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

[getfoul]

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.

Good idea

[KronoRed]

Expand the league first, also reduce the regular season by 20 games, no to baseball in December.

[cincinnati chili]

My biggest problem with the format is that truly great teams (as in 100-win teams) can get eliminated from the playoffs by losing two games out of three in a home series. And in an unbalanced schedule, the "best" team is often - if not usually - not the team with the best record.

I don't mind the mediocre teams having to scratch and claw, but it will make a mockery of the sport if great teams routinely get tossed by the format.

If we do this, I want all the games in all rounds of the playoffs in prime time and/or on weekends. I don't really care if they're on concurrently.

I'd also want the next rounds (NLDS and ALDS) to go to best of seven. All in prime time or on weekends. Don't care if they're on concurrently.

[M2]

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.

I suspect it would feel like most of the 21st century has felt. On the upside, with this format the Reds would have made the playoffs in 2000 and kept visions of October dancing in our heads later into 2002, 2004, 2006, 2011 and 2014. So, some lost seasons might feel a bit a less lost.

[M2]

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.

I don't know who this "every time" person is. I made a "get off my lawn" reference to Bauer because I'd made one to myself a few posts earlier, and because he's a cranky young man.

[M2]

OK. This is not M2. He has been hacked.

Kill the DH.

I hate the DH. I'm just saying if you're going to change playoff format and possibly the division format, expand, do some major league realignment and institute the DH across both leagues, then do it all at once. If the DH is inevitable then put it in the package with everything else. Conversely, if you don't do it there, then make it clear it's not happening this decade.

[westofyou]

Regular Season > Playoffs

I’m in the groove for the jam, not the encore

[HammerTime]

Let’s start with the crazy blackout rules and let people post MLB clips on social media like every other successful league does. Not this craziness. The playoffs is not what is “broken” with MLB.

[corkedbat]

Trevor Bauer definitely wants people to get off his lawn.

Not all people, just the Lord High Emperor of Baseball.

C'mon Trev! Don't hold back. Tell us what you really think.

Heck if you're gonna go that far, expand to 32 teams, 4 4-team divisions in each league, four division winners and four at-large wildcards each (top half of the league play post season). And if I haven't pissed of traditionalists enough...Universal Full-time DH's!

No wildcard. 1 plays 8, 2-7,3-6, 4-5. Best of 5 first roun, best of 7 after.

[The Operator]

Go get ‘em, Trevor.

Hate this idea.

[mth123]

There are too many wild card teams in the play-offs now. Not in favor of adding more. I'm for expanding two more teams, abolishing the AL and NL and going to 8, 4 team, geographically based divisions. Each Division winner goes in and everyone else goes home. No Wild Cards. No byes. Each team within a division plays exactly the same schedule and whoever has the most wins gets in. If the second place team wins 100 games, who cares if they don't make it? They played an entire season and another team with exactly the same schedule won more games. Second place has no claim to a championship. A team who played a different schedule in another Division and won 85 games and came out on top has a better claim than an 100 win second place team does.

While we're at it, move the trade deadline back to June 15th. No playing most of the season with one team and winning the play-off tourney with ringers brought in during August. Put your team together and go at it. You have until Memorial Day to change your mind and then 15 or 20 days to make additions from outside the organization. Once June 15th passes, you play your team other than waiver pick-ups or kids coming up through the system.

I don't have strong feelings about the DH either way. The 5 inning starter has pretty much eliminated the main strategic decision that not having a DH creates, so the game isn't that much different other than seeing the low level stategy of who the PH or double switch might be (most of the time any 8 year old can tell you the right move). I do think it makes a difference in how teams are built and how teams can compete for players. It's kind of a get out of jail free card for an aging contract, so I think it needs to be universal or gone. I don't care which, but lets fix that problem.

[Crumbley]

Rob Manfred hates baseball

[cumberlandreds]

Regular Season > Playoffs

I’m in the groove for the jam, not the encore

I agree. I enjoy the regular season more than the playoffs. I really don't watch that much playoff baseball. Mainly because of the lateness of the games. This proposal is just a grasp at trying to win over the new generation. It's gimmicky and in the end just won't work. How about having four divisions in each league. Divisional winners play best of 7 and work your way down from there. Also start the games no later than 6 pm. Games ending well after midnight does no good for the game and has probably lost more fans over the years than it has gained.

[15fan]

The brains behind New Coke love this idea.

[JFLegal]

feels like when they tried to make the all-star game "count" with the winning league getting home field advantage in the world series. what an incredibly stupid idea. this is right up there.