[jingram058]

Originally Posted by GaryPassamonte

This year's baseball playoffs further expose a glaring problem with the format. Five of the top 6 seeded teams have been eliminated. This is just not acceptable from a fairness standpoint. The baseball season has traditionally been long to mean something, that the best teams over the long haul are rewarded. Given the layers of playoffs now used, the "best" teams throughout the season are vulnerable to losing to an inferior "hot" team. This is not what baseball has been about for most of its history and is not weighing the regular season fairly. I don't know what the solution is, but a format needs to be implemented that respects the regular season record much more than it does.

I know that Manfred has gone on record advocating that MLB split into 4, yes 4, leagues. 2 leagues would play a series, 2 leagues would play a series, and the winners would meet in the World Series. American, National, Federal and Continental leagues. Doing away altogether with wild cards, and endless layer after layer after layer of fan fatiguing playoffs. He even said that, to the extent possible, put the original teams back into the American and National leagues. This will NEVER happen, though, as he himself stated, there is just too much against it.