MLB expands playoff format from 8 teams to 10

[alnorth]

Originally Posted by Valiant

So if understand it.

3 division winners.
Wc has to play another team in a 1game playoff, winner gets to advance?
What if the wc has 10+ more wins? That is dumb.

Fine before.

No, it wasn't fine before. The Wild Card was pretty much on equal footing with the division winners. One extra home game doesn't make much of a difference.

A couple years ago, the Yankees actually admitted that during their race with the Rays, near the end of the season they decided to rest some players and basically concede the AL East to the Rays. As the GM said, winning the division would have been just another hat and a T-shirt. That is damning more than anything else.

The wild card with more wins gets to host the knockout game, and the 3 division winners now get a real, huge reward over the Wild Cards. (The Wild Cards will likely have to use their best pitcher, and by doing so they probably wont be able to set things up to pitch him twice in the divisional round. So, a Wild Card team will be less able to ride on the back of one elite pitcher to glory)

Don't like it? Win your damned division.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by alnorth

The wild card with more wins gets to host the knockout game, and the 3 division winners now get a real, huge reward over the Wild Cards. (The Wild Cards will likely have to use their best pitcher, and by doing so they probably wont be able to set things up to pitch him twice in the divisional round. So, a Wild Card team will be less able to ride on the back of one elite pitcher to glory)

Don't like it? Win your damned division.

Exactly.

The division championship matters again.

There's absolutely nothing dumb about that. And no, this doesn't help the large market squads. Now the Red Sox, Yankees, Angels or Rangers may end up having to go up against the D-Backs and Price/Moore/Shields in a 1-game playoff to decide if they make the dance. And even if they manage to win, they've now burned Lester, CC, Haren or Darvish just to make it in.

I'd eliminate the WC altogether, but this is a great approach to helping level the playing field and reward teams for winning their division.

[alnorth]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

I'd eliminate the WC altogether, but this is a great approach to helping level the playing field and reward teams for winning their division.

I wouldn't, 2 or 3 out of 15 is way, way too few, fans of 20-25 teams would tune out every August. However, I wouldn't expand it any more. 5 is perfect, we're done on playoff expansion.

[whoman69]

I had thought they were discussing doing away with the divisions totally by having the Astros switch leagues. This is simply a move by MLB to bring in more money and giving more of an advantage to the big market teams. Its simply too much of a disadvantage to a WC team to have them burn their ace before they really even get into the playoffs.

[alnorth]

Originally Posted by whoman69

I had thought they were discussing doing away with the divisions totally by having the Astros switch leagues. This is simply a move by MLB to bring in more money and giving more of an advantage to the big market teams. Its simply too much of a disadvantage to a WC team to have them burn their ace before they really even get into the playoffs.

That trial balloon was popped almost immediately, though the Astros are moving next season (player's union demanded it, if the division is going to be important, then they need to become equal).

There was a huge fan backlash against doing away with divisions, and the owners weren't thrilled with the idea either. Plenty of people still think we ought to have less-unbalanced schedules, but no one really wants to go away from divisions.

To say that the 2nd WC benefits large-market teams is just flat-out silly.

[whoman69]

Originally Posted by alnorth

That trial balloon was popped almost immediately, though the Astros are moving next season (player's union demanded it, if the division is going to be important, then they need to become equal).

There was a huge fan backlash against doing away with divisions, and the owners weren't thrilled with the idea either. Plenty of people still think we ought to have less-unbalanced schedules, but no one really wants to go away from divisions.

To say that the 2nd WC benefits large-market teams is just flat-out silly.

I don't know what's silly about it. Baseball sees their large market teams getting beat in the playoffs by wild cards who are in smaller markets. They're also seeing the wild card team win a fair share of the time. Since 2000 there has only been three seasons where a wild card didn't make the World Series. 2002 had both teams come from the wild card. If you have teams like the Phillies and the Yankees who can outspend their competition each year to get a divsional crown, anything baseball can do to make sure those teams beat the smaller market WC helps out the networks.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by whoman69

I don't know what's silly about it. Baseball sees their large market teams getting beat in the playoffs by wild cards who are in smaller markets. They're also seeing the wild card team win a fair share of the time. Since 2000 there has only been three seasons where a wild card didn't make the World Series. 2002 had both teams come from the wild card. If you have teams like the Phillies and the Yankees who can outspend their competition each year to get a divsional crown, anything baseball can do to make sure those teams beat the smaller market WC helps out the networks.

Explain to me the advantage that this gives large market teams over small market teams.

Yeah sure, this may help a large-market team make the playoffs and win a WS that it otherwise may not have. Then again, it provides the exact same opportunity to a small market team. Last year it would've put the Braves and the Red Sox in; one a large market team and the other a mid-market team.

The argument that this is just driven by a need to let more big-market teams in simply does not make sense; there's just no logic or reason to it.

[alnorth]

Originally Posted by whoman69

I don't know what's silly about it. Baseball sees their large market teams getting beat in the playoffs by wild cards who are in smaller markets. They're also seeing the wild card team win a fair share of the time. Since 2000 there has only been three seasons where a wild card didn't make the World Series. 2002 had both teams come from the wild card. If you have teams like the Phillies and the Yankees who can outspend their competition each year to get a divsional crown, anything baseball can do to make sure those teams beat the smaller market WC helps out the networks.

Well, first the Wild Card *SHOULD* have a tremendously harder road. Give them a shot? Sure, but they need a handicap. Same thing as the NFL, they basically have 2 play-in games instead of one, with the unfortunate drawback of forcing 2 division champs to play-in, since they have 2 wild cards.

Second, at least in the AL, this change is far more likely to screw a large market than not. Unless the AL East has their rare down year, the 1st AL Wild card often goes to the Yankees or Red Sox. Now they get yanked off from standing on the same tier as the division champs, and get told "hey, you, here's the 2nd-place AL Central team. You must beat them first in a wild high-drama do-or-die elimination game, have fun"