World Series Credibility Issue

[MacAdoo]

1 hour ago, Jagwar said:

I can't help but thinking this is a silly sour grapes thread. If the 1996 Orioles had managed to beat the Yankees and then beat the Braves in the WS that was illegitimate? If the 2012 Orioles had squeaked by the Yankees and beaten the Giants it would have been illegitimate? If Britton actually pitches in the WC game against Toronto and somehow wins it all it's illegitimate?

Preposterous. We all would have been dancing in the streets for days. Wild Card teams aren't in it just to lose to the teams with the best records. They are there because they have a chance to win the whole shebang. 

Perhaps. But there should be no scenario where the five best teams in baseball who have ran the 162 game gauntlet are even exposed to the possibility of going 1-13 in before the league championship series. It just waters down 6 months of baseball being played 5-7 times a week so much. This year may be an anomaly but if I recall last year wasn’t too much kinder either. 

[oriolediehard]

The WC playoff system now really has hurt the Yankees chances of being in the WS every year like it was before WC!  I am glad of that!

[Jagwar]

55 minutes ago, MacAdoo said:

Perhaps. But there should be no scenario where the five best teams in baseball who have ran the 162 game gauntlet are even exposed to the possibility of going 1-13 in before the league championship series. It just waters down 6 months of baseball being played 5-7 times a week so much. This year may be an anomaly but if I recall last year wasn’t too much kinder either. 

It happens. Maybe it's a 6-sigma event on the tail of the normal curve, but it happens. Honestly, the sample size of postseasons is to small to say what is an anomaly and what isn't. The Braves, Dodgers and the Orioles all had losing streaks of 4 games this year. None of them won every single series in the season. 

It's baseball. Embrace it, even when it breaks your heart. 

[Uli2001]

The NFL has a similar problem, in that a hot playoff team can beat any other team in what are 1-game series. But I don't think any Baltimore Ravens fan is ready to return the 2012 Superbowl trophy.

Baseball used to have the best system by far. The team with the most wins in the AL faced the team with the most wins in the NL. The leagues didn't play each other, so whoever won the 7-game series could be considered legitimately the top team in MLB. This will never come back, but it was the perfect system.

Any form of extended playoffs will always be flawed but it is what it is. I personally think that the Orioles having won 100+ games and having the best record in the AL is a whale of an accomplishment, regardless of happened after that.

[Uli2001]

By the way, complementing my previous post, the European soccer leagues have no playoffs precisely because of the reasons cited. The team with the most points at the end of the regular season is the Champion outright. In Brazil, there used to be a playoff to decide the league champion, and that was abolished many years ago.

[Malike]

I have the solution. Have the two best records play a 7 game World Series.

Let the Wildcard teams play for the American Baseball Championship. Those plebs.

[Morgan423]

Hopefully once the Rays and A's get their situations sorted out in full (and despite what they say, I have a feeling the Rays won't be building a new stadium in the location where attendance goes to die, so that may still take longer than we all want it to), MLB will expand to 32 teams. 

And then we are done with the wild cards, it will be eight division winners filling the brackets. 

[SouthRider]

Those complaining about the unfairness of division winners getting knocked out early won't be complaining when the O's are a wild card team next year. 

My idea for a solution is a little bit different.  To qualify for the playoffs a team must win 90 games.  All teams that win 90 games are in.  Get rid of "leagues" and just combine them in a tournament.  This year 8 teams would have qualified.  In 1982, only 5 make it.   Figure out a format based on the number of teams and roll with it.