Playoff Formatting.

[Sunbiz1]

Why are 2 NL Central teams having a playoff game, only to face another NL central team in the NLDS.

Is this done intentionally to insure the best team comes out of their respective division, or is this simply how the cards(no pun intended)fall when having 3 playoff teams from 1 division?.

 

[Scoot26]

How the cards fall...

Division winners get automatic home field advantage.

The wild card team winner plays the team with the best record then.

 

[TC in Mississippi]

It's a stupid format. Baseball is not a game that lends itself to a one game playoff to begin with and in this case having the three best teams in the league in the same division really exposes some flaws.

 

[Shawon0Meter]

I really don't mind non-division winners having it come down to one game. It's huge incentive to win the division.

I'm a fan of the system overall. Its October 1st and 7 American league fan bases can still be excited

 

[Diehardfan]

It's a stupid format. Baseball is not a game that lends itself to a one game playoff to begin with and in this case having the three best teams in the league in the same division really exposes some flaws.

Yep. The only sport that does make a good case for one game playoffs is football....mostly because of how physically rough the game is on the players plus they only play one game a week anyway. The rest of the major sports play multiple games per week...MLB plays practically every damn day. So having a one game playoff is just silly....you play 162 games to get there, then play one game to decide if you move on or go home. How moronic is that?

 

[CSF77]

Yep. The only sport that does make a good case for one game playoffs is football....mostly because of how physically rough the game is on the players plus they only play one game a week anyway. The rest of the major sports play multiple games per week...MLB plays practically every damn day. So having a one gamer playoff is just silly....you play 162 games to get there, then play one game to decide if you move on or go home. How stupid is that?

Weather and TV contracts dictate the schedule. Not fan appeasement.

 

[CSF77]

Just be glad that the went to this format because the Cubs have the 3rd best record in baseball and would miss the playoffs in the old format. Now that is messed up

 

[TC in Mississippi]

Just be glad that the went to this format because the Cubs have the 3rd best record in baseball and would miss the playoffs in the old format. Now that is messed up

That's the irony of course. I would do away with Divisions and have the top 4 teams in the playoffs. Period.

 

[DanTown]

Wild Card playoff should be best of three (would change the idea of loading up a roster) and should be Monday-Wednesday and if you win games 1-2, game 1 for the playoffs is Wednesday in the other city. And the playoffs should be reseeded after the wild card game so based on record, 1 plays 4, 2 plays 3.

 

[TC in Mississippi]

Wild Card playoff should be best of three (would change the idea of loading up a roster) and should be Monday-Wednesday and if you win games 1-2, game 1 for the playoffs is Wednesday in the other city. And the playoffs should be reseeded after the wild card game so based on record, 1 plays 4, 2 plays 3.

Of course yours is the more rational solution given the fact that once the money is their games aren't being eliminated. They need to one of two things to make your idea happen; start the season a week earlier like they used to do and dance themselves around the weather with warm climates and covered stadiums. Want to play a series in Mexico City? That would be the time. The other is have scheduled day/night double headers. Small markets hate that idea because they don't think they can fill a stadium to even their own average twice in a day and they'd still have to cover their nut for both games (employees, lights, etc). You just can't have World Series games in November and that already happens.

 

[willycat]

Of course yours is the more rational solution given the fact that once the money is their games aren't being eliminated. They need to one of two things to make your idea happen; start the season a week earlier like they used to do and dance themselves around the weather with warm climates and covered stadiums. Want to play a series in Mexico City? That would be the time. The other is have scheduled day/night double headers. Small markets hate that idea because they don't think they can fill a stadium to even their own average twice in a day and they'd still have to cover their nut for both games (employees, lights, etc). You just can't have World Series games in November and that already happens.

I like the day/night double headers, rather then starting the season earlier. Still the series in Mexico is a good idea as well and maybe they could also play a series in San Juan or even Cuba.

