Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Expand the playoffs? No…contract them!

The rumor is that Major League Baseball is in the process of proposing expanding the playoffs to include 10 teams from the current 8 team format.

How do they intend to achieve this? The most likely scenarios would be either a play in game between two wild card teams in each league or a short three game series between said teams.

I would imagine that this would also coincide with the expansion of the division series from 5 to 7 games….and thus pushing the MLB playoffs out past the Super Bowl.

I think baseball is going about this all wrong.

They shouldn’t be looking to add more teams to the playoffs…they should find a way to eliminate the division series all together.

So here is my proposal: The division winner with the crappiest record doesn’t get in the playoffs.

Yep…this year, no Cincinnati Reds. No Texas Rangers.
I dont' know about you, but I could have gone without seeing this guy in October.

Ok…and here are my reasons…

  1. Award teams that have played well all season. Avoid letting a team that was hot for the last month of the season to come in and sweep through the playoffs defeating a team that played consistently well all year round.
  2. It places more emphasis on playing well the entire season. I hate the trade deadline where teams one player that allows them to eke into the playoffs. This can help eliminate that and force teams to try to build a winning team earlier in the season.
  3. It adds excitement for good teams at the end of the season. People talk about expanding the playoff to add more teams into the excitement…to add more interest nationwide into the game. Personally, I don’t care about that. We’ve seen that the wildcard has brought inter-divisional competition to the playoff race. Why not make the division titles inter-divisional too by eliminating the crappiest division winner? It serves a similar purpose.  Let these teams, like the Phillies, have something to play for during the last week of the season. 
  4. It forces MLB to re-examine the schedule…hopefully making it a little more balanced for all the teams.
  5. It ensures the Florida Marlins will never win another World Series title.
  6. No November World Series.
  7. TBS will have fewer games to broadcast.  This results in less exposure for Craig Sager and his stupid 1970’s used car salesman suits.
  8. Less playoff fatigue. I honestly believe one of the reason playoff rating have been down so much over the last 10 years is because of the wild card. Adding the extra round to the playoffs makes each game a little less important, and by the time the World Series comes around, more casual fans just don’t care anymore.
  9. Less cost on my season ticket holder post-season ticket package. Seriously, when I have to buy a post season ticket package for the Cubs, I have to sell a kidney or something because come September, I’m pretty much broke from paying $7.50 for an Italian Beef at the ball park all season.
  10. Just hurry up and let the Yankees get their World Series title faster so we can all focus on the off-season, which is really the best and happiest time of the year for us Cubs fans.
So there you have it. I think Major League Baseball has this all wrong, and I think I’ve done a pretty good job explaining why.
Hurry up and just give them the damn trophy.
So now that the division series is over, we’ll have to wait a month before we get to see the Yankees destroy the Rangers and the Phillies crush the Giants.