Playoffs expand to 16 this year after all

[MurphDogg]

5 minutes ago, SteveA said:

In the NBA, the first round is best of 5, right?  That's more likely for the better team to win than best of 3.  And baseball has the critical importance of the starting pitcher.  If he has a bad day, which happens sometimes, your team's chances of losing go way up.  I don't think any one NBA players, at least on a championship caliber team, has they big an effect.  Even LeBron or Steph.  Because those teams have other championship caliber players.

If MLB went with this system long-term, I would predict a much higher #8vs#1 upset rate than the NBA has seen.

All series are best of 7 in the NBA.

Best of 3 is rough, even with all three games at home. I don't mind expanded playoffs, but they only make sense if you shrink the season schedule from 162 to 154 games so you have time to actually play 7 game series (maybe 5 in the first round with 2-1-2 home field setup) without the playoffs going into November. Regardless, I support a stronger home field advantage for the team with the better record in the pre-LCS rounds.

5 game (2-1-2 homefield advantage) or 7 game (3-2-2)

7 game second round (2-2-3)

7 game LCS (2-3-2)

7 game World Series (2-3-2) 

 

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

2 minutes ago, MurphDogg said:

All series are best of 7 in the NBA.

Best of 3 is rough, even with all three games at home. I don't mind expanded playoffs, but they only make sense if you shrink the season schedule from 162 to 154 games so you have time to actually play 7 game series (maybe 5 in the first round with 2-1-2 home field setup) without the playoffs going into November.

Either that or the season is going to start on March 15th. But then you'll deal with teams in colder climates getting games canceled for weather. 

[MurphDogg]

17 minutes ago, OsFanSinceThe80s said:

Either that or the season is going to start on March 15th. But then you'll deal with teams in colder climates getting games canceled for weather. 

Everyone agrees that the season is too long, but the players don't want to take a 5 percent cut in their salaries to cut the season by 5 percent (162 to 154 games) when the owners will end up making more with expanded playoffs than they would lose by cutting the season 8 games. 

I expect that to be a major sticking point in the 2021 labor negotiations.

I'm sure the owners know that a three game series is unfair, but by getting it now they normalize the four round playoff structure.

[backwardsk]

12 minutes ago, MurphDogg said:

Everyone agrees that the season is too long, but the players don't want to take a 5 percent cut in their salaries to cut the season by 5 percent (162 to 154 games) when the owners will end up making more with expanded playoffs than they would lose by cutting the season 8 games. 

I expect that to be a major sticking point in the 2021 labor negotiations.

I'm sure the owners know that a three game series is unfair, but by getting it now they normalize the four round playoff structure.

From a fan perspective, keep 162 games but layer in a double header every third week or so to open up the calendar.

[DrungoHazewood]

37 minutes ago, MurphDogg said:

Everyone agrees that the season is too long,

I think the season length is fine, but I like pennant races.  When you have a good team fighting through September that's awesome.  2012 was great, the drama day-to-day through the last month or two was wonderful.  To me after all that the playoffs are just gravy, it's rolling the dice a bunch of times and hoping it works out.