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Very interesting BBWAA session with Selig. Highlights include small expansion of replay, likely relegated to line calls, nearing completion

Selig also there are things he wants to accomplish in realignment. But "significant" realignment will have to wait.

Selig also says chances of two more wild card teams very good, and feels strongly about international draft and slotting

Good BBWAA session with union boss Michael Weiner after Selig. Key points: players want 15-15 alignment for fairness; it may wait until 2013

(Cont) if implenented. 2 playoff teams could logistically be added for '12. Slotting an issue as union opposes limit neg rights for anyone

All courtesy of his twitter.
http://twitter.com/#!/ShiDavidi

Some interesting tidbits here, what are your thoughts? Seems like playoff realignment could potentially come as early as next season. Could further our commitment to spending this winter; but will also encourage other teams to do the same.

The playoff realignment MUST happen. The AL wild card has been not won by Boston or NY like what twice in 15 years? That's bullshyte to the rest of the league and indiciative of a flawed system. It is obvious that Selig will never address the competitive disadvantage of the massive revenue imbalance between the Yankees/Red Sox and everybody else.

I guess the only way to be fair is to concede the Yankees and Red Sox playoff spots and let other teams compete for the rest.

Everything he wants is truly for the best of the league.

Imagine the MLB with:

- A international draft
- Hard slots
- Expanded replay
- +2 wildcards
- Realignment

Imagine all of this happened...

Hard slots would actually hurt the AA-lead Jays because they are one of the teams taking advantage of guys slipping due to salary reasons. At the end of the day though, having the best amateur talent going to the worst teams is the way it should be, so I have no problem with that.

The additional wild cards bother me, though. Watering down the playoffs does not appeal to me at all. I would rather they realign the divisions than add more playoff teams. Two wild card teams in each league having a series to determine who goes on to the ALDS seems pointless to me. Oh well.

No to slotting no to international draft if that happens say good bye to any advantage we used to have drafting and signing players.

Still it would be better for the league...

flatjacket1 wrote:Everything he wants is truly for the best of the league.

Imagine the MLB with:

- A international draft
- Hard slots
- Expanded replay
- +2 wildcards
- Realignment

Imagine all of this happened...

An international draft: Not essentially beneficial for the Jays especially if there are hard slots. Jays have shown they can be a player in the signing of these players; this would open it up and be good for the game - not good for the jays.

Hard slots: Same reasoning as above, good for the game but the Jays under AA don't mind overpaying and going over-slot to get players who drop because of their attached price. (Beede, Norris, etc.)

Extended replay: Good for game - won't add much more time to the game and will reduce managers coming out to argue their point of view.

+2 wildcards: Makes sense, the MLB has desperately needs to do something about Boston and NY sitting atop the A.L. East. Tampa has broken this cycle but they can't afford to re-sign their own talent let alone make any big moves.

Realignment - Jays will be extremely against this, what is made off of tickets for NYY and Boston games is very attractive to Rogers. Having these teams in town for multiple series per year is almost Rogers own "playoffs." The only realignment that would make sense is if the MLB went to a conference-based or I suppose league based system which simply had 4 or 6 spots open to all teams.

Some of what is proposed is attractive to me as a Blue Jays fan, especially with our focus on pitching. If we were to just get into the playoffs healthy; anything could happen.

162 games is unnecessary. Please cut that down.

15 - 15 Realignment would cause inter-league to happen more often, there will always be ONE inter-league series... i say no to that.

hard slots are gonna hurt baseball. The only advantage that Baseball has over its competitors in attracting the best athletes is the chance of becoming a millionaire at the age of 17-18. With hard slots even more of those multi-sport athletes will start drifting into Basketball and Football.

An international draft may not hurt Baseball as much as hard slots but it would hurt the Jays and its grossly unfair to those kids. They already get a small portion of their bonuses after the handlers and agents are done with it.

Holmes wrote:162 games is unnecessary. Please cut that down.

Agreed...

Holmes wrote:162 games is unnecessary. Please cut that down.

Impossible without cutting salaries down collectively.

Realignment - Jays will be extremely against this, what is made off of tickets for NYY and Boston games is very attractive to Rogers. Having these teams in town for multiple series per year is almost Rogers own "playoffs." The only realignment that would make sense is if the MLB went to a conference-based or I suppose league based system which simply had 4 or 6 spots open to all teams.

I agree with this, but also say this is part of the problem. The Blue Jays are aiming low with this strategy, they could do so much better with a good team. If you can put a quality product on the field that has the potential to make the playoffs, then you can sell seats against any team, not just the Yankees and Red Sox. When the Raptors were playing better basketball, they didn't just sell out versus the heat and celtics, they sold out against everyone.

IF the blue Jays were able to preform and potentially make the playoffs, everyone wins, the fans get a great product and start showing up, and the team gets more money. They SHOULD want to sell out every game, not just be satisfied with increased ticket sales against two different teams...lets hope somehow this happens

Reduce the number of games in a season by say 30. Then add 8 and 8 teams in the playoffs. All rounds are best of 5 and the world serise is out of 7 games! GET IT DONE!.

kavan wrote:Reduce the number of games in a season by say 30. Then add 8 and 8 teams in the playoffs. All rounds are best of 5 and the world serise is out of 7 games! GET IT DONE!.

Awful ideas.

beater97 wrote:

kavan wrote:Reduce the number of games in a season by say 30. Then add 8 and 8 teams in the playoffs. All rounds are best of 5 and the world serise is out of 7 games! GET IT DONE!.

Awful ideas.

i want blue jays in the playoffs but having 16 teams in the playoffs is a bad idea... too many bad teams.

JoeyBats wrote:

beater97 wrote:

kavan wrote:Reduce the number of games in a season by say 30. Then add 8 and 8 teams in the playoffs. All rounds are best of 5 and the world serise is out of 7 games! GET IT DONE!.

Awful ideas.

i want blue jays in the playoffs but having 16 teams in the playoffs is a bad idea... too many bad teams.

Why is the playoffs the goal for so many users?

Expanded playoffs is nice but it doesn't really help the Jays. If you can't finish 1st or 2nd in the Al East how do you expect to beat them in the playoffs?

I think the amount of games in the season is great, it turns an easy unathletic sport into a complex sport which requires great understanding and makes baseball fun. Days off, the DL, pitching rotations all developed as the seasons got longer. Just my opinion, I can see the other side of the argument but I'd rather more games than less.

The playoffs work the same way in every sport. Once you are in any team has a shot.

flatjacket1 wrote:
Expanded playoffs is nice but it doesn't really help the Jays. If you can't finish 1st or 2nd in the Al East how do you expect to beat them in the playoffs?

Its way easier for bad teams to beat good teams in a 5 game series in Baseball than it is in any other sports. The better team doesn't usually have that big of an advantage, once you get in the playoffs seeding and homecourt don't matter much at all.

Avenger wrote:

flatjacket1 wrote:
Expanded playoffs is nice but it doesn't really help the Jays. If you can't finish 1st or 2nd in the Al East how do you expect to beat them in the playoffs?

Its way easier for bad teams to beat good teams in a 5 game series in Baseball than it is in any other sports. The better team doesn't usually have that big of an advantage, once you get in the playoffs seeding and homecourt don't matter much at all.

I'm just saying that watering down the playoffs really doesn't benefit us in the long term. If anything it takes pressure off management to put a 90+ win team out there if you only need 80 to make the playoffs.