MLB. There are some issues with it, but I think the benefits outweigh any drawbacks. One of the benefits is that it will prevent more teams from doing the dreaded "tanking" strategy that so many seem up in arms about. Tanking will still happen, but a 12 team playoff would keep more teams competitive beyond the trade deadline and that would give them less incentive to start selling off.
CyYoung31
Shift Leader
You know how you fix that? Get rid of the 2nd WC. It has all but eliminated pennant races.
Baseball is the one sport along with football where the regular season still matters. I’m not interested in changing that by letting half the league into the postseason.
The 2nd WC has actually given more interest to fanbases closer to end of year.
CyYoung31
Shift Leader
Yeah, because the 5th best team in each league knows they’re going to the playoffs. Imagine how much more exciting it would be for everyone else if they had to play in a pennant race.
BeanieAntics
Arbitration Eligible
Hell, why don't we just go extreme old school and just have the best team from the AL and NL meet for the world series?
Having more teams in contention keeps fans engaged longer. Obviously a line has to be drawn somewhere, but I think its too conservative to draw the line at 4 out of 15 teams and its just silly to draw the line at 5 teams. The current format is beyond dumb. Expanding to 6 teams per league will give us more postseason baseball and keep the fans on fringe-competitive teams more excited. And if we expand the league to 32 teams, then having a 12 team playoff almost becomes a necessity at that point.
I also don't think I buy the whole idea of this diminishing the importance of the regular season. That is what they said before the CFP and that has been a massive success for the NCAA.
CyYoung31
Shift Leader
Lol, MLB and the CFP aren’t even comparable.
If you expand to 32 teams, sure, 12 teams makes some sense. Otherwise you need to shorten the regular season by 10-15 games. That would certainly keep people engaged.
5 teams is perfect with the way the league is right now, though I wouldn’t mind the regular season being shortened by a few games as it is. They just need to get rid of the play in game and use my idea of the double header that the 2nd WC team has to sweep.
CyYoung31
Shift Leader
Also, I would like to point out that it seems almost every year around this time people are complaining about the playoff races already being decided, and then come August-September teams get hit and others regress, and we work out way into a decently interesting finish most years.
Umm...everyone?
Most "pennant races" would be over for the vast majority of teams by July. How exactly is that exciting for the sport?
Folks need to wake up and realize that MLB is falling way behind in popularity, so reminiscing about anything MLB did in the "good old days" is pretty dumb.
The play offs are the exciting time. The more teams that have a chance means more fans are engaged. More engaged fans means the sport is more popular, and is exactly what MLB needs...not more dinosaur thinking.
CrazyTrain
Well-known member
OK then, let's play half the number of regular season games and expand the playoffs. The only reason you do both is to make more $, not to get more fans.
The current system is fine. It took me a few years to grow onto it because of 2012 WC game but it makes sense.
Winning your division matters a bunch now. Wild Card is volatile. We've seen the Wild Card game at times is not an advantage for the home team or the road team. And if they're using their ace in the one game then they're at a disadvantage to start the LDS.
The league has more 2nd place teams engaged, and for stronger divisions you sometimes have the 2nd and 3rd place teams from those divisions in the wild card game. So if anything, the strongest divisions are being showcased but winning your division where you play over a third of your games matters.
I think once expansion happens and we get an even 32 with 4-teams and 4 divisions in each league we'll see the same format the NFL has.
Wild Card weekend (probably best of 3)
LDS (5 games)
and then LCS (7 games)
So that will actually push the division winners not to put it in cruise control in september because they're fighting for the 1 and 2 spots that get a bye past the Wild Card weekend.
Wild Card weekend (probably best of 3)
LDS (5 games)
and then LCS (7 games)
So that will actually push the division winners not to put it in cruise control in september because they're fighting for the 1 and 2 spots that get a bye past the Wild Card weekend.
Jaw
It's OVER 5,000!
In the end, MLB will expand the playoffs to some ridiculous number of teams. As it did with the NBA, this will make the regular season games less important and less entertaining. Like the NBA, the end result will probably be a more profitable league that I have no interest in watching.
Jaw
It's OVER 5,000!
Six would be better than what we have now. The one game playoff has never grown on me. Eight would be silly.
BeanieAntics
Arbitration Eligible
The NBA is ridiculously popular right now, but I'm not sure how much of that has to do with the number of playoff teams or the competitiveness of the league. Personally, I enjoy some of the sillier drama storylines of the NBA, but as far as the games themselves I have virtually no interest because of the lack of parity. It took two hall of famers getting injured for a team other than the Warriors winning it this year. I don't like the idea of 1-3 teams dominating a league for 5 years until there is a competitive shuffle. I also don't like the fact that smaller market teams are put so far behind the eight ball because of how much power the players have in free agency.
I prefer uncertainty and parity, which is why I was drawn to baseball as a child. Adding a 6th playoff team strikes the perfect balance of post-season parity while still giving teams a strong incentive in the regular season (Making the playoffs + the Bye).
Right now, there are 9 teams in the AL with a somewhat realistic chance of making the playoffs, but three of those teams are well under a 10% chance of making it. If you expand to 6 teams, the Rangers, A's, and Angels would all have a much better chance and it would certainly lead to more fan engagement for those three teams.
In the NL, there are 12 teams with a 7% chance or better of making the playoffs, which is actually kind of insane for it to be late June. But there are many fanbases who have mostly checked out that would have more reason to stick around if there were one extra slot.
The MLB has a lot of work to do in order to compete with the NBA and NFL in terms of popularity. This step would help that process and so would several other steps that are being held back by more traditional folk. Which is fine to some degree. I think baseball has a lot of traditions that should be preserved, but I also want baseball to thrive and if that means giving in to a few new school ideas then I'm behind it. I've long been anti-DH, but the more I think about it the more I think it would be best for the league if the NL adopted it, for example.
I prefer uncertainty and parity, which is why I was drawn to baseball as a child. Adding a 6th playoff team strikes the perfect balance of post-season parity while still giving teams a strong incentive in the regular season (Making the playoffs + the Bye).
Right now, there are 9 teams in the AL with a somewhat realistic chance of making the playoffs, but three of those teams are well under a 10% chance of making it. If you expand to 6 teams, the Rangers, A's, and Angels would all have a much better chance and it would certainly lead to more fan engagement for those three teams.
In the NL, there are 12 teams with a 7% chance or better of making the playoffs, which is actually kind of insane for it to be late June. But there are many fanbases who have mostly checked out that would have more reason to stick around if there were one extra slot.
The MLB has a lot of work to do in order to compete with the NBA and NFL in terms of popularity. This step would help that process and so would several other steps that are being held back by more traditional folk. Which is fine to some degree. I think baseball has a lot of traditions that should be preserved, but I also want baseball to thrive and if that means giving in to a few new school ideas then I'm behind it. I've long been anti-DH, but the more I think about it the more I think it would be best for the league if the NL adopted it, for example.
CyYoung31
Shift Leader
Who the hell said anything about reminiscing about the “good old days”? I just cited a bunch of progressive changes I’d like to see made. Nice strawman.
By the way, my point about taking away the 2nd WC was in reference to Beanie’s complaint about the lack of pennant races, not that I’d actually want to see it happen. I guess you missed that nuance being hellbent on your crusade against dinosaurs though.