 

[beckdawg]

It's a stupid format. Baseball is not a game that lends itself to a one game playoff to begin with and in this case having the three best teams in the league in the same division really exposes some flaws.

Its kind of strange because the whole point of a 162 game season is to sort out the best teams. Though to be honest the playoffs have long been a crap shoot where the "best" team didn't win and instead was a team who got hot at the right time. That's why I'm not sure I love the idea of expanded playoffs and/or divisions because intrinsically to make a division mean something you have to give that winner a playoff spot.

I'm not really sure what the best solution is to be honest. And to be fair, this year is a bit nuts because I'm fairly certain the 3 best teams coming from one division is a once in a 20+ year type thing. It might even be more of a once in a 50 year type thing.

 

[Sunbiz1]

Its kind of strange because the whole point of a 162 game season is to sort out the best teams. Though to be honest the playoffs have long been a crap shoot where the "best" team didn't win and instead was a team who got hot at the right time. That's why I'm not sure I love the idea of expanded playoffs and/or divisions because intrinsically to make a division mean something you have to give that winner a playoff spot.

I'm not really sure what the best solution is to be honest. And to be fair, this year is a bit nuts because I'm fairly certain the 3 best teams coming from one division is a once in a 20+ year type thing. It might even be more of a once in a 50 year type thing.

3 90 plus W teams that play each other what...60 times?.

That's a ton of talent in 1 division, why not simply seed teams 1-4 based on overall record after completion of WC game?

 

[TL1961]

I really don't mind non-division winners having it come down to one game. It's huge incentive to win the division.

I'm a fan of the system overall. Its October 1st and 7 American league fan bases can still be excited

But one or two are a hair above .500.
Too "NBA-like".

 

[TL1961]

Yep. The only sport that does make a good case for one game playoffs is football....mostly because of how physically rough the game is on the players plus they only play one game a week anyway. The rest of the major sports play multiple games per week...MLB plays practically every damn day. So having a one game playoff is just silly....you play 162 games to get there, then play one game to decide if you move on or go home. How moronic is that?

They overreacted to wild card teams winning the WS. Had to make it more of a reward for winning division, and went way too far the other way. Yet Royals won pennany anyway.

 

[beckdawg]

3 90 plus W teams that play each other what...60 times?.

That's a ton of talent in 1 division, why not simply seed teams 1-4 based on overall record after completion of WC game?

I mean that's probably the best idea but some would complain it makes divisions meaningless to an extent. Also, you could make the argument that some divisions are just better than others and while this year in particular the central seems like the best other years you might have like 2 50 win teams or whatever inflating the win totals. Obviously not likely but its possible and would still be a flaw to the system.

Like I said, I don't really know what the best solution is though i do agree its pretty brutal that one of the best 3 teams in baseball ends up out of the playoffs on a 1 game outcome. One thing that would be kind of interesting is to radically change the playoff such that AL teams play NL teams. Traditionalists would hate it surely but if you take this year for example, if the cubs as the #2 NL wild card played the #1 AL wild card the issue sorts itself out some what. I haven't thought this idea out fully so i'm sure there likely flaws i'm missing out on but it would sort out some of the disparity between leagues.

 

[TL1961]

I don't necessarily like the format,but I want no changes in the near future

Cubs will be division winners starting 2016.

Let the Cards worry sbout a one game playoff.

 

[Diehardfan]

I don't necessarily like the format,but I want no changes in the near future

Cubs will be division winners starting 2016.

Let the Cards worry sbout a one game playoff.

Good point. It would just so typical for them to alter the format just as the Cubs start winning divisions.

 

[brett05]

I'm good with changing the WC to a series then a one gamer. If reseeding of any sort is to be done you have to get rid of the unbalanced schedule.

 

[Parade_Rain]

I really don't mind the one game playoff the more I think about it. We haven't had this much excitement in the NL Central in a long time. It's the new AL East.