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MLB playoff expansion

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Bruisin Bastards, Jul 19, 2011.

  1. Bruisin Bastards

    Bruisin Bastards New Member

    Who's with me on the fact that baseball needs to at least add more Wild Card winners from each league? I'm sick of the "pay for a playoff appearance club" that many teams that make it to the playoffs fall under. For 162 games teams gut it out, many of them dealing with injuries to key players and pitchers that sometimes take them out of the playoff fold. If the playoffs consisted of three division winners per league and three wild cards it would make for some big time drama. Where sometimes the team that didn't have the big bucks to field a team of all-stars made it into the mix, shook it up, and possibly won it all even over the big boys in the NE payroll league. I just think without a salary cap you have to do the playoff expansion because, believe it or not, everyone doesn't care about the Yankees and Red Sox being in it yearly, or the new trend of the Phillies and Braves joining the post season show each year. These teams have the money or know how to make it each year. Teams like the Pirates, who are a great story, and other lesser organizations fight and claw their way through the season and get beat out by teams with the tools this modern age of baseball allows and we are cheated out of seeing match-ups that would make for one hell of an exhilarating postseason! I would like to see a model for a shorter season that would allow for a bigger postseason. Hell, even if we keep the 162 game season we could work a postseason with the model of three wild card teams per league. I know the old school's are going to hate this, but baseball has become moneyball. The only way to take down the Goliaths from winning by spending year in year out is to have more competition when it gets to the postseason. More in equals more risk spending on the team roster just to try and buy a championship caliber team. The big winner are the fans that get to see more baseball that matters with more teams in the postseason. I mean, picture this: The two team's per division with the best record get a bye. The third division winner with third best record of division winners plays the lowest wild card winner by record in a best of three, and the other two wild cards play each other also in a best of three. Of the two winners from those series they play the two best division winners after in a best of 7, followed by another best of 7 league championship series, followed by world series. How is there a downside to this? Other than going away from tradition there isn't one. I would love more competition in the heart of the baseball playoffs. More teams after a grueling year long baseball schedule just makes sense. It would also create bigger fan support because it wouldn't just be four teams per league getting in year to year...usually the same or something near the same four teams per year. Just my idea, I hope you all enjoy the thought of it or can improve it some. I'm sure it's been talked about plenty, but I'm here to say it again and push it some more. More teams in the playoffs dammit.
     
  2. Football_Bat

    Football_Bat Well-Known Member

    Orange slices for all, or whatever that is.
     
  3. Flying Headbutt

    Flying Headbutt Moderator Staff Member

    Even Ragu will at least break things up into paragraphs.
     
  4. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    Yep. No Paragraphs means I'm not reading it.
     
  5. Mark2010

    Mark2010 Active Member

    Here's the catch.... If you expand the playoffs, you must cut down the regular season. There are simply too many games and how many people want to watch baseball from March through November?

    Having followed the excitement of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, I'd take the tradeoff: shorter season for extra round of playoffs that actually mean something.
     
  6. There's no way anyone's shortening the season because no one in baseball is giving back money. The 162 game season is fine as-is. I have never understood the recent calls for a shorter season. Why would anyone want less baseball?

    The playoffs could be shortened by limiting travel days, but that also seems unlikely.
     
  7. steveu

    steveu Well-Known Member

    If anything, the season needs to start on the same day as the NCAA championship game (first Monday in April). MLB largely got away with it this year because the weather conditions in most cities were good, but the staggered Opening Weekend didn't work for me.

    I actually wouldn't mind a return to 15 teams per league, no divisions, top five teams qualify and top teams in each league earn a bye.
     
  8. SoCalDude

    SoCalDude Active Member

    A's and Angels played a doubleheader Saturday. It was scheduled, not a makeup from a rainout. The players voted and agreed to it because it meant they got a four-day All-Star break, instead of three.
    Part of the discussion included comments from Scioscia, who is on one of the committees studying this. He said doubleheaders are a good way to reduce the length of the season, especially with more wild card teams being considered.
     
  9. Freelance Hack

    Freelance Hack Active Member

    I don't like a bye because I think it hurts the team that it's supposed to help.

    Make the 4-5 seed a play-in game. Winner advances to play the league champ the next evening at the league champ's field.
     
  10. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    They could fold a three-game series into the existing schedule without much trouble. For the last few years series have often been set up with a one-day break between games at the same site, and there have been pre-set schedules that lead to long gaps. The Giants and Phillies waited five days before the end of the first round and the start of the NLCS last year. Nip and tuck on those, and the schedule at least shouldn't get any longer.
     
  11. Mark2010

    Mark2010 Active Member

    Fine, if don't cut regular season games, then you have to compress the schedule, because there is no room to extend the season. It's already flirting with November as is. Any more, and it would be like the NFL pushing the Super Bowl back to mid February.

    The reason the early rounds of the playoffs seem spread out is because TV wants it that way in case multiple series go the distance. Hasn't happened recently, so you get some awkward gaps when series end early. The xtra day early in the NLDS is again because of TV: You can't show more than three games live without overlapping. So if you insist on every game getting its own exclusive TV window, something has to give.
     
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