MLB wild card format
sosoangry
Senior Member
The 1-game do-or-die wild card format is stupid. I get it, there's no better way etc. But just look at the Hou/NYY game. Two teams with near identical records, they play all season to get in playoffs and it comes down to 1-game do or die. Ugh. On any given night the Phillies can beat the Cards -- not over a few games, but one game? Yeah.
I get MLB's intent to keep games and races vital in late season (cha-ching! $$$).... And I get the incentive for a team to avoid the perilous anything-can-happen wildcard vortex of 1-game do or die.... but I think the 1-game WC format is just a bit TOO much of a crap-shoot.... most post-season series are 5- and 7-games, why not do 3-game series for WC? uses up extra pitchers? so what, another reason to avoid being WC team. And I'm sure most teams would want win 2 format versus dopey win 1..... thoughts?
I get MLB's intent to keep games and races vital in late season (cha-ching! $$$).... And I get the incentive for a team to avoid the perilous anything-can-happen wildcard vortex of 1-game do or die.... but I think the 1-game WC format is just a bit TOO much of a crap-shoot.... most post-season series are 5- and 7-games, why not do 3-game series for WC? uses up extra pitchers? so what, another reason to avoid being WC team. And I'm sure most teams would want win 2 format versus dopey win 1..... thoughts?
Comments
Exactly. MLB is kinda in a bind with the weather in northern cities. Under the current parameters, they can't start any earlier due to crappy weather in March, and can't go much longer due to crappy weather in November. And the players union is never going to agree to fewer off days during the season to compact it more. And dropping down from 162 to a smaller schedule with mean less $, so that likely isn't happening.
And, of course there's no chance of going back to double-headers each Sunday like in the old days.
Oh god no. There would have been a .500 team in the AL and a 79-83 team in the NL. Why even play the regular season, just go right to the playoffs. Don't turn it into the NBA. Make the 162 mean something. I'm old school, 2 leagues, no divisions, no inter-league, top 4 make the playoffs. No way they will go back to 4 teams, they will probably add another team when they get sick of watching 98 win teams out after 1 game.
Problem is the two wildcard teams would have won every other division. Even if you keep 5 teams, dump the divisions, stick them all together and the Mets and Dodgers would have been playing last night whether you even out the schedules or not. The Mets were brutal vs the Central and I believe the Dodgers flipped a coin against them, neither would have caught the Cubs. The Pirates were brutal in their own division, they may have had the best record if they could have played the other divisions more.
How? You stick them all in one division, play the same schedule. Who can argue?
I know it's never going to change, once you start adding teams to the playoffs, it will never go back. It's all about the money. I've accepted that a long time ago.
Wait until they really get stupid and either add another team or make it 2 out of 3. Byes don't help in baseball, they hurt. The longer you go without playing, the worse it is. A day or 2 to get your rotation straight is good, taking a week off while your future opponent is playing, is bad.
What I mean is:
If they expand to more teams in the playoffs, there's still going to be teams that miss out on some stupid tiebreaker or some fans are going to feel their team deserves it more than others. This something that won't change, whether you expand by 2 teams, by 4 teams or by 16 teams, there will always be some sort of situation to argue about.
That's why I said: (people in general) should accept it the way that it is.
Edit: It's been said that you can't win a championship in April but you can lose one.