Kolek planning to go pro
The pick-your-opponent twist seems a little gimmicky to me...
The pick-your-opponent twist seems a little gimmicky to me, but I'm all for increasing the number of playoff teams. Too many teams are all-but-eliminated by mid-August, and this will help keep more teams in the running for longer. It should also break up some of the tanking, especially in the AL where three of the playoff spots are pre-determined every year.
Disagree. You are playing 162 games to separate the wheat from the chaff. 7 teams means just shy of half the teams (46.7%) make it, which I suspect will get you an under .500 team every now and again. That is way too many teams. I am a Red Sox fan, and they would have played in the playoffs under this scenario. That team had no business being in the postseason. And neither they nor the Indians nor anybody else would have been playing for much in September because they would have had those seeds tied up already. In the NL the Mets, Cubs and D-backs would have been fighting it out for the 6th and 7th slots. I guess that's exciting. If the Mets made it, I suspect they would have played the Braves. Do we really want the Braves to have to beat the Mets again in a three game series after they spent 162 games proving they are the better team?
However, this is the take every time any governing body (including MLB's) expands the postseason. Folks whine about it for awhile, then it simply becomes part of what is.
Of course this is true. If you love baseball, what choice do you have but accept it? As long as there are an odd number of divisions that don't play the same schedule, a wild card for the best 2nd place team makes good sense to me, because that team will often/usually be better than the worst first place team. Beyond that I'd rather there not be any more. I get that people like the one game winner take all nature of the wild card game, but I hate the idea that after a 162 game schedule, and 85 win team can knock out a 100 win team by winning one road game. It will add a few more days to the postseason. I look forward to those November games in NY or Chicago or hopefully Milwaukee.If they do do it, I think the best starting pitchers are going to see their salaries go up. Now you can have an OK team, pretty much rely on the play-offs if you can get 85 wins and if you have 2 or 3 starters, ride them in the postseason.
Agree about the longer-postseason factor and potentially horrendous weather in several spots.The logical thing to do if you want to expand the postseason would be to shorten the regular season by at least a couple weeks so it starts after April 1 and ends by Sept. 20-something. But I'm guessing the players would only agree to that if it didn't mean a corresponding drop in salary, and the owners would only agree to that if it did. In other words ... ain't gonna happen.
Against it. Gimmicky.
I think even a drop back to 154 would work. Shorten the season by just over a week, and add three days to the playoffs. Or would it actually just be two additional days since the current single wild-card game would be replaced by a three-game series?
Would teams make for money with 8 less games?Less TV money, less concessions, less tickets, etc. Owners won't go for 154 games if it brings in less.
The same for me.
Under this proposed playoff format:2014: two 79-win teams tie for postseason spot2015: two 83-win teams make postseason2016: a 79-win team makes postseason2017: three 80-win teams tie for postseason2018: three 82-win teams tie for postseason2019: an 84-win team makes postseasonhttps://twitter.com/craigcalcaterra/status/1227205636779364354?s=21
Yikes. So if they go through with this, will they have to have a 1-game playoff every time there is a tie for the last postseason spot?
Wow, I'm very concerned for Benny. Being able to mimic Myron Medcalf's writing so closely implies an oncoming case of dementia.