Brace yourselves: football style playoffs are coming

[msgkings322]

The word is baseball is pretty close to pushing for a playoff format like the NFL, 7 teams in each league, only the 1 seed gets a bye.

I don't think I like it because the playoffs are already random as fuck. Why make it more so with 6 play in games instead of 2?

And I'm not some uber-purist, I like the extra innings rule for example (but NOT 7 inning doubleheaders)

But in the end, if they feel they can make more money with change it will happen. We will bitch for a while, then get used to it and keep rooting for our teams.

 

[molsaniceman]

 

[richig07]

The word is baseball is pretty close to pushing for a playoff format like the NFL, 7 teams in each league, only the 1 seed gets a bye.

I don't think I like it because the playoffs are already random as fuck. Why make it more so with 6 play in games instead of 2?

And I'm not some uber-purist, I like the extra innings rule for example (but NOT 7 inning doubleheaders)

But in the end, if they feel they can make more money with change it will happen. We will bitch for a while, then get used to it and keep rooting for our teams.

Good lord. Stop. Two wild card teams is already pushing it. I like it, you still tend to get two quality teams. I also like the idea that if you don't win your division you have to fight for your spot with an opponent in the same position. I just don't think you can go any further.

We don't need .500 baseball teams getting in and fluke-ing their way past the 2nd best team in the NL/AL in a best 2 of 3 or something because they have two good starters who decided to be lights out on back-to-back days.

I realize some will say "well, if you're so much better then just beat them". I mean, just the idea that a 96 or 97 win team should have to exhaust their staff vs a team who may have won 80 games isn't right or "good" for the sport. IMO

The NFL ruined what I thought was a great system with 6 teams. I always felt that, typically, it was a great cutoff point. It also didn't give such an overbearing advantage to the #1 seed, as the #2 also got a bye. This is also coming from a die hard Bears fan, whose team got in as the NFC's 7th seed because of this change. My team was the first ever to benefit from it and I still want to go back to the way it was.

 

[msgkings322]

Good lord. Stop. Two wild card teams is already pushing it. I like it, you still tend to get two quality teams. I also like the idea that if you don't win your division you have to fight for your spot with an opponent in the same position. I just don't think you can go any further.

We don't need .500 baseball teams getting in and fluke-ing their way past the 2nd best team in the NL/AL in a best 2 of 3 or something because they have two good starters who decided to be lights out on back-to-back days.

I realize some will say "well, if you're so much better then just beat them". I mean, just the idea that a 96 or 97 win team should have to exhaust their staff vs a team who may have won 80 games isn't right or "good" for the sport. IMO

The NFL ruined what I thought was a great system with 6 teams. I always felt that, typically, it was a great cutoff point. It also didn't give such an overbearing advantage to the #1 seed, as the #2 also got a bye. This is also coming from a die hard Bears fan, whose team got in as the NFC's 7th seed because of this change. My team was the first ever to benefit from it and I still want to go back to the way it was.

They are also considering letting the 2 seed pick their opponent from seeds 3-7 to give that a little extra benefit

 

[calsnowskier]

The current system is near perfect. The only change I would make is to change the WC game into a regular season game rather than a post season game. The WC game should be considered an opportunity to get into the playoffs, not playoffs themselves. Another change I would like to see is the #1 seed getting a 4-1 (2-1-2) home field advantage against the WC team.

But outside of those very minor tweaks, the current system is great. Expanding the playoffs in baseball further will make the regular season pointless, which would make watching a 1-of-162 a complete waste of time.

As for the other rules changes…

7-inning double headers are stupid. The rosters are already expanded for DH days (nice change, I will grant), so why bastardize the game further? The ticket prices are not 22% cheaper, so don’t give 22% less product.

The extra inning rule of placing a runner on 2nd is not as bad as I initially feared, but it needs tweaking. Start it in the 12th inning instead of the 10th. Part of baseball is attrition. Who has the deepest roster? Who can handle the marathon better? Who has better in-game management? Doing the free runner thing right away kinda removes some of that dynamic. However, games going more than 12 innings start to be a bit of a crapshoot anyway (relievers potentially going WAY more innings than they are conditioned to go) that you need to “flip a coin” eventually. But the game should be allowed to play out a bit before we get to that point.

The 3-batter rule is bad. Just bad. There isn’t a single good thing about this rule. If a team wants to burn through their bully by having someone face a single batter, so be it. If a team wants to burn a roster spot with a LOOGY or a ROOGY, so be it. Don’t legislate those strategic decisions out of the game.

