MLB reportedly considering massive expansion of the playoff format

[Tecumseh]

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[Scandale du Jour]

Awful idea.

 

[IU Hawks fan]

So dumb.

 

[GKJ]

Don't get why baseball can't do easy things like an even-number of playoff teams per league

 

[bleedblue1223]

I'm fine with more teams within reason, but choosing opponents is dumb.

 

[NJDevs26]

Don't get why baseball can't do easy things like an even-number of playoff teams per league

Honestly I think the current playoff format has been the best MLB's ever had. It's a nice balance between making sure teams that deserve to make it do (no more 1993 Giants missing the playoffs with 103 wins for example), while not watering it down too much. This dopey proposal is even above eliminating the intentional walk and the three-batter minimum in complete airhead central. Manfred comes off like a marketing geek who's not actually a fan of the sport.

It's as if MLB thinks the only thing they need to be as popular as the NBA is to have as many playoff teams, with a twist of picking your opponent for the fantasy nuts out there.

 

[darko]

Oh boy

 

[bleedblue1223]

Looking at some recent records, the AL would've had 2 teams under .500 make the playoffs in 2017, and the NL would've had 1 in 2016. That is far more absurd than someone in the high 80s or even 90s missing the playoffs. I like that baseball is more selective about making the playoffs.

 

[GKJ]

Honestly I think the current playoff format has been the best MLB's ever had. It's a nice balance between making sure teams that deserve to make it do (no more 1993 Giants missing the playoffs with 103 wins for example), while not watering it down too much. This dopey proposal is even above eliminating the intentional walk and the three-batter minimum in complete airhead central. Manfred comes off like a marketing geek who's not actually a fan of the sport.

It's as if MLB thinks the only thing they need to be as popular as the NBA is to have as many playoff teams, with a twist of picking your opponent for the fantasy nuts out there.

The picking of opponents is a dumb minor-league gimmick. Maybe even bush league. They did it in the Swedish Hockey League and everyone hated it, especially the players. Hopefully the PA votes that part down.

I don't mind baseball expanding the playoffs, especially in an era where the gap between haves and have-nots had widened. Almost every team gives up when they're tired of spending money. The 2018 Milwaukee Brewers felt like they had half of the 2015 Kansas City Royals on it. The competitive balance lacks greatly, and expanding the field means that more regular season games mean more as opposed to the regular season itself meaning less, because the reality is that already does, everyone knows what most of the playoff field is by Memorial Day.

 

[Quid Pro Clowe]

Quit trying to make it interesting for the average idiot.

 

[Preds Partisan]

One bad idea after another by MLB.

 

[Tecumseh]

This might be the single dumbest idea that I’ve ever heard. There’s really no point of having a 162 game regular season if we’re just going to go the NBA route.

 

[JWK]

Fire Manfred

 

[Mightygoose]

Teams picking their opponents? Seems like a WWE type gimmick.

Also, only eliminating the bye for the '2 and 3 seeds' makes division play meaningless.

How about leave the playoff format as and revisit it after expansion should that happen.

 

[Brock Boeser Laser Show]

MLB needs some form of salary cap with a maximum and minimum more than anything. There shouldn’t be a 100 million salary gap between teams in a division. It’s not really healthy or competitive.

extending the playoffs isn’t going to do much and is just ignoring the larger problem. Oh great some .500 team made the playoffs and given false hope...just to get curb stomped in whatever system they come up with.

 

[Big Poppa Puck]

Stop breaking things that aren't broken. We don't need more playoff teams. We didn't even need the play-in game.

And as if expanding the playoffs wasn't bad enough. The "Reality TV show" pick who you want to play is the most asinine thing I've ever heard.

You play 162 games. I want the best teams in the playoffs. We don't need some 82 win "7th seed" winning the world series. I'm not even a fan of the concept of divisions, I just want the 4(5 now) best teams in each league/conference ranked 1-4(5). With the team with the most wins playing the team with the least and so on (and I say this as a Cardinals fan who won the WS with 83 wins in 2006, only making the playoffs because the central was putrid).

