Melrose Munch
Registered User
- Mar 18, 2007
- 23,665
- 2,114
What you say is fair about the playoffs, but here's the thing. Having more teams in the playoffs is the best way to get rid of parity concerns. Fair or not, the MLB is seen as unfair. Would teams take the last 20 to prep for the playoffs? Yes but that to me isn't the end of the world. Maybe we can avoid some of those injuries as well.8 teams eliminates story lines too. With 8 teams and a crap shoot playoffs you wouldn't have the current NL central/NL west races. The Cubs/Brewers/Dodgers/Rockies would be lining up their playoff rotations so instead of talking Cubs/Brewers Dodgers/Rockies we'd be talking about much lesser teams vs. each other over the bottom seeds and how it's unfair that these crappy teams could get hot and win it all.
Making the regular season meaningless in favor of the playoffs is a bad idea because baseball isn't a sport that sells itself nationally well other than the odd Cubs win world series after 108 years. Playoff ratings mostly keep going down. People only follow the local team. You'd lose a lot of regular season interest if you keep letting the 6th to 8th best record teams go to/win the world series. You can't play 162 games and have it mean very little. There would be no point in following the regular season under 8 teams make the playoffs. Baseball don't work like NBA/NFL. You can't decide the better team in a few games.
Agree with you on the DH. I also wish MLB would shorten the regular season to 154 games. Without PED's the players need more rest. 162 games grinds everyone down into mince meat.
Manfred lists every market as an expansion possibility because Tampa needs a ton of public $$$ for a stadium(over half of $890M bear minimum). If you asked him if Kabul, Baghdad or Mars was viable he'd say yes it is. I think he knows Vegas is crowded and with $750M in public money going to the Raiders it's almost impossible Vegas will fund a domed $900M ballpark. I have my doubts on both Montreal and Portland. Portland would be one of MLB's smallest markets and is short on fortune 1000 companies(only 7 as of 2015). According to Warren Cromartie the guy behind the Montreal baseball project the Expos would be a small market similar to the Twins and that was back when the dollars was at par. The Montreal project baseball report says the Expos would be a receiver of revenue sharing. See page 12.
http://montrealbaseballproject.com/wp-content/themes/mbp/assets/docs/Feasibility_Study.pdf
I have my doubts the MLB owners are willing to split the total revenue 2 more ways for a couple small markets that would receive revenue sharing. I think the whole expansion thing is to pressure Tampa and keep other markets interested. I do think that if they do expand though Montreal and Portland do have the best shot.
Baseball was the national sport until the strike. Anything can happen. Right now lack of star power means it has slipped behind the NBA. I believe if you have a 7 game series each round you can provide more money. And not have the feeling of a wasted season. I agree with 154 games and I feel an expanded playoffs would alleviate concerns about revenue.
I feel Manfred wants Montreal but he feels that expansion needs to be two teams. I don't think he likes or want two teams in Florida. People talk about Charlotte but I dont see where the stadium is coming from over there. That's why I think of portland (and the league thinks of Vegas.)