Major League Baseball Has A Problem

[clydepepper]

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.

How 'bout the teams with the better records START the game with a ghost runner at second base...

Originally Posted by SAllen2556

The teams with the five best regular-season records – the Braves, Baltimore (101 wins), Dodgers (100), Tampa Bay (99) and Milwaukee (92) – all failed to reach LCS.

So yeah, there's a problem. You have to somehow weigh the playoffs more towards the teams with the best records. The bye doesn't seem to work.

What if your seeding determined the number of games you need to win to claim the series? If the 1 seed plays the 6 seed, then the 1 seed needs to win 1 game and the 6 seed would to win 6 games, or something like that, and then re-seed every series until you get to the World Series.

The other obvious answer is to shorten the regular season to around 120 games. Then you could have all best-of-seven series, which would tend to favor the better teams.

How 'bout the teams with the better records START the game with a ghost runner at second base...in every inning.

Originally Posted by Casey2296

You could go back to the old format where the team with the best regular season record in the NL met the team with the best record in the AL for a best of seven World Series.

Oh, Wait! That sounds even better!