Major League Baseball Has A Problem

[mrreality68]

Originally Posted by Shoeless Moe

Exactly!

Everyone else quit the whining.

It's not a problem for Houston.

+1 Agree
The Top Seeds have the advantage of Home Games etc and if they are truly better teams they will move on.
Upsets happen in all sports and sometimes teams built for the regular season are not really built for the playoffs.

[Seven]

I think the issue is that the playoffs are too bloated. I understand the necessity for a single wild card team, but I honestly hate what the playoffs have become. Major League Baseball will stop at nothing to make more money, so I'm not surprised.

The general direction of the sport is leaving me with a soured taste in my mouth. Pitchers barely go the distance anymore, all everyone cares about is velocity and spin rate. Too much showboating, the players are investments now, and do not play over the slightest bit of an injury. I know I sound like an old man, but man I think the game was more enjoyable, when it was less complicated.

[packs]

I cannot disagree more with the premise of this thread. The postseason has always been about getting hot. I'm not even really sure what you're saying. Why would anyone want to sit through a season with the kind of predetermined outcome you're looking for? How would that be exciting?

[D. Bergin]

I guess the Giants better give those 2 Super Bowls back to the Patriots.

It's not "fair", that the superior team didn't win.

Should have given the Patriots a 10 point cushion to start the game.





Only real solution here, if there actually is a problem, is to make the 3 game series, a 5 game series, and make the 5 game series a 7 game series.

Take a few games off the regular season if need be.

[Snapolit1]

Mixed feelings.

I do think when sports continue to expand and drag out playoffs it deemphasizes the regular season. I mean who is going to pay $250 to see a hockey game in the middle of the season where your local team is playing one of the worst teams in the league. All you need to do is get in playoffs by the skin of your teeth and peak then.

Baseball is such a long year. . . .does seem in a way unfair for teams that dominated over 162 games to get bounced because some team 5 games above .500 got hot one week in October.

On the other hand, if you've dominated all year. . .play well in the post season.

If the Yankees got in via the wild card and got hot I suspect you'd hear very little of this kind of griping.

[packs]

I'd prefer watching a team win the World Series rather than watch a team that everyone thinks should have won the World Series be declared the winner.

[Shoeless Moe]

Originally Posted by packs

I'd prefer watching a team win the World Series rather than watch a team that everyone thinks should have won the World Series be declared the winner.

It's fairly similar to hockey now, yes a couple more teams (but it's not like those teams were close to under .500.

In football you can be 7-9 and get in the Playoffs.

And....like hockey just get in the Post Season and you have the same shot the #1 seed has. Now settle it on the ice.......or grass.

The winner is the winner, hockey & baseball playoffs are TREMENDOUS.

This Post Season:

Phillies fans doing Atlanta's fans Chop

Twins fans taunting the opposing teams pitchers counting down the pitch clock.

Harper's f%&k up, then puts up 2 home runs and his staredowns of Arcia.

The battle of Texas coming up.

Just enjoy it!

[GaryPassamonte]

It seems that some of you are 'whining" because you disagree with my point. Baseball has traditionally had the distinction among the other major professional sports of valuing the regular season more. 162 games and 8 months is a long haul. Having a majority of the top seeds bounced in the first rounds of the playoffs is not "fair" to the teams that excelled all year.

[BobbyStrawberry]

Originally Posted by GaryPassamonte

It seems that some of you are 'whining" because you disagree with my point. Baseball has traditionally had the distinction among the other major professional sports of valuing the regular season more. 162 games and 8 months is a long haul. Having a majority of the top seeds bounced in the first rounds of the playoffs is not "fair" to the teams that excelled all year.

If fairness was the goal, MLB should go back to pre-LCS rules. Two league winners play in the world series.

We all know there will only be more playoff games though, because $$$$

[GaryPassamonte]

Originally Posted by BobbyStrawberry

If fairness was the goal, MLB should go back to pre-LCS rules. Two league winners play in the world series.

We all know there will only be more playoff games though, because $$$$

I agree.

[nolemmings]

Originally Posted by GaryPassamonte

It seems that some of you are 'whining" because you disagree with my point. Baseball has traditionally had the distinction among the other major professional sports of valuing the regular season more. 162 games and 8 months is a long haul. Having a majority of the top seeds bounced in the first rounds of the playoffs is not "fair" to the teams that excelled all year.