 

[DJ]

The current system is near perfect. The only change I would make is to change the WC game into a regular season game rather than a post season game. The WC game should be considered an opportunity to get into the playoffs, not playoffs themselves. Another change I would like to see is the #1 seed getting a 4-1 (2-1-2) home field advantage against the WC team.

But outside of those very minor tweaks, the current system is great. Expanding the playoffs in baseball further will make the regular season pointless, which would make watching a 1-of-162 a complete waste of time.

As for the other rules changes…

7-inning double headers are stupid. The rosters are already expanded for DH days (nice change, I will grant), so why bastardize the game further? The ticket prices are not 22% cheaper, so don’t give 22% less product.

The extra inning rule of placing a runner on 2nd is not as bad as I initially feared, but it needs tweaking. Start it in the 12th inning instead of the 10th. Part of baseball is attrition. Who has the deepest roster? Who can handle the marathon better? Who has better in-game management? Doing the free runner thing right away kinda removes some of that dynamic. However, games going more than 12 innings start to be a bit of a crapshoot anyway (relievers potentially going WAY more innings than they are conditioned to go) that you need to “flip a coin” eventually. But the game should be allowed to play out a bit before we get to that point.

The 3-batter rule is bad. Just bad. There isn’t a single good thing about this rule. If a team wants to burn through their bully by having someone face a single batter, so be it. If a team wants to burn a roster spot with a LOOGY or a ROOGY, so be it. Don’t legislate those strategic decisions out of the game.

This.

 

[bksballer89]

The word is baseball is pretty close to pushing for a playoff format like the NFL, 7 teams in each league, only the 1 seed gets a bye.

I don't think I like it because the playoffs are already random as fuck. Why make it more so with 6 play in games instead of 2?

And I'm not some uber-purist, I like the extra innings rule for example (but NOT 7 inning doubleheaders)

But in the end, if they feel they can make more money with change it will happen. We will bitch for a while, then get used to it and keep rooting for our teams.

Horrible idea

 

[bksballer89]

The extra inning rule of placing a runner on 2nd is not as bad as I initially feared, but it needs tweaking. Start it in the 12th inning instead of the 10th. Part of baseball is attrition.

I say 13th. Give them 3 innings to play normal baseball.

 

[calsnowskier]

I say 13th. Give them 3 innings to play normal baseball.

That’s ok by me. I was proposing the 12th just as a concept. The exact inning isn’t important to me.

 

[Cedrique]

The current system is near perfect. The only change I would make is to change the WC game into a regular season game rather than a post season game. The WC game should be considered an opportunity to get into the playoffs, not playoffs themselves. Another change I would like to see is the #1 seed getting a 4-1 (2-1-2) home field advantage against the WC team.

But outside of those very minor tweaks, the current system is great. Expanding the playoffs in baseball further will make the regular season pointless, which would make watching a 1-of-162 a complete waste of time.

As for the other rules changes…

7-inning double headers are stupid. The rosters are already expanded for DH days (nice change, I will grant), so why bastardize the game further? The ticket prices are not 22% cheaper, so don’t give 22% less product.

The extra inning rule of placing a runner on 2nd is not as bad as I initially feared, but it needs tweaking. Start it in the 12th inning instead of the 10th. Part of baseball is attrition. Who has the deepest roster? Who can handle the marathon better? Who has better in-game management? Doing the free runner thing right away kinda removes some of that dynamic. However, games going more than 12 innings start to be a bit of a crapshoot anyway (relievers potentially going WAY more innings than they are conditioned to go) that you need to “flip a coin” eventually. But the game should be allowed to play out a bit before we get to that point.

The 3-batter rule is bad. Just bad. There isn’t a single good thing about this rule. If a team wants to burn through their bully by having someone face a single batter, so be it. If a team wants to burn a roster spot with a LOOGY or a ROOGY, so be it. Don’t legislate those strategic decisions out of the game.

I like all those ideas, especially the one about the extra innings games. But for some reason I can't understand your take on the wild card game. What does that mean?

 

[Nasty_Magician]

Need to have fans of all those mediocre teams going to games in August/September thinking they might have a chance.

 

[Cedrique]

I like all those ideas, especially the one about the extra innings games. But for some reason I can't understand your take on the wild card game. What does that mean?

I think I understand now. You're talking about what to do with

The current system is near perfect. The only change I would make is to change the WC game into a regular season game rather than a post season game. The WC game should be considered an opportunity to get into the playoffs, not playoffs themselves. Another change I would like to see is the #1 seed getting a 4-1 (2-1-2) home field advantage against the WC team.

