• The KillerFrogs

2020 MLB Thread

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FBallFan123

Active Member
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.
 
Eight

Eight

Member
FBallFan123 said:
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.
Click to expand...

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?
 
F

FBallFan123

Active Member
Eight said:
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?
Click to expand...

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.
 
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Eight

Eight

Member
FBallFan123 said:
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.
Click to expand...

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
 
F

FBallFan123

Active Member
Eight said:
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
Click to expand...

One could argue this is kind of the point.

The AL is filled with teams in long rebuilds...especially in the Central.

I think almost everybody is tired of these 3-5 year rebuilds.

But some teams that aren’t really competitive in their divisions aren’t willing to compete for the Wild Card because it’s just 1 game roll of the dice.

If the playoff structure was a little more rewarding for Wild Card teams maybe you get more teams competing for it.
 
F

FBallFan123

Active Member
The Artist Formerly Known as PhormerPhrog said:
Here. Here.
Click to expand...

I'm kinda surprised at how many of the baseball writers/media have come out in support of this.

Watching Hot Stove this morning, Harold Reynolds, Matt Vasgersian and Joel Sherman all came out supporting it.

Ken Rosenthal, Jayson Stark and Buster Olney have all made comments on Twitter that seem at least somewhat supportive.

I'm open to changing and expanding the playoff format....but I don't think this should be what they settle on.
 
Eight

Eight

Member
FBallFan123 said:






Click to expand...


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.
 
W

Wexahu

Full Member
Eight said:
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.
Click to expand...

Great, just like every other sport has either already done or is on the cusp of doing, let's water down the regular season even more so each of the 162 regular season games (or 154, whatever) they play is just a little bit less meaningful than they already are.

Limit pitching changes and put a clock on the pitcher so he can't fiddle fart around for 20 seconds between every pitch, those two things would go a long way toward fixing the game and making it more watchable.
 

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