Unpopular Opinion - Goodbye 162 game Seasons

[MurphDogg]

3 minutes ago, eddie83 said:

If they ditch the WC card I doubt they will have to do this. Right now the Division round starts in one league on a Friday and the other on Thursday. Assuming we have a 3 game series that starts on a Tuesday it will be over by Thursday. My guess is they ditch the off day between games 4-5 of Division round- they have done this in the past/ and ditch a travel day off the LCS round. 
 

Not that I would be against cutting the regular season back a week. 

I just have no confidence that 3 and 5 game series will satisfy people and as soon as a 7 seed beats a 2 seed in a 3-game series, or a 1 seed loses and blames it on the layoff everyone will demand longer series' and a 16-team field.

[eddie83]

4 minutes ago, MurphDogg said:

I just have no confidence that 3 and 5 game series will satisfy people and as soon as a 7 seed beats a 2 seed in a 3-game series, or a 1 seed loses and blames it on the layoff everyone will demand longer series' and a 16-team field.

I’m really hoping they aren’t going with 7 teams. I can’t stand it unless they have a 6/7 WC game. 
 

I think 4 WC series are plenty. 
 

It would necessitate adding 2 teams to get to an even number or having one team end a day early in interleague but I think it makes sense to have one league end a day earlier than other. You could start the playoffs on staggered days and not make teams wait as long. At least one day. 

[NCRaven]

Last year, the playoff team with the worst regular season record won the World Series.  This is Exhibit A for why the MLBPA doesn't like playoff expansion.  If ownership can field a slightly above average team and win a championship, there's little reason to try for a really good team, and almost no reason to pay for a great team.  Why even consider spending on a player like Correa when Westburg could be good enough to get you into the playoffs? 

Hell, expand by two teams, generating a billion dollars in one-time revenue, and play a three-month 80 game regular season to determine seedings and let every team in MLB Tournament.  Then play 5+ weeks of seven game series to go from 32 to 16 to 8 to 4 to 2 to your champion.  Start regular season play in late April and be done the regular season in late July.  With off days, you'd have a two-month long March Madness tournament during August and September.  You'd cut player pay in half while greatly increasing total revenues due to increased playoffs.  The owners would love it.  The fans would get half the baseball and the players would be totally screwed.  But, who cares, screw those greedy players anyway.

[eddie83]

5 minutes ago, NCRaven said:

Last year, the playoff team with the worst regular season record won the World Series.  This is Exhibit A for why the MLBPA doesn't like playoff expansion.  If ownership can field a slightly above average team and win a championship, there's little reason to try for a really good team, and almost no reason to pay for a great team.  Why even consider spending on a player like Correa when Westburg could be good enough to get you into the playoffs? 

Hell, expand by two teams, generating a billion dollars in one-time revenue, and play a three-month 80 game regular season to determine seedings and let every team in MLB Tournament.  Then play 5+ weeks of seven game series to go from 32 to 16 to 8 to 4 to 2 to your champion.  Start regular season play in late April and be done the regular season in late July.  With off days, you'd have a two-month long March Madness tournament during August and September.  You'd cut player pay in half while greatly increasing total revenues due to increased playoffs.  The owners would love it.  The fans would get half the baseball and the players would be totally screwed.  But, who cares, screw those greedy players anyway.

This is why the best teams need a reward. You keep that by having byes.  Also there is a risk in trying to win with an average team. You assume things go right and you win just enough to get into playoffs. 
 

The Braves have a talented team. They underachieved for half the year and that was with Acuna healthy. 

[NCRaven]

2 minutes ago, eddie83 said:

This is why the best teams need a reward. You keep that by having byes.  

I'm not sure that taking a week off from baseball and then having to start up against a team that has been playing and already won a series is an advantage.

[eddie83]

10 minutes ago, NCRaven said:

I'm not sure that taking a week off from baseball and then having to start up against a team that has been playing and already won a series is an advantage.

Now the way it’s set up one league starts the Division round on a Thursday and one on a Friday. So 3 and 4 days off. Obviously keep in mind for one series in each league it’s the same downtime.  One team plays the WC winner who only played one game. 
 

