RealGM

3 division winners automatically get in the playoffs

4 next best teams enter a 2 day wild card showdown if you will for the last spot. 2 games the first day. Winners face off the day after to decide who goes to the playoffs.

Its short and simple but I think itd have the desired effect. You cant have 8 playoff teams straight up because baseball is too based on luck and getting a top seed would be meaningless when a team can just get hot and knock you out... you cant have byes... But this way the divisions matter AND you involve way more teams in the playoff hunt and give them hope. This year the Red Sox, Rangers, Tigers, and Rays would be the 4 teams... all deserving of playoffs really in terms of talent.

What do you think

i think you would have had the mariners instead of the rays in there this year, but the point remains the same.
i really like the idea of a couple of rapid fire, high stakes baseball games being played at the end of the season, but the main problem i see is that the winner of these lesser wild card teams becomes even weaker (particularly in terms of starting pitching) by the time they face off against the most highly ranked of the division winners. depending on how things play out after your idea, you could have the #1 seed playing against the #8 seed (instead of the #4 seed as it currently works), while the #2 and #3 seeds still have to square off against each other. so in essence, it has potentially just made things easier for the #1 seed in their first round, as they are facing a pitching depleted #8 seed.

the other issue is that looking at some of the past couple years' final standings it seems like too much of a reward to include the next four teams, as some of the teams do not seem overly deserving:
- in 2007 and 2008, every winning team in the american league would be involved in your playoff.
- in 2006, cincinnati at 80-82 would be the last inclusion for the national league, and you narrowly miss having two losing teams in the playoffs as houston finished at 82-80.

I'm fine with 4 teams per league getting in. It's up to all the teams raising themselves to the bar instead of the bar getting lowered to them.

dirtybird wrote:I'm fine with 4 teams per league getting in. It's up to all the teams raising themselves to the bar instead of the bar getting lowered to them.

162 games and only 4 spots? I'd love for them to expand it, to give the jays some hope.