Turn Off Ads?
Page 1 of 6 12345 ... LastLast
Results 1 to 15 of 80

Thread: Joel Sherman: MLB plotting playoff expansion — with reality TV twist

  1. #1
    Maple SERP savafan's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2000
    Location
    Cincinnati, Ohio
    Posts
    18,427

    Joel Sherman: MLB plotting playoff expansion — with reality TV twist

    https://nypost.com/2020/02/10/mlb-pl...lity-tv-twist/

    Imagine a team picking its playoff opponent. Think about Brian Cashman and the Yankees deciding whether to face the Red Sox or avoid them in the first round of the postseason. All on live TV.
    Well, it is probably coming soon to the major leagues.
    MLB is seriously weighing a move from five to seven playoff teams in each league beginning in 2022, The Post has learned.
    In this concept, the team with the best record in each league would receive a bye to avoid the wild-card round and go directly to the Division Series. The two other division winners and the wild card with the next best record would each host all three games in a best-of-three wild-card round. So the bottom three wild cards would have no first-round home games.
    My dad got to enjoy 3 Reds World Championships by the time he was my age. So far, I've only gotten to enjoy one. Step it up Redlegs!


  2. Turn Off Ads?
  3. #2
    Moderator The Operator's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Del Davis Tree Farm
    Posts
    8,475

    Re: Joel Sherman: MLB plotting playoff expansion — with reality TV twist

    Reality TV? Ugh
    Quote Originally Posted by BCubb2003 View Post
    Don't worry. I'd say the game threads are about league average.
    Phil Castellini puts the FUN in Trust Fund.

  4. Likes:

    Chip R (02-11-2020),goldglover9 (02-10-2020)

  5. #3
    Eight bosses? Bob Sheed's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
    Location
    Eight, Bob.
    Posts
    3,340

    Re: Joel Sherman: MLB plotting playoff expansion — with reality TV twist

    Sigh...

    "Lemonade requires a significant amount of sugar. Otherwise, you've just made lemon juice."

  6. #4
    Droll, yes. Quite droll. FlightRick's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2003
    Location
    The Birthplace of Aviation
    Posts
    695

    Re: Joel Sherman: MLB plotting playoff expansion — with reality TV twist

    It's probably a shame that Sherman (or his editor) used the term "reality TV" right there in the headline, because that phrase comes with a built-in value judgment for anyone with an average or better IQ (and that judgment is not positive).

    The concept itself isn't horrible. I actually applaud anything that incentivizes winning a division, and makes the Wild Card more of a consolation prize, and this does just that.

    That said, 7 playoff teams out of 15 in both leagues? No thank you. That's the icky part to me.

  7. Likes:

    Chip R (02-11-2020),DocRed (02-11-2020),REDREAD (02-11-2020),RiverRat13 (02-12-2020)

  8. #5
    The Lineups stink. KronoRed's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Location
    West N. Carolina
    Posts
    62,139

    Re: Joel Sherman: MLB plotting playoff expansion — with reality TV twist

    Lame.
    Go Gators!

  9. Likes:

    cumberlandreds (02-11-2020),NC Reds (02-10-2020),REDREAD (02-11-2020)

  10. #6
    Member RedsManRick's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2004
    Location
    Guelph, ON
    Posts
    19,441

    Re: Joel Sherman: MLB plotting playoff expansion — with reality TV twist

    Play 162 games to see which teams don't suck. Then play 4 rounds of glorified coin flips to see which team that doesn't suck should be immensely glorified while all the rest are basically forgotten. Makes sense.

    How about this:
    2 Leagues. Play 12 games against each of the other 14 teams in your league. Two 3-game series home and away. Best records in each league play each other in a single "World Series" match up to see who the best team is. Done. That's my ideal playoffs.

    Tournaments are fun, I'll grant you. But they're crap for figuring out who the best team is. You should not play for 6 months for a chance to roll dice.
    Games are won on run differential -- scoring more than your opponent. Runs are runs, scored or prevented they all count the same. Worry about scoring more and allowing fewer, not which positions contribute to which side of the equation or how "consistent" you are at your current level of performance.

  11. Likes:

    Edd Roush (02-11-2020),FlightRick (02-11-2020),REDREAD (02-11-2020),sjjones (02-11-2020)

  12. #7
    Posting in Dynarama M2's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2000
    Location
    Boston
    Posts
    45,734

    Re: Joel Sherman: MLB plotting playoff expansion — with reality TV twist

    I'm trying not to be "get off my lawn" about this. So, in the spirit of being constructive, how could they make this work?

