I Hate the New Playoff Format

I like the idea of giving the division winners a little more of an edge over the wild card teams.

One league apiece, 154 regular season games. Balanced intraleague schedule. Perfect.

The current playoff system really didn’t have a problem. I happened to like it, mainly because I didn’t know another system. But once Boston and New York started missing the postseason, MLB took notice. Man I really hate saying this, but I’m guessing a significant portion of casual fans across the US are fans of those two teams, and they don’t spend as much on teams that miss the playoffs. This is all about making sure that if Boston and New York don’t completely blow a season (and the money they spend almost guarantees at least a playoff berth), they get a playoff trip every year.

In addition, having the 4 and 5 seeds play each other is an interesting twist. MLB is hedging against the Rays winning the AL East by having Boston and New York meet in a playoff series when they’ll probably be the biggest news that week. If they make it as the division winner, then even better, as they’ll be seen in playoff games anyway.

I don’t like the change, mainly because I love to see high payroll teams miss the playoffs. I can see why they did it though, and I can’t say that I wouldn’t do the same thing if in their position.

Additional fun fact: Here’s a list of AL wild card teams listed by appearances since the 94 strike.

Boston Red Sox: 7 times
New York Yankees: 4 times
Tampa Bay Rays: 1 time
Oakland Athletics: 1 time
Seattle Mariners: 1 time
Anaheim Angels: 1 time
Detroit Tigers: 1 time

I agree with the fact that those who win their division should be rewarded.. and those who don’t win it should suffer a bit of a penalty.

In football, the top two teams have a bye. Which is quite the advantage that you get to rest your players a little bit while the wildcard teams and other two division winners play.

In hockey and basketball, the 1 seed plays the 8 seed, 2 vs 7, 3 vs 6, 4 vs 5… So the better teams have an easier road to advance (on paper).

In baseball, its 4 teams, and if you don’t win your division and win the wild card you pretty much get treated the same as if you did. Sure, if you win the wild card you play the team with the best record, but to win the wildcard, you still gotta be a pretty damn good team.

The disadvantage would be that the wild card team now has to face wildcard team 2 in a 1 game playoff, which means they’d likely use their best pitcher and wouldn’t get to start him the first game of the next series should they win. So now they really have an uphill battle to win the title, and they should, considering they didn’t do what it takes to win their division. They shouldn’t be on the same level as teams that did.

It will give teams more incentive to win the division now, which in turn, will make more exciting baseball down the stretch AND It will definitely bring more excitement to the playoff format..

It means a first round bye that takes it back to the old format. I think this is just trying to guarantee there’s a one game playoff every year. Those have been happening recently and it means big TV dollars, so Papa Bud thought it would be a good idea to capitalize on it.

But, yes I do like to add one more playoff team. As a baseball fan, I’m tired of always seeing the same old shit in the playoffs. This way random team x always has a chance. One chance. It’s like a fairy tale. One Cinderella could crash the ball. It only adds to the MLB playoffs which are far outdated and sad. The division may not still matter, but we will be better entertained every year. In this day and age, you need that sort of thing. Just watch the movie “Idiocracy”. You’ll see what I mean.

Division winners with best records get a bye, other four play each other in a 3-game series.
Two winners play the two bye teams (ALDS).
Winners play each other (ALCS).
Winner plays in the World Series.

A minimum of 36 postseason games between the two leagues. That should be all of the revenues that Bud Selig desires.

And they had to win 95 games for the privilege. It was already unlikely that the hypothetical contending Royals team could look to the wild card to get them in the postseason, and now the wild card is unlikely and undesirable. The Royals need to build a 95 win team, not just a 90 win team, and that’s even more true now.

It really disadvantages the wild card teams by reducing their chance to win the WS by 50%, and then reducing it even more, becuase they presumably used their best pitcher in the 1 game series.

I agree that we need to be worried expanding the playoff field because it makes the regular season less exciting.

if having to burn a starter in the wild card play-in game causes the wild card teams to be eliminated in the division series more than 95% of the time.

That way it’s easy to ignore all that crap.

Yes, I know it sounds like I’m another member of the “get off my lawn club”, but sometimes the old way really was better. I happen to think that postseason TV viewership would be better and more lucrative if there were fewer, more highly anticipated games. If you have four divisions and four postseason times, balanced schedules and very little or no interleague nonsense, I think MLB can successfully exploit both close races in the divisions that have them and the cachet of a powerful team in divisions that are easily won. People can either be drawn in while following a close head-to-head race as the regular season winds down, or they can be drawn in while anticipating the postseason match-up of one or more powerhouse teams.

Essentially MLB has traded all of the suspense and anticipation that used to occur in August and September for a 1-day play-in. That’s a terrible trade.

Expand the league to 32 teams and let the top 8 in each league get in the playoffs. Would make it harder for the big market teams to make it through every year. Plus would help the Royals sneak in if they ever figure out how to play .500 ball.

Selig and Torre

The picture looks like Joe is saying “Dad, we’ve talked about you about the driving thing. Now gimme the keys.”