Expanded playoffs, shortened reg season starting in 2012?

[jersey cubs fan]

The 162 games schedule is obsolete. An expanded number of teams and games in the postseason makes it even more unnecessary.

 

I don't really understand what the heck this means. What makes it obsolete? It's not a piece of technology. It's 162 games because they want to get the most revenue they can out of a season, not because there is an optimal number of games needed to be played to determine the proper champions.

 

When there were only two teams in the playoffs (AL and NL champs), a long season (154 or 162) made sense to determine who truly were the best teams in each league. Now more teams get in the playoffs and the 162 game schedule could be reduced and still get the same result of the top 4, 5, or 6 teams in each league getting in the playoffs. I'm not denying 162 is used because it's more gates and revenue but in terms of determining the best teams, it is not needed.

 

What do you mean, "needed". If the season ended 10 games earlier this year the NL representative to the World Series wouldn't have made the playoffs. For the bulk of the time where only the two best made it, there was only 154 games and for only a brief period did they play 162 and only take 2 best. There are a lot more teams now than when they did it that way.

[Guest]

So while I'm thinking about it.

 

- Move one team to the AL, drop the DH

- Shorten the season to 130 games, two series against each team in your league, one series against each team in the other

- Add another wild card, 3 or 5 game play-in series followed by 7 games Division, League, and World championship series

- Hard salary cap and floor phased in over a half decade

 

Not sure if taking 16 home games from everybody would make it through, but it'd be one of the most equitable ways possible to construct the season.

[NewUserName]

So while I'm thinking about it.

 

- Move one team to the AL, drop the DH

- Shorten the season to 130 games, two series against each team in your league, one series against each team in the other

- Add another wild card, 3 or 5 game play-in series followed by 7 games Division, League, and World championship series

- Hard salary cap and floor phased in over a half decade

 

Not sure if taking 16 home games from everybody would make it through, but it'd be one of the most equitable ways possible to construct the season.

 

I am against a Salary Cap...the Cubs are run way to poorly and if not for enough money to outspend some other teams could easily be a bottom feeder for years

[jersey cubs fan]

So while I'm thinking about it.

 

- Move one team to the AL, drop the DH

- Shorten the season to 130 games, two series against each team in your league, one series against each team in the other

- Add another wild card, 3 or 5 game play-in series followed by 7 games Division, League, and World championship series

- Hard salary cap and floor phased in over a half decade

 

Not sure if taking 16 home games from everybody would make it through, but it'd be one of the most equitable ways possible to construct the season.

 

You are taking 16 home games away from everybody. You are taking numerous "high value games" away from many teams. Boston/NYY go from playing 18 games to 6, Tampa hosts the Yankees 3 times instead of 9.

 

This is all just incredibly unrealistic and impossible to make work. You can't force San Fran to play Washington as often as they play the Dodgers. Baseball is a business built on getting butts in seats for 6 months. This plan would kill the business model.

[Guest]

So while I'm thinking about it.

 

- Move one team to the AL, drop the DH

- Shorten the season to 130 games, two series against each team in your league, one series against each team in the other

- Add another wild card, 3 or 5 game play-in series followed by 7 games Division, League, and World championship series

- Hard salary cap and floor phased in over a half decade

 

Not sure if taking 16 home games from everybody would make it through, but it'd be one of the most equitable ways possible to construct the season.

 

You are taking 16 home games away from everybody. You are taking numerous "high value games" away from many teams. Boston/NYY go from playing 18 games to 6, Tampa hosts the Yankees 3 times instead of 9.

 

This is all just incredibly unrealistic and impossible to make work. You can't force San Fran to play Washington as often as they play the Dodgers. Baseball is a business built on getting butts in seats for 6 months. This plan would kill the business model.

 

I'm taking 16 home games away from everybody? Are you sure?

 

Like I said, I'm not sure if it would work. Sure you'd be taking away some of the marquee divisional matchups, but that's mitigated a bit by the scarcity of a shorter season and the access to the local and strong teams from the other league. Plus with a hard cap you're more controlling of an organization's biggest expense, and 1/3 of the league gets playoff revenue each year. Idealistic for sure, but fun to think about.

[jersey cubs fan]

-

Shorten the season to 130 games, two series against each team in your league, one series against each team in the other

 

I'm taking 16 home games away from everybody? Are you sure?

 

No?

[erik316wttn]

So while I'm thinking about it.

