RealGM

Angels manager Mike Scioscia is proposing a 158-game schedule that would shorten baseball's season without decreasing things too much financially.

Teams lose money when they lose playing dates, and "if you went to 154 games, you'd lose a lot of gate revenue," Scioscia said.

"But if you blend it, where you cut down some games and some dates, you could minimize the [financial] impact, tighten the schedule by a week to 10 days to accommodate an expanded division series and get the World Series done in October."

Scioscia is a member of Commissioner Bud Selig's 14-member special committee to review and examine on-field related issues.

Read more: http://baseball.realgm.com/src_wiretap_ ... z0zWCoUd2E

Per the wiretap, one of the members of Bud Selig's commission to investigate ways of improving the game has endorsed an expanded playoff format.

Obviously, as a Jays fan, I think this is a good idea. I don't buy the argument that shortening the schedule by six or twelve games will lead to fewer ticket receipts, because it also leads to more teams being in the race, which makes more people go to the games. Most importantly, however, it is simply unjust that the Blue Jays have the hardest schedule in the major leagues (current winning percentage of teams faced is .518, ranks number 1), while some other current division leaders have incredibly easy schedules (consider the Reds at .482, or the Padres at .494).

Hope more people come out in favour of this.

No, he didn't. Read closer, or just click though, and you will see he is proposing to expand the ALDS and NLDS to 7 games, and to finish the WS sooner.

My mistake. Well, I still think the reasons for adding an extra round are strong. I guess we'll have to hope something gets done eventually.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/s ... ngs1000909

I like this idea better.

I wouldn't mind if the regular season was shortened by a few games. Baseball in November just doesn't seem right (even though some of the playoff scheduling has to do with tv stations choosing the dates).

rkid wrote:I wouldn't mind if the regular season was shortened by a few games. Baseball in November just doesn't seem right (even though some of the playoff scheduling has to do with tv stations choosing the dates).

Kinda agree with that...Normally I wouldn't even tune into baseball or even watch highlights for that matter at this time of year with Football and Basketball around the corner. But I'm in an intense baseball fantasy league and the homerun watch of Bautista is too hard to pass up.

I don't think you lose all that much money losing games, especially gate revenue.

Say you did go to 154, that's 4 home dates. So you lose 4/81 on each season ticket you sell, that's 5% of your season ticket base, and guaranteed 25 or so franchises re-coup that loss with increases in less than 5 years and that's being really harsh. After that, do you lose 5% of the rest of your gate? Maybe in your top 5 markets that sell out almost every game, but nowhere else (If I go to 6 or 10 games a year, losing 4 opportunities in a season isn't going to change a thing and if I'm a family that goes once or twice it's the exact same). I don't know what percentage are walk-ups and single games and what percentage are season tickets, but I'd guess an 8 game reduction leads to less than a 3% drop in gate revenues and easily gets added back on within a couple years, that hardly seems like a big drop.

Not to mention you probably get the PA to agree to an across the board reduction on salary at the same time, which probably wouldn't pay for it entirely (assuming you didn't get more than the 5% at the same time), would easily shave even more off the initial hit.

Not to mention, across the league you'd easily get double digit increases in August and September in a couple more cities that get a play-off race if you expand the playoffs and just a little more hype for the following season due to a playoff hunt would easily get you a few extra season ticket guys to more than make up the difference.

Now, TV dates and programming is probably the real issue for local deals, but the league as a whole would have to be happier getting more playoff dates on tv wouldn't they?

I hate the fact that if WC winner is in the same division as the best team in the league, they can't meet in the first round.

What I want to see
Regular Season
-150-155 game schedule
-Less games against divisional opponents
-no home field advantage for ASG winner

Playoffs
-8 team(per league) format.
-Division winners are awarded a top 4 seed.
-You can face a divisional opponent in the 1st round
-best of _ by playoff round: 5-5-7-7


If it happened this season the format would look like this:
1) Rays*
8) Oakland

4) Texas*
5) Boston

3) Minnesota*
6) Chicago

2) Yankees
7) Toronto

Say that the 1st seed and 5th seed finished in 3 games, they should be aloud to start their 2nd round even if the other 2 series is only in their 3rd, 4th, or 5th game.

Love it CrymeTime.

The only changes I would make is having the series go 5-5-5-7. That would make the World Series more special.

I would also make it so the top two teams from each division make the playoffs, with two wild card spots to make 8 teams no matter the division.

The divisions would also have to be balanced with Arizona moving to the AL West and Houston moving to the NL West for example.

Never will happen, but MLB should replicate the playoffs of the NBA and NHL with 16 teams.

