Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
September 19, 2006
Sherman on the Playoffs

Harry Powell writes, pointing out this article by Joel Sherman on stopping coasting in the regular season and adding more excitement to the playoffs.

The solution is to add one playoff team from each league. Yes, add a team. This idea was first proposed in this space several years ago.

And watching the Yanks' disinterest over the weekend motivated me to renew the call. Making room for one more wild card would not water down October as much as bring greater incentive to win a division and finish with the best record in the league.

Under this plan, the two wild-card winners would play a best-of-three series on three consecutive days beginning the first day after the regular season ends. The winner of those series would then immediately face the team with the best record in their league, regardless if they are in the same division, in a best-of-five Division Series.

I'm not sure if it really solves the problems Sherman cites. For example, the Mets are so far ahead of everyone in the NL that they could coast no matter what. Getting to face the wild card team, even if it is from your division, isn't necessarily an easy task. Often, wild card teams are playing well going into the playoffs. Look at the number of them that won the World Series.

A short, extra round would be fun. But teams get their rotations in order with the coast time anyway. I'm not sure that really solves anything.

Still, it's a good idea, and one that's bound to add some revenue to MLB coffers.


Posted by David Pinto at 04:43 PM | Post Season | TrackBack (0)
Comments

This would certainly heighten the incentive to win a division; wild-card teams would be severely handicapped by the need to use their top starters in that short first round.

But it wouldn't change the Yankees' situation any; they're not in serious danger of falling to wild-card status. It would heighten the intensity of the races in the AL Central and NL West, but I don't think those races are really short of intensity.

Actually, in the AL Central it would both heighten and diminish intensity; if there were two wild cards, it's fairly certain the Tigers, Twins and White Sox would all make the playoffs. Under the current system, one of them misses out.

Posted by: johnw at September 19, 2006 05:22 PM

I would agree with this idea. In a three-division format, two wild-cards actually heightens the importance of the regular season rather then diminishing it, precisely because it forces contending teams to focus on winning the divison, rather then simply making the playoffs.

As it is now, given that it would take a miracle for the White Sox to get in, the Twins/Tigers race has lost considerable drama.

This idea could unite fans who are divided over the merits of the wild-card. Expansionists get another team per league. Traditionalists get a renewed emphasis on finishing first if you're serious about winning the Series.

Posted by: DanFlaherty at September 19, 2006 05:55 PM

If a team has built up a big lead they've earned the right to 'coast' and adding more wildcard teams won't make those teams with a big lead do anything but take it easy at the very end.

All this will do is get more teams into the playoffs. Then the next year there'll be clamoring for even more playoff teams.

Sherman pooh-poohed November baseball but I hate watching night October games when the conditions are terrible.

Posted by: Basura at September 19, 2006 06:44 PM

I second Basura's comments. One of the things that baseball does well (which football does not as well, and hockey/hoops just *blow* at) is making sure that the playoffs are full of good teams. You take the top 8/30, you tend to get that. You take the top 12/32, you're risking a .500 team or two. You take the top 16/31 or so, you're risking a sub-.500 team or three, based on math alone.

If you want to make *sure* you only get good teams in the playoffs, get rid of division titles. Top four teams in each league qualify, period. If you want to have more games and more unpredictability, add another level to the playoffs. But this smacks of both grouchy-old-man-sportswriting ("Those kids aren't earnin' their paychecks because they're playin' meaningless games!") and BCS-style stupidity ("We want to get a unanimous champion, but we want to have a game between the best two teams" - sometimes there's one great team, sometimes there's three. Deal with it.)

Posted by: Chris at September 19, 2006 08:47 PM
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