I despise the current NHL format too. The NBA seems to be the only sport that does it right.

 

[IU Hawks fan]

Stop breaking things that aren't broken. We don't need more playoff teams. We didn't even need the play-in game.

And as if expanding the playoffs wasn't bad enough. The "Reality TV show" pick who you want to play is the most asinine thing I've ever heard.

You play 162 games. I want the best teams in the playoffs. We don't need some 82 win "7th seed" winning the world series. I'm not even a fan of the concept of divisions, I just want the 4(5 now) best teams in each league/conference ranked 1-4(5). With the team with the most wins playing the team with the least and so on (and I say this as a Cardinals fan who won the WS with 83 wins in 2006, only making the playoffs because the central was putrid).

I despise the current NHL format too. The NBA seems to be the only sport that does it right.

By having 16 teams in, with the 1st 2 rounds largely a waste of time?

 

[NJDevs26]

The sad part is a couple of people on our board actually LIKE this dopey idea.

Among other things it completely devalues the regular season where you have to sell 40-50000 tickets for 82 games a year, not 20000 tickets for 41 home games like the NBA or NHL. There's literally no chance the top four or five teams in each league will miss the playoffs and no real September urgency other than among the bubble teams and maybe the top two seeds to get the bye (which itself has questionable value in baseball).

 

[Canes]

Manfred wants people to hate him for this instead of his blatant mishandling of the Asterisks cheating scandal.

Fire this clown already. Worst commish in sports.

 

[Belieber]

What a farce. Absolutely pathetic.

I’ve been a fan of the one game wild card just because I feel the division winners deserve an advantage. I would gladly go back to one wild card team and 8 teams total before I’d go for this joke of a system.

 

[NJDevs26]

 

[GIN ANTONIC]

I love this idea for hockey but for baseball it’s dumb because of the play in games and shorter first round series. The top teams already get a big advantage in not having to use their ace in a play in game and they get home field on top of that.

 

[TheTotalPackage]

Quit trying to make it interesting for the average idiot.

Precisely.

I get it is a business and you want to gain new fans, especially the younger generation. What I don’t get is the commissioners of all the sports leagues doing so at expense of alienating the hardcore, life long fan base.

MLB has always had the most “prestigious” playoffs where only a select few make it in. And playoff baseball is the best of all the big North American sports. Why Manfred wants to devalue that, I have no clue.

 

[Big Daddy Cane]

The sad part is a couple of people on our board actually LIKE this dopey idea.

Among other things it completely devalues the regular season where you have to sell 40-50000 tickets for 82 games a year, not 20000 tickets for 41 home games like the NBA or NHL. There's literally no chance the top four or five teams in each league will miss the playoffs and no real September urgency other than among the bubble teams and maybe the top two seeds to get the bye (which itself has questionable value in baseball).

That sense of urgency for fans of teams in the ~16-20 range leaguewide is not there in the current system. Even if this results in waning interest in the ~6-10 spots, this creates it down the standings.

I'm a casual baseball fan and I assume the league is targeting someone like myself with this. Watching the team I follow, the Pirates, in August and September in the decline phase of the competitive cycle has been dreadful. I want to care, but the entertainment value is poor. Under this system, they're in the hunt into the final weeks in 16, on the periphery in 17 and a playoff team in 18. I would have been more interested in getting to the ballpark, freezing my butt off from the whipping winds of the Allegheny River in September, and actively watching the team on TV if they had been more competitive. That would have bled into October too; I watched much more of the postseason 13-15 than I did 16-19.

 

[Vegas07]

Quit trying to make it interesting for the average idiot.

It actually might do the opposite of what they’re intending. The playoffs are going to drag on so long that they will seem even more insignificant to the average idiot. Especially when mediocre teams are getting in more often than ever before.