But outside of those very minor tweaks, the current system is great. Expanding the playoffs in baseball further will make the regular season pointless, which would make watching a 1-of-162 a complete waste of time.

As for the other rules changes…

7-inning double headers are stupid. The rosters are already expanded for DH days (nice change, I will grant), so why bastardize the game further? The ticket prices are not 22% cheaper, so don’t give 22% less product.

The extra inning rule of placing a runner on 2nd is not as bad as I initially feared, but it needs tweaking. Start it in the 12th inning instead of the 10th. Part of baseball is attrition. Who has the deepest roster? Who can handle the marathon better? Who has better in-game management? Doing the free runner thing right away kinda removes some of that dynamic. However, games going more than 12 innings start to be a bit of a crapshoot anyway (relievers potentially going WAY more innings than they are conditioned to go) that you need to “flip a coin” eventually. But the game should be allowed to play out a bit before we get to that point.

The 3-batter rule is bad. Just bad. There isn’t a single good thing about this rule. If a team wants to burn through their bully by having someone face a single batter, so be it. If a team wants to burn a roster spot with a LOOGY or a ROOGY, so be it. Don’t legislate those strategic decisions out of the game.

Ok,I think I understand now. You're talking about where to put the stats for the 1 game playoff? I would think the postseason makes more sense but I think in the past when 2 teams tied for the division and played a 1 game playoff that counted as game 163. I guess I really don't have a strong opinion one way or the other but if you want to consider it the regular season God forbid someone comes into that 1 game playoff batting .401 and goes 0-4.

 

[calsnowskier]

I like all those ideas, especially the one about the extra innings games. But for some reason I can't understand your take on the wild card game. What does that mean?

it makes “winning” the wildcard spot is just an opportunity to make it to the playoffs. It doesn’t mean you make it to the playoffs. It is 100% a semantic change, and will never happen (easier to market a playoff game vs a game 163), but it adds to the acknowledgement that the WC concept is just that, a wildcard. An acknowledgement that it is house money.

but it would also allow that game to be taken into account in MVP voting. I think that adds real value.

 

[calsnowskier]

I think I understand now. You're talking about what to do with

Ok,I think I understand now. You're talking about where to put the stats for the 1 game playoff? I would think the postseason makes more sense but I think in the past when 2 teams tied for the division and played a 1 game playoff that counted as game 163. I guess I really don't have a strong opinion one way or the other but if you want to consider it the regular season God forbid someone comes into that 1 game playoff batting .401 and goes 0-4.

Or goes in batting .397 and goes 4-5.

 

[calsnowskier]

Need to have fans of all those mediocre teams going to games in August/September thinking they might have a chance.

The current system does that. Expanding the playoffs would make late-season games for the better teams meaningless, and games earlier in the season meaningless.

 

[Cedrique]

it makes “winning” the wildcard spot is just an opportunity to make it to the playoffs. It doesn’t mean you make it to the playoffs. It is 100% a semantic change, and will never happen (easier to market a playoff game vs a game 163), but it adds to the acknowledgement that the WC concept is just that, a wildcard. An acknowledgement that it is house money.

but it would also allow that game to be taken into account in MVP voting. I think that adds real value.

see I consider any game where the two outcomes are packing your stuff up and going home for the season or playing a different team a "playoff" game. I think the only ones who care whether a one game playoff is considered the postseason is the ownership of that team that got bounced in the one game. They want to tell season ticket holders that they had a great year, making the postseason for the (whatever) time in the last x number of years..............

 

[calsnowskier]

see I consider any game where the two outcomes are packing your stuff up and going home for the season or playing a different team a "playoff" game. I think the only ones who care whether a one game playoff is considered the postseason is the ownership of that team that got bounced in the one game. They want to tell season ticket holders that they had a great year, making the postseason for the (whatever) time in the last x number of years..............

Exactly why I say it won’t happen. And I acknowledge the change would be nothing but semantic.

Game 163s are loser-goes home, but they are considered regular season.

 

[tabascojet]

I think wc should stay playoff in nature but play them the very next day after game 162 and they all should be one game series...no rest for barley making it in

 

[Ron G]

Teams win divisions because of depth in pitching. Letting more teams in will put even more emphasis on the the top two pitchers from each team.
The eighth seed will record a lot of upsets.

 

[msgkings322]

Teams win divisions because of depth in pitching. Letting more teams in will put even more emphasis on the the top two pitchers from each team.
The eighth seed will record a lot of upsets.

You mean 7th seed?