First thoughts on the potential postseason changes....
I hate the idea of teams choosing their opponents. It's gimmicky.
I'm not against expanding the number of postseason teams...but I don't really like giving the #1 seed that much more of an advantage over a #2 seed.
I like the Wild Card game as-is, it's like starting the playoffs with a game 7.
But I get people not liking a team ending their playoffs after 1 game.
Forcing the Wild Card teams to play all of a best of 3 series on the road seems fine.
I do get that baseball wants to limit the teams that tank and get more cities/teams involved late in the regular season and playoffs....but this doesn't seem like the best solution.
Hopefully this is just a trial balloon.
so after playing the longest season in all the major sports baseball wants to make the play-offs long and to some extent diminish the value of the regular season?
I get the argument that expanding the playoffs could diminish the importance of the regular season.
On the other hand....we've seen some front offices that the diminish the regular season by "tanking"...sometimes for multiple seasons, that can be awful for MLB in certain markets.
And teams in the Wild Card discussion at the trade deadline decide it's not worth it to "go for it" just for a 1-game playoff....and either do nothing to improve the roster or become "sellers", both of which can detract from the quality of regular baseball season.
I'm not saying become the NBA and put half the league into the playoffs.
But I'm open to hearing proposals that could get more teams into meaningful games in August and September.
do you realize the american league as a whole had only 7 teams with winning records?
nothing reinforces the value of enduring a 162 game grind like teams that barely break .500 in the play off hunt
aside from that teams barely have enough pitching to last a 162-game season with the additional games so adding a few more teams in the play-off extending the season shouldn't task those bullpens to much
Here. Here.
the comment buster made about more small market teams having a chance on paper sounds good, but for me it is just watering down the play offs after going through the longest season of any of the major sports.
in all honesty the big money clubs haven't dominated the past few years and we have continually seen teams with solid front offices get rewarded.
last year we saw the rays and the a's in the al wild card while the brewers and nationals were in the nl.
tampa pushed the astros and the nationals won the whole damn thing.
i don't watch a large amount of in season baseball because individual games aren't nearly as important in a 162 game season, the games move too damn slow, i hate the number of pitching changes for situational match ups in a game in may or june, and i really don't like how the games are broadcast by espn or fox.
that is just me and i might be way off base.
All of this.The “wild card” play in game now, is ridiculous.
If any direction, they should go back to the 3 division winners, one wild card team.
You play 162 games then to have a one game playoff? This isn’t football. If you want the silly play-in, have it be a best of 3 at least.