The new playoff format rewards mediocrity. 3 playoff teams failed to win 90 games, and none of them were due to a weak division I imagine the Phillies playoff result will only embolden the fringe teams to try even harder to scrape in. If you build a .500 team and get some good breaks to overperform a little you can get in now, and if you get in you can make a run. Still nowhere near our level, but they don't need to be now. Seattle wasn't close to our level either and they very easily could have swept us when it mattered.
While expanded playoffs adds to the randomness, it existed before too. The Braves and Nationals both won the WS against us as middling wildcard teams in the previous system. When there was only 1 wildcard, those teams won quite a bit too. Oddly, in the 2 years so far with truly expanded playoffs (2020 and 2022), the Dodgers and Astros won. But overall, I think this new system helps spread talent wider, since more teams are trying to compete. In a way, that helps the super-deep teams like the Atros because the difference between them and the "good" teams grows, since the gap between the "good" and "decent" teams shrinks.
Expanded playoffs and more variability makes the playoffs more exciting. We were the beneficiary of it last year. The difference between a 100 win team and a 90 win team is just one hot streak and a 5 game swing.
I wasn't a fan of the 5 team field, even less of a fan of the 6 team field. The 5 team format at least doomed 2 teams to a do or die one game playoff. Within 10-15 years we're gonna have a similar postseason to the NBA and NHL where the regular season is meaningless, I would bet almost anything on it. It's tolerable in the NBA because the cream always rises in that postseason anyway, and regular season games are more theatrical to cover for their insignificance. It's already hard to care too much about most regular season baseball games.
I suppose I am old school, maybe ancient school to think that the playoffs were intended for the best team to win.
Me too dude, me too. Even with a 2 team field that won't happen consistently in this sport, but securing a spot in the playoffs should be special. The original wild card format was almost perfect IMO, but there was just too much money to be made.
With the Astros a shew-in for the playoffs currently I can see your viewpoint as an Astro fan. If you are not an Astro fan the current format probably makes the regular season much more exciting, especially since you can eek in and when the WS (Nationals, Braves). I just leave it like this for good. We will have a much tougher road to the playoffs with the balanced schedule.
Are you referring to the format that had the one game WC game or the one before that? I do think the one before that (where the 04-05 Astros teams benefitted) needed to be adjusted to favor the division winners more and penalize the WC teams more. I thought forcing that team to win a one game winner-takes all was fine, but given the randomness that any single baseball game can offer, its evolved into a 3 game series. And of course, in MLB’s always imperfect logic, why have only one 3 game series/league… when you can have two? Other than the WS ending very late in the year now, I do think this current format rewards the best teams the most and forces the wild card teams to really battle it out to make it. This is also what the NFL had for years. There will always be first round upsets in baseball regardless of formats or time off… the Dodgers have suffered them in both iterations of this setup.
I'm talking about the original 4 team field. One of the division winners was usually worse than the wild card team, occasionally 2 of the division winners were worse, so I didn't feel they deserved anything extra for winning a weak division. In fact, I thought they should have seeded them 1-4 by record regardless of division winner status, that was the only issue I had with it. I hated the play in game from the jump, but money talks and more playoff teams are coming.
Got it. Seeding still an issue. As were the previous arbitrary rules that if the wild card team was from the same division as the best team, they couldn't face each other in the first round (they since fixed that). MLB does want to keep division winning relevant... as does the NFL, but the NFL does re-seed.
I could see LAA overpaying for JV or DeGrom with Otani/Trout window potentially waning…I wouldn’t put it past them to ink one of the star SS FAs too. We’ll see. I think they see SEA’s growth and hit the panic button, damning finances and all
What I hate is all the off days. 1) the higher seed has to take 5 days off after the season. That's an eternity in baseball which relies on rhythm and sharpness. 2) why give an extra day off in the series simply for TV? I say WC starts day after regular season. No off days and only travel days in any/all series. Want a day off? Earn the bye and/or win your series without it going the distance. And require roofs on all stadiums. No weather postponements.
Twins have made multiple offers too Correa if the top 10 FA’s went like this I’d be fine. Judge - Giants Turner - Phillies Correa - Twins Rodon - Mets (totally a Mets move) DeGrom - Rangers Bogaerts - Orioles Swanson - Braves JV - Astros Contreras - Cardinals Nimmo - Yankees
My prediction: Judge - Giants Turner - Phillies Correa - Dodgers Rodon - Blue Jays DeGrom - Rangers Bogaerts - Mariners Swanson - Angels JV - Dodgers Contreras - Padres Nimmo - Yankees
I just don't see Judge leaving the Yankees. Cashman will get crucified if he does not resign him. Whatever anyone else offers the Yankees will top it. Judge to the Yankees 8 yrs $352M. And then the Yankees are a wildcard team 5 of those 8, miss the playoffs the other 3 with 0 rings.