If they keep the current format with ending a season on Sunday then I assume the new WC round would be Tues-Wed-Th. Then if they still want to stagger the Division round one league starts on Sat and one on Sunday. So basically teams are waiting 2 more days than the current format. Keep in mind though you are burning at least 2 SP’s, maybe 3 before you play in the division round. That is not being discussed enough. You may have to throw your number 4 SP in game 1 of Division round. 

[Moshagge3]

4 hours ago, eddie83 said:

This is why the best teams need a reward. You keep that by having byes.

It was extremely telling that the players' proposals involved rewarding the division winners with byes or an automatic 1-0 series lead, and owners only want to give them homefield. Owners say that playoff expansion is about giving more fans meaningful September baseball, but it's very obvious they don't want to have to shell out payroll for more than about 85 wins a year.

[ExileAngelos]

Expanding the playoffs significantly reduces the importance of the regular season.  So sad they are on the verge of ruining what made this sport special and different than the others.  There is absolutely no reason to play 162 games now.  

I hope the added revenue from expanded playoffs is worth it.  I don't think they have any idea what damage they are doing to the sport.  Anything can happen in a short series.  A sub .500 playoff team WILL defeat the best team in the regular season in a playoff series at some point and probably sooner than later.  What a joke.

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

1 hour ago, ExileAngelos said:

Expanding the playoffs significantly reduces the importance of the regular season.  So sad they are on the verge of ruining what made this sport special and different than the others.  There is absolutely no reason to play 162 games now.  

I hope the added revenue from expanded playoffs is worth it.  I don't think they have any idea what damage they are doing to the sport.  Anything can happen in a short series.  A sub .500 playoff team WILL defeat the best team in the regular season in a playoff series at some point and probably sooner than later.  What a joke.

You’ll see teams rest up pitchers and other players because all they need to do is make the playoffs by just being slightly above a .500 record.

Instead of having to pitch your ace starter in September to secure a playoff spot teams will rest players instead. No worries about a pitcher having a dead arm late in the season and they can still throw at maximum velocity. 

[Sports Guy]

15 hours ago, Moshagge3 said:

It was extremely telling that the players' proposals involved rewarding the division winners with byes or an automatic 1-0 series lead, and owners only want to give them homefield. Owners say that playoff expansion is about giving more fans meaningful September baseball, but it's very obvious they don't want to have to shell out payroll for more than about 85 wins a year.

That has nothing to do with that.

Playoffs are a huge revenue generator and they want as many rounds of it as they can get.

And the idea of giving the teams a bye means they can’t lose when they aren’t playing games and they can get healthy and rest the pitchers arms.

Sure, it could backfire but that’s the way it goes.  
 

 

[Moshagge3]

4 hours ago, Sports Guy said:

That has nothing to do with that.

Playoffs are a huge revenue generator and they want as many rounds of it as they can get.

And the idea of giving the teams a bye means they can’t lose when they aren’t playing games and they can get healthy and rest the pitchers arms.

Sure, it could backfire but that’s the way it goes.  
 

 

I know what a bye is. I also know that the *players* wanted to give *more* advantages to division winners and the *owners* wanted to give *fewer*. That tells me that owners don't want to feel any incentive or pressure to outspend the teams in their division.

[Sports Guy]

11 minutes ago, Moshagge3 said:

I know what a bye is. I also know that the *players* wanted to give *more* advantages to division winners and the *owners* wanted to give *fewer*. That tells me that owners don't want to feel any incentive or pressure to outspend the teams in their division.

The owners just want as much money as possible.  There is no magic formula to spending to ensure 85 wins.

[Oriole1940]

I find it hard to care which way MLB goes on this topic unless the team I root for has a reasonably good chance to make the playoffs most if not all years.  It is no fun always standing on the outside looking in.  A big YAWN.

[ExileAngelos]

My two favorite teams.  The O's and whoever has a .500 or lower winning pct in the playoffs.  Hope MLB gets embarrassed.

[Moshagge3]

I wonder what would happen if some President in the future decided to come out and say, "I don't care who wins the World Series, I'm inviting the team with the best regular season record to the White House." I would have to consider voting for whoever says this during the campaign.