    One of the big pitfalls is leagues often don't have seven winning teams. Seven losing teams would have made the playoffs during the 2010s. That's not terribly surprising when there's 15 teams in each league. The dividing line between winning and losing can fall anywhere between 5 and 10 teams. More than that, we've seen wild card teams win the World Series. If you let too many sub-.500 teams into the playoffs, one will eventually win a championship. Then you get to answer the question of whether your regular season is meaningless or if your postseason is a joke. Yippee. So, you need to make some changes to ensure 7+ winning teams happens almost all the time.

    How do you get there?

    1. The easiest way to do make 7 a safe number is to expand. Every team you add increases your chances of having the 7th-best team post a winning record. Let's pick the lightest possible expansion and add one team to each league. Won't be perfect, but it will probably avoid ever having two losing teams make the playoffs (which would have occurred twice in the 2010s).

    2. Eliminate divisions and play a balanced schedule. An imbalanced schedule gives you weirdness, and weirdness can skew the numbers. MLB needs as even as possible a win distribution pattern. Also, in a new system you need to feel everything is earned. Go to a single table. First off, first place is the spot that matters most. It's literally the golden ticket. Getting that ticket because your division is mostly garbage is not a good way to keep you fans engaged. Play everybody the same number of times. Then the top team is indisputable and spots 2-4 have been fairly earned. And it prevents sour grapes for the #8 and #9 teams.

    Hardest sell here is a balanced schedule would mean a reduced regular season schedule. It works out to 150 games to run a balanced schedule in a 16-team league (no interleague play). Fans would be absolutely fine with it. Players would like the reduced wear and tear. However, it is less revenue for the first few years. Maybe if you can time it with a new TV deal you can get owners to go along with it.

    3. And if you're going this far, go all the way. You know that radical restructuring you were talking about? Do it. Take one big plunge. Get all of your disorientation over at once. That includes instituting the DH across both leagues. If you're going to do it, do it along with everything else. Put it all together and, sure, it's a big pill to swallow. People will scream and yell and claim it's the end of the world, but soon enough it will just become the new normal. People will get used to the new system. We're onto year 27 of the current three-division system. We got 24 years out of the two-division system. Establish the new system and then let people in the 2050s worry about what's next. Yet do it all at once. We'll adjust Just make it one big adjustment instead of a decade of adjustment after adjustment after adjustment.
    I'm not a system player. I am a system.

  13. Likes:

    REDREAD (02-11-2020),Reds Fanatic (02-10-2020),RedsManRick (02-11-2020),Ron Madden (02-10-2020)

  14. #8
    Member Ron Madden's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2003
    Location
    Cincinnati
    Posts
    21,733

    Re: Joel Sherman: MLB plotting playoff expansion — with reality TV twist

    Trevor Bauer
    @BauerOutage
    No idea who made this new playoff format proposal, but Rob is responsible for releasing it, so I’ll direct this to you, Rob Manfred. Your proposal is absurd for too many reasons to type on twitter and proves you have absolutely no clue about baseball. You’re a joke.

  15. Likes:

    alwaysawarrior (02-11-2020),Big Red Smokey (02-12-2020),Bob Sheed (02-11-2020),DocRed (02-11-2020),Edd Roush (02-11-2020),goldglover9 (02-11-2020),goreds2 (02-11-2020),indy_dave00 (02-11-2020),JaxRed (02-10-2020),NC Reds (02-10-2020),Powder River (02-11-2020),Reds Fanatic (02-10-2020),sjjones (02-11-2020),texasdave (02-10-2020),Tommyjohn25 (02-11-2020),wlf WV (02-11-2020)

  16. #9
    Posting in Dynarama M2's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2000
    Location
    Boston
    Posts
    45,734

    Re: Joel Sherman: MLB plotting playoff expansion — with reality TV twist

    Trevor Bauer definitely wants people to get off his lawn.
    I'm not a system player. I am a system.

  17. Likes:

    goldglover9 (02-11-2020),goreds2 (02-11-2020),JFLegal (02-11-2020),Powder River (02-11-2020),RedsBaron (02-11-2020),Roy Tucker (02-13-2020)

  18. #10
    Haunted by walks
    Join Date
    Apr 2000
    Location
    Syracuse
    Posts
    9,933

    Re: Joel Sherman: MLB plotting playoff expansion — with reality TV twist

    Quote Originally Posted by RedsManRick View Post
    Play 162 games to see which teams don't suck. Then play 4 rounds of glorified coin flips to see which team that doesn't suck should be immensely glorified while all the rest are basically forgotten. Makes sense.