Then eliminate the wildcard spots and call it good--after all, those teams could not prevail in their own division. Or better yet, just take the teams with the best 3 records in each league, give the one with the best record a bye and go from there. I am sure either of those will go over big with the fans.

I really have a hard time questioning this fairness argument. The Brewers and Rays were given all home games and couldn't win one. The Orioles and Dodgers were given byes and home field advantage and still got swept, and the same nearly happened (and should have) to the Braves. What more of an advantage does "fairness" require?

The World Series has been won by a wildcard team almost 25% of the time. Again, a World's Champion that couldn't even win its own division. Does anyone cry for the team that finished ahead of them as being "unfairly" treated or claim that it is a "problem" that the game only gets it right 3/4 of the time?

[packs]

Originally Posted by GaryPassamonte

It seems that some of you are 'whining" because you disagree with my point. Baseball has traditionally had the distinction among the other major professional sports of valuing the regular season more. 162 games and 8 months is a long haul. Having a majority of the top seeds bounced in the first rounds of the playoffs is not "fair" to the teams that excelled all year.

Couldn't they have avoided being bounced if they won?

[GaryPassamonte]

Originally Posted by packs

Couldn't they have avoided being bounced if they won?

Of course, but that's not the point. That is the obvious.

[Shoeless Moe]

Originally Posted by GaryPassamonte

Having a majority of the top seeds bounced in the first rounds of the playoffs is not "fair" to the teams that excelled all year.

Having a hard time seeing this point.

Top seeds:

1. get a few days off to rest and heal any injuries that comes from a long season
2. get to set their pitching lineup
3. can watch & study their opponent who doesn't get to do the same
4. have home field advantage
5. get to play the weaker seed

then it comes down to head to head performance as it should.

you can't win with all those advantages, no one to blame but yourselves.


and prety sure Baseball has the least amount of postseason teams of the Big 4 sports. Once they start letting in .500 and below teams into the playoff then let's revisit.

[butchie_t]

All a better record has ever guaranteed is home field advantage. If better record team stinks up the series and loses, oh well. Too bad for them. To the victors go the spoils.

[clydepepper]

Originally Posted by Shoeless Moe

Having a hard time seeing this point.

Top seeds:

1. get a few days off to rest and heal any injuries that comes from a long season
2. get to set their pitching lineup
3. can watch & study their opponent who doesn't get to do the same
4. have home field advantage
5. get to play the weaker seed

then it comes down to head to head performance as it should.

you can't win with all those advantages, no one to blame but yourselves.


and prety sure Baseball has the least amount of postseason teams of the Big 4 sports. Once they start letting in .500 and below teams into the playoff then let's revisit.

Arizona is only 3* games over .500 (84-78) - same record as Miami, which also got itn.

*-I'm constantly hearing that someone with 6 more wins than losses is 6 games over .500, while, in fact, they are only 3.


.

[bk400]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

I guess the Giants better give those 2 Super Bowls back to the Patriots.

It's not "fair", that the superior team didn't win.

Should have given the Patriots a 10 point cushion to start the game.





Only real solution here, if there actually is a problem, is to make the 3 game series, a 5 game series, and make the 5 game series a 7 game series.

Take a few games off the regular season if need be.

Agree with this apt comparison to the NY Giants.
This said, I disagree that the Patriots were the better team. Definitionally, the Giants were the best team in 2007 and 2011 because they ran the table in the playoffs. They won when it mattered most.

IMHO, the season MVP award for all sports should take into account playoff performance. What did Acuna do during the playoffs? He looked like Elly De La Cruz out there.

I mean, Mariano Rivera never won an MVP or a Cy Young Award, but that guy's got 5 rings, and I'm not sure you'd want anyone else on the mound if you had to close out an inning to win a championship.

I love watching guys like Tony Gwynn, Mike Trout, Ichiro, Ken Griffey, Jr., Ohtani, and Dan Marino, but I'm hard pressed to say that they are "better" than guys with a bunch of hardware.

(As an aside, I looked up these stats, which I thought were interesting. In 2007, the Giants had ZERO All-Pros and beat the Patriots, who had 10 All Pros and an undefeated season. In 2011, the Giants did it again, this time with two All Pros (Victor Cruz and Jason Pierre-Paul) versus 8 for the Patriots.)

[maniac_73]

The problem is playoff money is exponentially more than a regular season game so its purely financial that the playoffs keep increasing in games. I loved the old ALCS - WS route. Made the regular season more meaningful but unfortunately, we won't go back to that.