Enjoying The New Playoff Format, Twins Fans?

Bud Selig never really considered the integrity of the game in his decisions, IMO. It was only what he felt would maximize revenue. That said, I think 10 teams making the post season is about right. Letting everyone in would make for too long of a postseason, plus the regular season would be almost meaningless. Playing 162 games just to establish seeding for the postseason is ridiculous.

How does it cheapen the game, and ruin the integrity? It is entertainment, there is no "integrity" of the game when it comes to saying who is the best. Really, the playoffs as a whole are a silly way to crown a champion. There is no way to agree on what the "best" team is. There are hundreds of articles on line about figuring out the "best" at something, in sports, in chess, in pinewood derbies. Is it the team that does the best game after game? The team that is the "best" in some kind of playoff where only some of the teams get to play? The team that finished with a better record than a division winner, but is excluded because their division had an even better team?

 

Really, if you have some kind of belief that there is a "best" team.....that probably isn't a real thing.

 

edit:

as for the current playoffs, I like the 1 game deal. It gives some more good teams a chance, but makes winning a division more valuable than being the 2nd or 3rd best team in a division.

This is a really good point. The postseason determines which team gets to be called the champion, not which team is the best.

The 1991 World Series ended on October 27, and the 2015 World Series -- the latest ever, I think, due in part to a late start to the regular season -- is scheduled to run through Nov. 4.  There isn't a meaningful difference in expected/predicted weather between those two dates.

 

Day games might be nice, especially on weekends, although I admit it would be harder for me to watch them on TV.  I honestly don't care about the temperature, though -- it's more baseball!

Many of us remember Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 of 1991. I believe playing baseball at Target Field after such an event would have been impossible.

I am on the side of the argument in favor of the 1-game WC series because it gives more incentive to win a division. I think having 2 WC teams is the correct approach because it makes it more likely that the teams with the best records qualify for the postseason.

A 162 game season broken down into any short playoff series "cheapens" in the same way.  There is simply no way to both have an end of year playoff and still honor the larger 162 game sample unless you suggest a "Best of 363" World Series or something.

 

People just have to accept that the World Series winner is rarely the "best" team.

Correct, although the winner is almost always one of the best ten teams.

I certainly get the "More baseball, please!" viewpoint. But certainly there could be fewer off-days during the postseason and I favor moving forward to the next series as soon as both teams are ready. I can understand the reasoning behind having set scheduled dates but in this era where teams don't share stadiums with football teams (except Oakland?) the schedule can be flexible. I think completing the postseason as quickly as possible is desirable because of the increased risk of adverse weather conditions as October progresses into November.

If we have our hearts set on expanding the playoffs, why not shorten the regular season back to 154 games.

I was going to make this point myself, although I would still keep the postseason at 10 teams. Finish the regular season 1 week sooner. In that scenario I think the WC series could be three games, with seven game series from that point onward.

To MLB's credit, they have eliminated the silly mid-series, non-travel off days in recent years.

 

 

Again, this has never been done in baseball, dating back to the start of divisional play in 1969.  It's not really a matter of sharing stadiums, or even TV (although TV has plenty of control), it's the logistics of trying to plan and carry out major events.  You need more than 1 day advance notice to staff a stadium, for example.

 

Imagine the Twins finishing off an ALCS sweep on Oct. 20 this year, knowing they are going to host World Series Game 1... but not yet knowing whether it will be Oct. 23, 24, 25, 26, or 27 (or possibly later, depending on NLCS weather), and only getting 1 day notice when the date is final.  It's just not practical.

 

As it is, the Twins already know exactly which days they will host potential games for the entire postseason (aside from weather delays, which they deal with in the regular season too).  They can make all of the arrangements now, contingent only on their postseason qualification and advancement (and "if necessary" games are much easier to deal with than "we don't know if OR when the heck this is happening" games).

 

(And yes, I have worked in stadium concessions, so I am the world's foremost expert on this subject )

Point well taken.

I go back and forth on the one game wild card.   As I read these comments, there are some really good points being made.

 

One thing I would add, is to adjust the unbalanced schedule.   The Twins benefited from this in all 6 of their Division titles under Gardy.   That's fine.   I would argue, that since the division was the weakest at those times, that we did not have a realistic view of how we stacked up against the East or West.   It kinda played out that way in the playoffs.

 

If we lessen the unbalanced schedule, not get rid of it completely,  we would have a few more games against each team in the East/West and that could make those games more meaningful (especially in Aug/Sept).  

I think I agree about the schedule being too unbalanced, but I'm going to withhold further comment until after the season ends and I can make an analysis I have in mind. I'll probably start a thread about that in a month or two.

To me, the biggest problem with the post season right now is there are just too many off days. Teams never play more than 2 days in a row, From the start of the 5 game Division Series to the start of the LCS, a team gets a bare minimum of 3 days off. That's what really creates a completely different dynamic than a 162 game season. I'd start by dumping the second travel day of the DS and LCS. Even if the series goes the full 5/7 games, and you have a rain-out, there is still a travel day built in before the next round that can be used. It only eliminates two days off, but it's an easy place to start in a system where the fixed date World Series isn't going to change.

I agree. The overabundance of off days lessens the advantage that a team with a deep starting rotation has. I think that's unfair. How about this: The first four games of every postseason series would be played on consecutive days, then one day off, then the remainder of the series (if necessary). If there have to be day games because of travel, then so be it. This pretty much requires teams to use four different starters. You'd have to pitch someone on short rest twice to get him three starts in a 7-game series.

Edited to add: In the interest of uniformity and fairness all series should be scheduled on the same days, and there would be one day off between the last scheduled game of one series and the first game of the next one, including the day between the WC game and the LDS. A team that wins its series in fewer games receives the reward of being better able to reset their rotation compared to a team that requires more games to win.