    How about this:
    2 Leagues. Play 12 games against each of the other 14 teams in your league. Two 3-game series home and away. Best records in each league play each other in a single "World Series" match up to see who the best team is. Done. That's my ideal playoffs.

    Tournaments are fun, I'll grant you. But they're crap for figuring out who the best team is. You should not play for 6 months for a chance to roll dice.
    I agree with you, but I believe the times have passed us by. Now, by the end of the season, everybody pretty much knows who the best team in baseball is, and the postseason just muddies that. There’s no feeling of “face the winner
    from parts unknown to see who’s best.”

    But with two 14-team leagues, can you imagine going 10 years or so and never finishing higher than 7th? The cellar’s a long way down.

  19. #11
    Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Posts
    136

    Re: Joel Sherman: MLB plotting playoff expansion — with reality TV twist

    Quote Originally Posted by M2 View Post
    Trevor Bauer definitely wants people to get off his lawn.
    What a tired line. Guess what? Some people actually care about the game. They don’t want something they like to become worse. This is a terrible idea by Manfred.

  20. Likes:

    alwaysawarrior (02-11-2020),Chip R (02-11-2020)

  21. #12
    Member Reds Fanatic's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
    Location
    Piqua, OH
    Posts
    19,727

    Re: Joel Sherman: MLB plotting playoff expansion — with reality TV twist

    I am not surprised to see baseball try to expand playoffs with the upcoming TV rights negotiations as more playoffs means more money but this proposal is just too far.

    First the whole pick your opponent is just too gimmicky. There is not one sport where teams pick who they face in the playoffs just a dumb idea to create drama with no real purpose.

    I also agree 7 teams per league is one too many.

    Easy answer 6 teams per league.

    Top 2 teams in each league first round bye.

    First round 3 game series. Worst record division winner faces worst wild card record and the other series is the other two wild card teams.

    Division series are then reseeded after wild card round so best regular season record faces lowest remaining seed from their leagues after wild card round. 2nd best division record faces the higher remaining seed after the wild card.

  22. Likes:

    M2 (02-12-2020)

  23. #13
    Posting in Dynarama M2's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2000
    Location
    Boston
    Posts
    45,734

    Re: Joel Sherman: MLB plotting playoff expansion — with reality TV twist

    Quote Originally Posted by getfoul View Post
    What a tired line. Guess what? Some people actually care about the game. They don’t want something they like to become worse. This is a terrible idea by Manfred.
    If you care about the game, maybe you might have noticed it changes league formats roughly every 25 years.
    Last edited by M2; 02-10-2020 at 11:19 PM.
    I'm not a system player. I am a system.

  24. Likes:

    pahster (02-11-2020)

  25. #14
    AlienTruckStopSexWorker cincinnati chili's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2001
    Location
    Denver
    Posts
    11,896

    Re: Joel Sherman: MLB plotting playoff expansion — with reality TV twist

    Quote Originally Posted by M2 View Post
    That includes instituting the DH across both leagues.
    OK. This is not M2. He has been hacked.

    Kill the DH.
    Stick to your guns.

  26. Likes:

    Roy Tucker (02-13-2020),westofyou (02-11-2020),WVRedsFan (02-12-2020)

  27. #15
    Member
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Posts
    136

    Re: Joel Sherman: MLB plotting playoff expansion — with reality TV twist

    Quote Originally Posted by M2 View Post
    If you care about the game, maybe you might have noticed it changes league formats roughly every 25 years.
    I didn’t say every change MLB has made is bad. This idea is stupid, and to throw out “get off my lawn” every time somebody calls a new idea dumb is ridiculous. If you (or anyone) has a good idea, I’ll say it’s a good idea.


Turn Off Ads?

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  

Board Moderators may, at their discretion and judgment, delete and/or edit any messages that violate any of the following guidelines: 1. Explicit references to alleged illegal or unlawful acts. 2. Graphic sexual descriptions. 3. Racial or ethnic slurs. 4. Use of edgy language (including masked profanity). 5. Direct personal attacks, flames, fights, trolling, baiting, name-calling, general nuisance, excessive player criticism or anything along those lines. 6. Posting spam. 7. Each person may have only one user account. It is fine to be critical here - that's what this board is for. But let's not beat a subject or a player to death, please.

Thank you, and most importantly, enjoy yourselves!


RedsZone.com is a privately owned website and is not affiliated with the Cincinnati Reds or Major League Baseball


Contact us: Boss | Gallen5862 | Plus Plus | Powel Crosley | RedlegJake | The Operator