New Playoff Format Coming Possibly Coming in 2022

[phillipmike]

https://nypost.com/2020/02/10/mlb-plotting-playoff-expansion-with-reality-tv-twist/

MLB is seriously weighing a move from five to seven playoff teams in each league beginning in 2022, The Post has learned.

In this concept, the team with the best record in each league would receive a bye to avoid the wild-card round and go directly to the Division Series. The two other division winners and the wild card with the next best record would each host all three games in a best-of-three wild-card round. So the bottom three wild cards would have no first-round home games.

The division winner with the second-best record in a league would then get the first pick of its opponent from those lower three wild cards, then the other division winner would pick, leaving the last two wild cards to play each other.

To use the AL last season as an example, the Astros with the best record would have received the bye. The Yankees, with the second-best record, would have had the choice to pick from among the Rays, Indians and Red Sox. Boston had the worst record of that group. Would the Yanks pick them or avoid the baggage of a series with their rival? It would create a ton of strategy and interest, and this is what MLB wants to sell. The Twins would then pick next as the other division winner, and then the A’s with the best wild-card record would play the team not chosen by the Yankees or Twins.

The plan is to have this all play out on a show on the Sunday night the regular season ends and have representatives picking teams on live TV — think the NCAA selection show, but just with the teams making the selections. The rights to that show is part of the enticement to potential TV partners.

I want more playoff teams but this is just dumb.

[Brinbe]

this is crazy because this is exactly what i did in my recent ootp20 game. division winners and 4 wildcards with best team getting a bye.

def will have a better shot at a playoff spot now

[Black Watch]

I’m all for postseason expansion, but not like that!

[HangTime]

If Wild Card team has a better record than a division winning team, they should have to play the "wild card" game.

[Dr Positivity]

The Bill Simmons rule of picking your playoff opponent is too goofy. I think baseball should just stick with 14 teams and 1st round opponents get a bye if they're going to make a change

Since MLB is considering wacky ideas, I stand by my belief they should shorten games to 6 or 7 innings. 162 3 hour+ games just isn't a fit for the social media and apps era and something has to give. You can't have a season twice as long as the other sports AND longer games. Not now, at least. If the choice is between dropping 50-60 games of revenue or something or shortening games and actually adding a few more double headers (triple headers?) to the schedule, it seems like an easy decision for the owners. And for the fans I think they would rather keep the appeal of games one every day. You end up with 2 hour games with strong pitching (even if you move the mound or whatever to weaken them) hence every scoring play is more important. Low scoring games are not a problem if every time someone scores it's more exciting. The stats are ruined, but they can move past the asterisk era anyways. It pisses some purists off but MLB is headed for an iceberg if they keep the status quo. They're the perfect sport right now for retired people and the worst sport for kids who have something to do at all times, which kills you in the long term cause your diehard old fans are dying but kids aren't becoming adult diehard fans as much. There's a reason in the WWE Vince McMahon is obsessed with making John Cena and Roman Reigns type guys the stars. The key to the business is turning kids into lifelong fans.

[Schad]

If we're going to go dumb, let's go all-out dumb:

- The regular season is reduced to 112 games, with each team playing a balanced schedule of 8 games against every other team in their league (no interleague games, 4 home and 4 away). At the end of that season, 28 of the 30 teams advance to the playoffs. The team in last in both the AL and NL is crowned The Absolute Worst. They will still have a role to play, however.

- The playoff teams are seeded 1 through 14 in the league, and play a seven-game series 1v14/2v13 etc (all series in the playoffs will be seven games). When the first team in each league exits the playoffs, they play a single game against The Absolute Worst from their league, who will be wearing uniforms patterned after a clown suit (they will continue to wear the clown uniform for as long they remain in the postseason). This portion becomes a single-knockout loser's bracket...the winning team from that game plays the next team knocked out, the winner from that game plays the next, until there is a single surviving team from the loser's bracket. That surviving team, now rechristened America's Sweetheart, reenters as the eighth remaining playoff team in their league.

- Rather than simply re-seeding teams, each team in the next two rounds get to pick their opponent, with the picks made in descending order based on regular season record. With a twist (there will, as it turns out, be a lot of twists): from this point forward, America's Sweetheart gets home field advantage. Also, they wear uniforms that look like shining full-plate armour for however long they remain in the playoffs.

