OK. MLB's "Wildcard" system sucks....but it is what it is.

[doctornick]

Yep.

That's why in the NFL the "playoff" team with the better regular season record starts each game up 7-0.

I LOVED it when the NFL did that....to be more fair

Um, the two top teams in each league in the NFL get a bye. That's a huge advantage.

Winning your division should give you a nice advantage over a team that did not win their division. The current setup at least tries to address the silliness of the first 2 decades of Wild Cards where there was essentially no difference between a division winner and WC.

At least with a 1 game playoff, you quickly eliminate one of the teams that shouldn't be in the playoff to begin with and don't hurt the other playoff teams by making them wait around for long. Having the WC series be 3 or longer games would just mess up the rest of the playoffs too much. Plus elimination games are cool and you automatically get one in each league off the bat. Basically a permanent 163 game.

 

[Safety Blitz]

OK.....

Lets just do it right.

Lets have the Top 12 teams in each league all make the "post-season"........then we'll have a round-robin CONNECT FOUR tournament to determine which 4 teams go on to the "next round".

That would make sense.



Knowing who came up with the WC2 nonsense should have been enough to let folks know what a stupid idea it was.

BJF....It actually sounds like you want to go back to the old days: American League and National League. No divisions, just two leagues. Winner of each makes the World Series. That's how it was when I was growing up. Pure baseball, but it often made September pretty boring.
Under the more modern divisional setup, I strongly believe there has to be a significant prize for finishing in first place. That prize is currently a free pass out of the one-and-done game. And if you don't finish first, there should be a significant hurdle to overcome to join the division winners. Every team starts out 0-0 and has 162 games to prove it is the best in its division. Get the job done or face the consequences.

 

[CDLionFL]

It would be the same if the Pirates and Cubs were the "WC Teams" with records of 87 wins and 85 wins.
If feel the exact same way about the utter stupidity of this carnival game when looking at the Yankees/Astros deal.

It is pure idiocy - and pure BS on the part of MLB - to act is if both of those WC teams are in the post season.

A one game play in.....while everyone else sits around and waits....ain't "being in the playoffs"

In all sports....if there is ANY sport where a one-game play in AIN'T being in the "playoffs"....it is BASEBALL.

Now you're just trying to argue semantics. Who really cares about the phrase 'in the playoffs'? If you're crazy enough to buy memorabilia that says your team participated in the Wild Card game, well then, I want your paycheck because you obviously have way too much money. Other than the Pirates games and the Yankees loss the other night, can you name the other 2 AL losers in the WC game? As I type this, I have no idea, I'd have to look it up. So what if MLB wants to say they're 'in the playoffs'? You just watered down your argument with this.

Now if you want to try to argue that the teams in the First Four are really in the NCAA Tournament, you might have an ally here.

 

[bjf1984]

Now you're just trying to argue semantics. Who really cares about the phrase 'in the playoffs'? If you're crazy enough to buy memorabilia that says your team participated in the Wild Card game, well then, I want your paycheck because you obviously have way too much money. Other than the Pirates games and the Yankees loss the other night, can you name the other 2 AL losers in the WC game? As I type this, I have no idea, I'd have to look it up. So what if MLB wants to say they're 'in the playoffs'? You just watered down your argument with this.

Now if you want to try to argue that the teams in the First Four are really in the NCAA Tournament, you might have an ally here.

EXACTLY!!!! Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!

Finally someone else "gets" it........I was beginning to think I was writing in Chinese or something.

 

[EPC FAN]

The problem is some Divisions are much easier to win than others and 98 wins would have won every other Division in baseball.

That changes year to year. No league can change its playoff system based on one year.

 

[dbsteel]

To each his own. The one game playoff is a stupid idea by a stupid commissioner. Might as well make them all one game series if that's so thrilling and you aren't worried about having the best teams go deep.

 

[EPC FAN]

To each his own. The one game playoff is a stupid idea by a stupid commissioner. Might as well make them all one game series if that's so thrilling and you aren't worried about having the best teams go deep.

I would be all for going back to division winners and the next best team. No more layers of multiple playoff games.

 

[VaLion'92]

I would be all for going back to division winners and the next best team. No more layers of multiple playoff games.

The one issue with the 1 WC team per league, other than leaving out another (potentially good) team and what could be enhanced fan interest in the 2nd half for those bubble teams, is the fact that WC winners in the previous format we able to set their rotation going into the DS round. Granted, they were the "away" team -- but having the ability to set their rotation was a MUCH better benefit than not having home field.

Nowadays, you've got Houston and the Cubs in the DS WITHOUT them able to use their stoppers in game 1 and (potentially) not being able to pitch them in 2 games in the DS. That's an advantage to the #1 seeds in both leagues -- which they should have that advantage.

 

[Howie'81]

That changes year to year. No league can change its playoff system based on one year.

And you can't really easily compare wins and losses across divisions since each division plays a schedule heavily weighted with games in its own division. Hence teams aren't playing the same schedule. Even the interleague schedules are different. So one can't say well so and so won 93 games in their division whereas a so and so from another division only one 90, so therefore the 93 win team is better. This is not necessarily so.

 

[kgilbert78]

I don't like the 1 game playoff-but I don't like the 5 game series either. A poorer team with one ace pitcher can beat a team with a good staff in a short series, especially if you do things to your pitching staff that you would never do in the regular season as you'd not have much of a staff left after the first month--case in point being the Cards in 2011.

 

[Howie'81]

I don't like the 1 game playoff-but I don't like the 5 game series either. A poorer team with one ace pitcher can beat a team with a good staff in a short series, especially if you do things to your pitching staff that you would never do in the regular season as you'd not have much of a staff left after the first month--case in point being the Cards in 2011.

If you read the book "Moneyball," the Sabermetrics types have said that to really have a playoff series that would give the best team the best probability to win, it would need to be at least a 21 game series if I recall correctly and I think I do. It's just the nature of baseball. Many uncontrollable variables exist in a single game that could dump the better team. Same in a short series. Did you know, for instance, that there is no correlation for balls put in play (excluding home runs) that differentiates good pitchers from bad pitchers? Pitchers just don't have much control over where the ball goes once it's put in play, except for keeping it in the park. Where there is a correlation between successful pitchers and non successful pitchers is in the area of HRs allowed, strike outs, and ground balls induced.

 

[stf110]

There also has been talk about reseeding after the WC game, since you can get a situation like this year where StL as the 1 seed gets the "reward" of playing the wild card in round 1, which is a better team then either of the other 2 division winners.

"Congrats on winning your division and having the best record in the NL and even baseball! Your reward is getting to play either the 2nd or 3rd best team in all of baseball in your 1st series!"