 

- Move one team to the AL, drop the DH

- Shorten the season to 130 games, two series against each team in your league, one series against each team in the other

- Add another wild card, 3 or 5 game play-in series followed by 7 games Division, League, and World championship series

- Hard salary cap and floor phased in over a half decade

 

Not sure if taking 16 home games from everybody would make it through, but it'd be one of the most equitable ways possible to construct the season.

 

You are taking 16 home games away from everybody. You are taking numerous "high value games" away from many teams. Boston/NYY go from playing 18 games to 6, Tampa hosts the Yankees 3 times instead of 9.

 

This is all just incredibly unrealistic and impossible to make work. You can't force San Fran to play Washington as often as they play the Dodgers. Baseball is a business built on getting butts in seats for 6 months. This plan would kill the business model.

 

I'm taking 16 home games away from everybody? Are you sure?

 

 

You are. You're taking 32 games off the schedule, and half of that would be 16. So that's 16 gates that each team would be without.

 

I don't care much for your idea, TT. You've got the right ideas but I think the execution is wrong.

[treebird]

wait a minute how many home games is he taking away i dont understand?

[imb]

lets clear up how many home games he's taking away so we can move on please

[erik316wttn]

lets clear up how many home games he's taking away so we can move on please

 

I think it's 16.

[rocket]

lets clear up how many home games he's taking away so we can move on please

 

I think it's 16.

 

for who though?

[Bote McBoteface]

lets clear up how many home games he's taking away so we can move on please

 

I think it's 16.

 

for who though?

 

I'm pretty sure from everybody.

[erik316wttn]

So while I'm thinking about it.

 

- Move one team to the AL, drop the DH

- Shorten the season to 130 games, two series against each team in your league, one series against each team in the other

- Add another wild card, 3 or 5 game play-in series followed by 7 games Division, League, and World championship series

- Hard salary cap and floor phased in over a half decade

 

Not sure if taking 16 home games from everybody would make it through, but it'd be one of the most equitable ways possible to construct the season.

 

Anyway, breaking this down...

 

Move one team to the AL, drop the DH: Oh sweet Jesus yes. I would not mind having interleague series all over baseball all season long. The players Union would never allow the DH to be dropped, though. If anything you'd have to add it to the NL.

 

- Shorten the season to 130 games, two series against each team in your league, one series against each team in the other I think in theory this works, but it isn't practical. I think teams should have to qualify for playoff births by beating the other teams in their division and proving without a doubt that they're the best. Wasn't this one of the reasons for instituting the unbalanced schedule? Also, I think 130 is a little too few. Be done by the end of August? That's just when things start to get good. I say end by mid-september and go to about 148-152 or so.

 

Add another wild card, 3 or 5 game play-in series followed by 7 games Division, League, and World championship series I'd be in favor of this only if you had the "flex scheduling" like I mentioned in the OP. If both teams would sweep a series, they shouldn't have to wait a week or more to play each other. In a case like that the LCS or World Series should be moved up in order to accommodate. I just don't want it to be like basketball where the playoffs take two months.

 

Hard salary cap and floor phased in over a half decade I've wanted this for 15 years.

[Ding Dong Johnson]

the answer is more baseball. lots more.

[NewUserName]

Hard salary cap and floor phased in over a half decade I've wanted this for 15 years.

 

Do you think that MLB owners are willing to do what it takes to get a hard salary cap? For example the NHL had to take a whole season off. I think the owners would have to be in agreement that this is what they are willing to do to get the cap. I honestly don't see them all staying the course on this.

[jersey cubs fan]

Hard salary cap and floor phased in over a half decade I've wanted this for 15 years.

 

Do you think that MLB owners are willing to do what it takes to get a hard salary cap? For example the NHL had to take a whole season off. I think the owners would have to be in agreement that this is what they are willing to do to get the cap. I honestly don't see them all staying the course on this.

 

They will also have to do things like allow guys to reach free agency earlier. The 6 years of service time and arbitration process is very beneficial to small market teams who can keep teams together or mostly together for a long time. People reaching free agency in their late 20's and early 30's means that when big market teams sign players they are almost guaranteed to be paying for some of the worst years of their careers. It is a built in punishment. If the Yankees can now sign a bunch of 26 year olds instead of 28, they are going to be getting all the best players' best years.

[Guest]

Hard salary cap and floor phased in over a half decade I've wanted this for 15 years.