I think they should just cut down on interleague play. That's nothing more than a gimmick just so that they can have NY vs NY, Chi vs Chi, LA vs LA etc etc. It's pointless for teams that don't have any rivalries. At most they should just keep it at 2 series of interleague per season.

I like Crymetime's general model. I would pick a return to 154 games, just for the sake of tradition. This opens up time for the extra round of playoffs. Also, having so many off days between playoff games/series is not genuine baseball. The regular season runs every day in order to prove you have a good team (ie. fifth starter, fringe bullpen guy). This should be maintained in the playoffs, which would shorten the playoff season as well.

CrymeTime wrote:I hate the fact that if WC winner is in the same division as the best team in the league, they can't meet in the first round.

What I want to see
Regular Season
-150-155 game schedule
-Less games against divisional opponents
-no home field advantage for ASG winner

Playoffs
-8 team(per league) format.
-Division winners are awarded a top 4 seed.
-You can face a divisional opponent in the 1st round
-best of _ by playoff round: 5-5-7-7


If it happened this season the format would look like this:
1) Rays*
8) Oakland

4) Texas*
5) Boston

3) Minnesota*
6) Chicago

2) Yankees
7) Toronto

Say that the 1st seed and 5th seed finished in 3 games, they should be aloud to start their 2nd round even if the other 2 series is only in their 3rd, 4th, or 5th game.

This is pretty much what I already do in OOTP, love that game

LittleOzzy wrote:Love it CrymeTime.

The only changes I would make is having the series go 5-5-5-7. That would make the World Series more special.

I would also make it so the top two teams from each division make the playoffs, with two wild card spots to make 8 teams no matter the division.

The divisions would also have to be balanced with Arizona moving to the AL West and Houston moving to the NL West for example.

Never will happen, but MLB should replicate the playoffs of the NBA and NHL with 16 teams.

You could still have it be 5-5-7-7 or even 5-7-7-7 (like the NBA playoffs are).
You just need to fix the scheduling. I dont understand why there is any gap between home games in the play offs for baseball. It makes no sense. I can see maybe a 1 day gap but sometimes we're seeing 2-3 days gap between HOME games.. that boggles my mind.

L3M0NAD3 wrote:

LittleOzzy wrote:Love it CrymeTime.

The only changes I would make is having the series go 5-5-5-7. That would make the World Series more special.

I would also make it so the top two teams from each division make the playoffs, with two wild card spots to make 8 teams no matter the division.

The divisions would also have to be balanced with Arizona moving to the AL West and Houston moving to the NL West for example.

Never will happen, but MLB should replicate the playoffs of the NBA and NHL with 16 teams.

You could still have it be 5-5-7-7 or even 5-7-7-7 (like the NBA playoffs are).
You just need to fix the scheduling. I dont understand why there is any gap between home games in the play offs for baseball. It makes no sense. I can see maybe a 1 day gap but sometimes we're seeing 2-3 days gap between HOME games.. that boggles my mind.

Playoff Series should go two days on, one day off for travel, two days on, one day off to travel, one day on to finish the series.

just the mere thought of the Jays being in the playoffs makes me happy.. too bad that in the current system, all the stars need to be aligned in order for the Jays to even have a shot at making it, whereas other teams make their annual usual trip.

there were 18 games(6 series) against the NL this year.

There is one more thing I would like to see(but it will never happen).

No NL, no AL.

League: MLB
Conference: 2 conferences (East and West)
Divisions: 4 (North East, South East, South West, North West)

Home team decides whether or not the DH can be used.

I got one thing and only one thing to say to Mr. Sciosca

Apply for the Toronto Blue Jays managerial vacancy.......... or shut up

I would like to see baseball keep the 162-game schedule for historical statiscal comparison purposes. Granted, the PED era somewhat stripped such comparisons of meaning, but it's still an important and enjoyable part of baseball for many fans, including myself.

If MLB doesn't implement some meaningful parity enforcement measures (e.g. salary cap), I'm all for adding a second 5-game playoff series so that slightly above average teams have a shot to make it once in a while. If MLB were efficient with the off-days and travel schedule, this could be made to work without adding too many extra days to the season.

Of course if the season is to be elongated in any way, it makes far more sense to tack on games to the start, not the end. The vast majority think spring training is too long already. The solution is to start the MLB season a few days earlier in March in warmer climates (Texas, California, Florida) and those with domed stadiums.

Lateral Quicks wrote:I would like to see baseball keep the 162-game schedule for historical statiscal comparison purposes. Granted, the PED era somewhat stripped such comparisons of meaning, but it's still an important and enjoyable part of baseball for many fans, including myself.

Does a story about Roger Maris and an asterisk ring any bells?