Major League Baseball Has A Problem

[GaryPassamonte]

This year's baseball playoffs further expose a glaring problem with the format. Five of the top 6 seeded teams have been eliminated. This is just not acceptable from a fairness standpoint. The baseball season has traditionally been long to mean something, that the best teams over the long haul are rewarded. Given the layers of playoffs now used, the "best" teams throughout the season are vulnerable to losing to an inferior "hot" team. This is not what baseball has been about for most of its history and is not weighing the regular season fairly. I don't know what the solution is, but a format needs to be implemented that respects the regular season record much more than it does.

[SAllen2556]

The teams with the five best regular-season records – the Braves, Baltimore (101 wins), Dodgers (100), Tampa Bay (99) and Milwaukee (92) – all failed to reach LCS.

So yeah, there's a problem. You have to somehow weigh the playoffs more towards the teams with the best records. The bye doesn't seem to work.

What if your seeding determined the number of games you need to win to claim the series? If the 1 seed plays the 6 seed, then the 1 seed needs to win 1 game and the 6 seed would to win 6 games, or something like that, and then re-seed every series until you get to the World Series.

The other obvious answer is to shorten the regular season to around 120 games. Then you could have all best-of-seven series, which would tend to favor the better teams.

[Casey2296]

You could go back to the old format where the team with the best regular season record in the NL met the team with the best record in the AL for a best of seven World Series.

[clydepepper]

Originally Posted by GaryPassamonte

This year's baseball playoffs further expose a glaring problem with the format. Five of the top 6 seeded teams have been eliminated. This is just not acceptable from a fairness standpoint. The baseball season has traditionally been long to mean something, that the best teams over the long haul are rewarded. Given the layers of playoffs now used, the "best" teams throughout the season are vulnerable to losing to an inferior "hot" team. This is not what baseball has been about for most of its history and is not weighing the regular season fairly. I don't know what the solution is, but a format needs to be implemented that respects the regular season record much more than it does.

How 'bout the teams with the better records START the game with a ghost runner at second base...

Originally Posted by SAllen2556

The teams with the five best regular-season records – the Braves, Baltimore (101 wins), Dodgers (100), Tampa Bay (99) and Milwaukee (92) – all failed to reach LCS.

So yeah, there's a problem. You have to somehow weigh the playoffs more towards the teams with the best records. The bye doesn't seem to work.

What if your seeding determined the number of games you need to win to claim the series? If the 1 seed plays the 6 seed, then the 1 seed needs to win 1 game and the 6 seed would to win 6 games, or something like that, and then re-seed every series until you get to the World Series.

The other obvious answer is to shorten the regular season to around 120 games. Then you could have all best-of-seven series, which would tend to favor the better teams.

How 'bout the teams with the better records START the game with a ghost runner at second base...in every inning.

Originally Posted by Casey2296

You could go back to the old format where the team with the best regular season record in the NL met the team with the best record in the AL for a best of seven World Series.

Oh, Wait! That sounds even better!

[todeen]

Personally, I like the current 12 team format. I wouldn't change that. I also don't care that the best teams are losing. If Houston would lose, I would be all the happier. But I understand what people are saying, so I would tinker with the protocol.

Here's some things I've seen around:

Reseed each round of the playoffs to make sure the remaining top seeds always play the lowest remaining seed. For example, the NL #1 seed ended up playing a tougher team in the NLDS (#1 Braves vs #4 Phillies) than the #2 team (#2 LA vs #6 AZ). That should not have been.

Another idea I've heard is borrowed from KBO Korean baseball. Allow the higher seed to start with a one game advantage. So in a 5 game series, the higher seed only needs to win 2 games, while the lower seed needs to win 3 games.

Another idea I've heard is that you return the Wild Card series to one game, and then have the winner immediately travel to the bye team city and play the next day. This allows the bye team to have a shorter break rather than having to create fake games with split squads to stay in the groove.....which obviously didn't work.