 

Do you think that MLB owners are willing to do what it takes to get a hard salary cap? For example the NHL had to take a whole season off. I think the owners would have to be in agreement that this is what they are willing to do to get the cap. I honestly don't see them all staying the course on this.

 

That's part of why I offered all of those suggestions in concert. The Union would be a lot more open to things like dropping the DH or a salary cap if they got paid the same amount(because salaries sure aren't going down) for a season that's 20% shorter.

[NewUserName]

Hard salary cap and floor phased in over a half decade I've wanted this for 15 years.

 

Do you think that MLB owners are willing to do what it takes to get a hard salary cap? For example the NHL had to take a whole season off. I think the owners would have to be in agreement that this is what they are willing to do to get the cap. I honestly don't see them all staying the course on this.

 

That's part of why I offered all of those suggestions in concert. The Union would be a lot more open to things like dropping the DH or a salary cap if they got paid the same amount(because salaries sure aren't going down) for a season that's 20% shorter.

 

The union has been very strong in their anti-cap stance...not sure your example will open them up to one. I think they only way the union will budge on a cap is if you added a floor that was pretty high, something close to what the current average payroll is now. Then they would have to have some guarantees that the floor/cap will rise with any revenue increases. My guess is the players would still take a pretty hard stance against a cap even under those conditions.

[Exile on Waveland]

Perhaps I'm a Luddite, but I would be vehemently against expanding the playoffs to more teams. The LDS probably should go to seven games instead of five, so I'm all for that. I really dislike the NBA and NHL playoffs that everyone seems to make (OK, just over fifty percent) -- though the NFL has a good system, in my opinion. As a baseball fan, I like that it means something to make the playoffs because so few teams do. Yada hidebound yada reactionary yada.

[kente777]

There is no way they will shorten the season. Even for teams that have no chance to make the playoffs, they would lose too much money. And as we all know...it's all about the money.

 

I can definitely see them adding an additional wild card team from each league. This will potentially add 3 more games to the post season. OR....they will change the Division Series to 7 games (the way it should be). I'm not sure they would do both of these as this would bring baseball into November. But hey, anything is possible because we know it's all about the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.

 

My two cents is that they should simply change the Division Series to 7 games and leave the rest alone.

[jersey cubs fan]

Perhaps I'm a Luddite, but I would be vehemently against expanding the playoffs to more teams. The LDS probably should go to seven games instead of five, so I'm all for that. I really dislike the NBA and NHL playoffs that everyone seems to make (OK, just over fifty percent) -- though the NFL has a good system, in my opinion. As a baseball fan, I like that it means something to make the playoffs because so few teams do. Yada hidebound yada reactionary yada.

 

The NFL allows 37.5% of teams to make the playoffs. MLB allows 26.7%. If you allowed one more wild card in each league then MLB would be at 33.3%, still the most exclusive of the major North American sports.

[Flames24Rulz]

Perhaps I'm a Luddite, but I would be vehemently against expanding the playoffs to more teams. The LDS probably should go to seven games instead of five, so I'm all for that. I really dislike the NBA and NHL playoffs that everyone seems to make (OK, just over fifty percent) -- though the NFL has a good system, in my opinion. As a baseball fan, I like that it means something to make the playoffs because so few teams do. Yada hidebound yada reactionary yada.

 

The NFL allows 37.5% of teams to make the playoffs. MLB allows 26.7%. If you allowed one more wild card in each league then MLB would be at 33.3%, still the most exclusive of the major North American sports.

 

I have absolutely no problem with adding in another playoff team from each league.

[Clem Fandango]

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=5821797

 

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Commissioner Bud Selig's plan to expand baseball's playoffs to 10 teams gained a sense of inevitability after little to no opposition emerged during meetings this week with owners and general managers.

 

Selig said his special 14-man committee will discuss adding two wild-card teams when it meets Dec. 7 during the winter meetings in nearby Lake Buena Vista.

 

"We will move ahead, and move ahead pretty quickly," Selig said Thursday after three days of meetings concluded.

[erik316wttn]

I wonder how soon this could realistically happen? As early as next season?

 

The only thing I won't like is that it may push the WS into November again. There has to be a way to shorten the gap between playoff series if say both of them end in a sweep. Fix that somehow and I'm all on board.

[NCCubFan]

I wonder how soon this could realistically happen? As early as next season?

Everything I've read indicates that it will be 2012.