- There is an alternative option, however. Rather than picking an opponent, a team can spin the Wheel of Chance. They can reject the first spin and spin again, but must keep the second team. If they keep the first team, they get to wear a uniform themed after an old-timey gambler for the remainder of the playoffs, and they will pick first in later rounds. Obviously, you can't spin the Wheel of Chance if you're the last team to pick, that would be silly. And we don't do silly, baseball is a serious sport with serious rules.

- When we're down the eight teams, the format remains the same, except the two leagues are folded into a single grouping. At this point, teams are also allowed Challenge Mode: they can begin a series with a 1-0 lead, but have to play every game on the road. Either the team picking or being picked can choose Challenge Mode, but the first option goes to the team who was picked. This format is repeated in the semi-finals.

- If America's Sweetheart wins the World Series, they automatically get the first seed in the next year's playoffs. If The Absolute Worst win the World Series, MLB is declared over indefinitely.

[Natural11]

No home games for the wild card teams? That's not cool.

[LBJKB24MJ23]

"The division winner with the second-best record in a league would then get the first pick of its opponent from those lower three wild cards, then the other division winner would pick, leaving the last two wild cards to play each other."

sounds pretty wild to me.

you can pick an injury decimated team that could have the best record of the remaining wild card teams - making for some wild wild times in the playoffs. more randomness the better tbh when it comes to the lower tier seeds. like fighting for the last playoff stpot is pretty sick.

[Fairview4Life]

If we're going to go dumb, let's go all-out dumb:

- The regular season is reduced to 112 games, with each team playing a balanced schedule of 8 games against every other team in their league (no interleague games, 4 home and 4 away). At the end of that season, 28 of the 30 teams advance to the playoffs. The team in last in both the AL and NL is crowned The Absolute Worst. They will still have a role to play, however.

- The playoff teams are seeded 1 through 14 in the league, and play a seven-game series 1v14/2v13 etc (all series in the playoffs will be seven games). When the first team in each league exits the playoffs, they play a single game against The Absolute Worst from their league, who will be wearing uniforms patterned after a clown suit (they will continue to wear the clown uniform for as long they remain in the postseason). This portion becomes a single-knockout loser's bracket...the winning team from that game plays the next team knocked out, the winner from that game plays the next, until there is a single surviving team from the loser's bracket. That surviving team, now rechristened America's Sweetheart, reenters as the eighth remaining playoff team in their league.

- Rather than simply re-seeding teams, each team in the next two rounds get to pick their opponent, with the picks made in descending order based on regular season record. With a twist (there will, as it turns out, be a lot of twists): from this point forward, America's Sweetheart gets home field advantage. Also, they wear uniforms that look like shining full-plate armour for however long they remain in the playoffs.

- There is an alternative option, however. Rather than picking an opponent, a team can spin the Wheel of Chance. They can reject the first spin and spin again, but must keep the second team. If they keep the first team, they get to wear a uniform themed after an old-timey gambler for the remainder of the playoffs, and they will pick first in later rounds. Obviously, you can't spin the Wheel of Chance if you're the last team to pick, that would be silly. And we don't do silly, baseball is a serious sport with serious rules.

- When we're down the eight teams, the format remains the same, except the two leagues are folded into a single grouping. At this point, teams are also allowed Challenge Mode: they can begin a series with a 1-0 lead, but have to play every game on the road. Either the team picking or being picked can choose Challenge Mode, but the first option goes to the team who was picked. This format is repeated in the semi-finals.

- If America's Sweetheart wins the World Series, they automatically get the first seed in the next year's playoffs. If The Absolute Worst win the World Series, MLB is declared over indefinitely.

[Tanner]

Let's rework 2015 with the new rules (if I'm understanding it correctly).

1. Royals
2. Jays
3. Rangers
4. Yankees
5. Astros
6. Angels
7. Twins

So, Royals would have a bye into the ALDS, and the Jays would get to pick their WC opponent in a best 2/3 with all 3 games in Toronto. In this scenario they likely choose the Twins, and the Rangers likely choose the Angels, which leaves the Yankees with the Astros.

2016

1. Rangers
2. Indians
3. Red Sox
4. Blue Jays
5. Orioles
6. Mariners
7. Tigers

Rangers would get a bye. Indians likely choose the Tigers, Sox pick the M's, and that leaves Toronto against Baltimore in Toronto for 3 games (Jays had the tiebreaker).

No idea if I like this rule or not, but better chance of the Jays making it consistently, and lord knows baseball needs all the help it can get for attendance and marketing.

[Black Watch]

Watch on YouTube

[hst420]

They've lost the plot.