Another idea I've heard, which I think is stupid, is that the lower seed cannot pitch pitchers on short rest. This ruins the chess match strategy of a lower seed trying to defeat a higher seed. So a #1 pitcher that throws in the WC round must wait until his next 5th day rotation spot comes back around. This supposedly would allow the higher seed in the Division Series to pitch their #1 seed against the #3/#4/#5 pitcher of the lower seed. But this also negatively impacts the drama of having the two top pitchers face each other.

[philliesfan]

How about.......the teams with the better records.......PLAY BETTER when it counts.

[BobbyStrawberry]

Originally Posted by philliesfan

How about.......the teams with the better records.......PLAY BETTER when it counts.

+1. I really don't get the complaints. The whole concept of a baseball playoffs is to increase randomness and allow more teams a shot at a championship. If we don't like that, let's go back to three division winners and one wildcard.

[Shoeless Moe]

Originally Posted by philliesfan

How about.......the teams with the better records.......PLAY BETTER when it counts.

Exactly!

Everyone else quit the whining.

It's not a problem for Houston.

[jingram058]

Originally Posted by GaryPassamonte

This year's baseball playoffs further expose a glaring problem with the format. Five of the top 6 seeded teams have been eliminated. This is just not acceptable from a fairness standpoint. The baseball season has traditionally been long to mean something, that the best teams over the long haul are rewarded. Given the layers of playoffs now used, the "best" teams throughout the season are vulnerable to losing to an inferior "hot" team. This is not what baseball has been about for most of its history and is not weighing the regular season fairly. I don't know what the solution is, but a format needs to be implemented that respects the regular season record much more than it does.

I know that Manfred has gone on record advocating that MLB split into 4, yes 4, leagues. 2 leagues would play a series, 2 leagues would play a series, and the winners would meet in the World Series. American, National, Federal and Continental leagues. Doing away altogether with wild cards, and endless layer after layer after layer of fan fatiguing playoffs. He even said that, to the extent possible, put the original teams back into the American and National leagues. This will NEVER happen, though, as he himself stated, there is just too much against it.

[MichiganMan24]

Manfred has had some questionable calls in the past and this one might just take the cake. First off I think it's important to recognize the deeply-flawed system that is the MLB playoffs. The fact that baseball has the longest regular season (which is considered by many to be boring and arduous) and the shortest post-season (one of the most exciting times in all of sports) shows a deep misunderstanding of what the fans want. Don't even entertain the idea of splitting the league into all these divisions and whatever, it's not going to change that reality. Shorten the regular season, elongate the playoffs, and I absolutely guarantee it will increase fan engagement and sustain more consistency with better teams moving on.

[jayshum]

Originally Posted by jingram058

I know that Manfred has gone on record advocating that MLB split into 4, yes 4, leagues. 2 leagues would play a series, 2 leagues would play a series, and the winners would meet in the World Series. American, National, Federal and Continental leagues. Doing away altogether with wild cards, and endless layer after layer after layer of fan fatiguing playoffs. He even said that, to the extent possible, put the original teams back into the American and National leagues. This will NEVER happen, though, as he himself stated, there is just too much against it.

I don't remember ever hearing this suggested. I remember talk of expansion to 32 teams and then splitting each league into 4 divisions (like the NFL), but I don't remember how many playoff teams there would be along with the 8 division winners. I would imagine some number of wild cards, but not sure how many to make the playoffs really work.

[BobbyStrawberry]

I've heard just the opposite, that MLB wants to get rid of divisions entirely. The scheduling change whereby teams no longer play more games against division rivals seems to presage that...

[jayshum]

Originally Posted by BobbyStrawberry

I've heard just the opposite, that MLB wants to get rid of divisions entirely. The scheduling change whereby teams no longer play more games against division rivals seems to presage that...

I think the more balanced schedule was to make the wild card competition fairer to teams in tougher divisions. I don't see how they can get away from divisions.