Playoff system improvement

[bird watcher]

I love the 2 wild card opportunity and I don't really even mind the 1 game play in. What I think needs to happen is reseeding as soon as the playoffs start. In other words the two teams with the worst record should be the ones in the 1 game play-in, even if one or more was a division winner. If the season ended today, the White Sox should be one of the teams in the play in game.

Imagine a scenario where a division winner is 5-10 games worse than 1 or both of the wild card teams.

This would force every team to keep the pedal to the proverbial medal and it would make watching the standings even more interesting.

[bird watcher]

If a division winner was 5-10 games worse than a wild card team, chances are they would be fighting tooth and nail to win that division. Also, with an unbalanced schedule, not sure how fair it is to "penalize" a division winner. I think they've done a very smart thing here in hindsight. They've created more interest in the regular season for more teams while taking out some of the value of being a wild card team. This will make it tougher for a wild card team to win the WS than it had been before.

I would favor a balanced schedule too. This, in my opinion, wouldn't penalize the division winner; it would reward the teams with the best record. This would stop a wild card team from being penalized for being in a division with a 100+ game winning team.

[Frobby]

I love the 2 wild card opportunity and I don't really even mind the 1 game play in. What I think needs to happen is reseeding as soon as the playoffs start. In other words the two teams with the worst record should be the ones in the 1 game play-in, even if one or more was a division winner. If the season ended today, the White Sox should be one of the teams in the play in game.

Imagine a scenario where a division winner is 5-10 games worse than 1 or both of the wild card teams.

This would force every team to keep the pedal to the proverbial medal and it would make watching the standings even more interesting.

If you are going to go this far, why not just eliminate the divisions entirely? Top five records make the playoffs, period.

[Orioles0615]

I still think the wild card should be best of 3. I mean you could take away the last three games of the regular season and make it that week. Go from 162 to 159

[DrungoHazewood]

If you are going to go this far, why not just eliminate the divisions entirely? Top five records make the playoffs, period.

I'd be fine with that, it's my preference actually. But the teams seem to really value the easier and cheaper travel that comes with divisions and an unbalanced schedule. Which leads me to wonder if there'd ever be any more traction with more regionalized divisions and leagues. I'd imagine you'd easily sell the players and the accountants on a setup where the O's never/rarely played a game west of the Mississippi or south of Washington.

[SouthRider]

I disagree with the OP here. The whole point of the new system is to put emphasis on winning the division. We don't want the Yankees playing the Rays the last week of the season, battling it out for the division, yet both teams so far ahead of the other division winners that the series is relatively meaningless.

[bird watcher]

I disagree with the OP here. The whole point of the new system is to put emphasis on winning the division. We don't want the Yankees playing the Rays the last week of the season, battling it out for the division, yet both teams so far ahead of the other division winners that the series is relatively meaningless.

In the case you present here, having the better record would increase your seeding and likely match you up with a lesser opponent in the playoffs. There would still be incentive.

I would also be on board with getting rid of the divisions all together however that would mean a MUCH more radical departure from what we currently have.

If we are going radical then go with an Eastern Conference and a Western Conference, no divisions, and then either no inter-conference play or balanced inter-conference play. This would however never happen.

[DrungoHazewood]

Here's my pie-in-the-sky proposal:

Four 8-team leagues, divided up geographically. No, or very limited, interleague play. But with the schedule spread out a bit, maybe reduced to 154 or 140-some games. You make up for that with one week every month or every other month with no scheduled league games, but with tournament games instead - maybe an open cup setup, or a champions league setup that might even involve teams from Japan and/or Mexico.

I've always loved the soccer (yes, I know that's a bad word here) concept that winning your league is huge, but it's not the only thing. We could actually introduce the concept of winning a "double" or a "triple" to baseball, where a team wasn't just Series champs, but also Open Cup champs, and the World Club Tourney Champs.

[brianod]

I think it would be an improvement in the playoff system if the Orioles finally made it to the playoffs.

[Darwin]

More teams should make the playoffs. I think 6 teams should make the playoffs in each league, like football. The top 2 records get a bye. Then the rest follows like football playoffs. Not enough teams make the playoffs in baseball.

[DrungoHazewood]

More teams should make the playoffs. I think 6 teams should make the playoffs in each league, like football. The top 2 records get a bye. Then the rest follows like football playoffs. Not enough teams make the playoffs in baseball.

Too many teams make the playoffs. I think no teams should make the playoffs, just the team at the top of the 30-team table is declared champion.

[Darwin]

Too many teams make the playoffs. I think no teams should make the playoffs, just the team at the top of the 30-team table is declared champion.

I don't get it. Was this meant to mock the above post?