A Tweak To Make the Postseason More Baseball-Like
One-game series are interesting in their own right. Everything’s on the line. But it doesn’t seem very much in the tradition of baseball. We’ve usually preferred longer series, which do a better job figuring out which team is truly better.
Of course, adding more days to the already-packed postseason schedule is a problem, too. The World Series ended October 30th last year. Are we prepared for November baseball? For a schedule that’s already longer than any other major sport season, adding another month would push the boundaries. Pitchers on World Series champions would have two months off.
Could there be a simple solution? How about cutting Spring Training down?
Spring Training used to be all about getting in shape. Players had second jobs, and came into camp out of baseball shape. Now players are year-round athletes that spend most of the winter with nutrionists and trainers.
The current version of Spring Training seems to be roster decision focused. Teams decide on the slots 20 through 25 and 25 through 40. They sort through the available fifth starter types, and they decide on the second lefty in the pen. Pitchers try out new pitches, and batters add a toe tap or remove a leg kick.
How long would it take a starting pitch to stretch back out again? That might be the most important part of Spring Training — making sure your starter can go six or seven innings when the bell rings. If starters, who are required to show up earlier than everyone else, can finish the job in a month, that means we could cut a week out of Spring Training.
Even five days could do the trick. Of course, starting the season a little earlier will require some scheduling tricks. Minnesota might need to be on the road for ten days to start things off, for example. Boston may need to play in Tampa in March. Hey, if the Bulls can leave Chicago for two weeks every winter on something called the Circus Trip, then baseball can have their own branded road trips. “The Twins are in town again on their annual Snow Trip,” we might hear on the radio.
If baseball could cut a week out of Spring Training, it could — at the very least — make the Wild Card game a Wild Card Series. Even a three-game series might be more baseball-like than a one-game playoff. Especially for Royals fans, who may deserve more than one game and one chance at the postseason after so many years away. And more postseason revenue (and as shorter spring training) should be an easy sell to the owners.
With a phone full of pictures of pitchers' fingers, strange beers, and his two toddler sons, Eno Sarris can be found at the ballpark or a brewery most days. Read him here, writing about the A's or Giants at The Athletic, or about beer at October. Follow him on Twitter @enosarris if you can handle the sandwiches and inanity.
Making the division winners wait even longer to start play takes a lot of the shine off of this idea, which has it’s merits.
The division winners are already waiting to play on Thursday/Friday. The 3 game series could be played on 3 consecutive days, Monday-Wednesday.
Sunday: season ends
Monday: any Game 163
Tuesday: day reserved for any Game 164 (in the AL for example-what are the odds of having 2 of them) and Game 1 of NL Wild Card Series
Wednesday: Game 2 and 3 for NL wild card series; Game 1 for the AL WC series
Thursday:Game 2 and 3 for AL WC series; Game 1 of NLDS
Friday: Game 1 of ALDS and Game 2 of NLDS
currently the ALDS and NLDS start on different days for TV purposes, so this would preserve it.
Can we just remove the off days within existing postseason series? We can play 20 consecutive days in the regular season; why can’t we play 3, 5, or 7 straight in the postseason? Off days occur between series as a reward for winning early.
But the 20 consecutive days in the regular season are scheduled to avoid e.g. flying from Washington to San Francisco then back again, followed by a flight to LA.
Hello, day games!
I would like to see a two game series, where the #1 Wildcard would only need to win one of the two games to advance but the #2 Wildcard team would need to win both.
Very interesting idea. I prefer a best of 3 series(all hosted by the #1 wildcard)
I like this idea as well, but what to do in the event of a tie? Do you give the team with the tie-breaker the advantage based on head-to-head like they do with home field? That’s not very satisfying when it’s only based on six games…
How does this tie occur?
Looks like he’s talking about the case where the 1st WC team has the same record as the 2nd WC team.
Like so:
Wild card team A 90-72
Wild card team B 90-72
you simply add a third game. Make one of the days a day-night doubleheader.
Or if its just two games total, play them on the same day.
Why not make it a triple-header?
Why not keep it like it is, because it provides instant high drama and the playoffs are a coin flip anyway. I don’t like the idea of delaying the DS more than the 4 day wait currently used.
How about getting rid of Wild Card teams altogether and go back to 4 divisions and 4 playoff teams?
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About we get rid of divisions altogether (but keep the unbalanced schedule) and just seed the top four teams?
then why not leave everything as is and just seed the teams 1-5 based only off of record. Has there been a time a division winner wasn’t one of the 5 best records?
3 game series… one game on the first day, doubleheader (if necessary) the next. All games at the first WC team’s home.
If a team sweeps (2-0),obviously no doubleheader. It only adds one day to the schedule (so the division winners should not be significantly impacted) and it will also tax the bullpen and rotation of the WC teams more heavily, putting them at more of a disadvantage against a division winner(which seems to be the desired preference by a a lot of folks).
I also would not allow teams to tweak the roster rules for the WC series; that roster should be the same as the LDS (minus any injury replacements of course).
Somebody mention LDS?
Nope. Nope nope nope. I like the current system, with its reward for winning the division over the previous system. We have already determined the better teams via a 162 game season. Adding another fuller playoff round is making the postseason less baseball like, not more.
I mainly support the second wildcard as a method of making things harder for the wildcat teams.
I would like shorter spring training and avoiding the silly roster expansion, but I don’t want a three game series, which will of course become a five game series.
Anything that makes things harder for the Wildcat teams is fine with us.
Agreed, the current system is very good – it maintains interest in the regular season till September for 50-60% of teams, but still usually requires a decently winning record (87 games or so) to get in.
The only change I might make would be to expand the Divisional Series to 7 games.
Making the wild card game a 3-game series still gives a huge advantage for division winners. If anything, it penalizes the wild card teams even more because they would need to play an extra game or two (with extra travel, possibly on back-to-back days) while the division winners are resting up.
this tweak could work with no off days
season ends on sunday
wild card monday-wed
non wild card division series start on Thursday
wild card based division series start on Friday
if there’s a tie breaker the whole thing gets pushed back a day, this messes with TV scheduling.
You know what would be awesome? 3 game series, first two are a scheduled double header. If one team can win the first two games they earn a day off.
Schedule one doubleheader a month and the season can end a week early, and the World Series can be pushed up to mid-October, instead of the absurdity of spilling into November.
The best idea of the bunch.
Why not just have the national broadcasters get screwed and only allow one off day per postseason series? They’re all terrible anyway, you could easily replace them with the teams broadcasters, each team would have their play-by-play guy during their home games coupled with the other team’s color guy. That means you could have them camped out where they need to be and not have so many off days or horrible and often times baffling commentary from guys that know nothing about either team that they’re calling that night.
Nope. One game provides so much drama and gives teams more incentive to try to win their division. I do like the idea of shortening spring training so the WS doesn’t have to be played in November, which is ridiculous.
How about a 3 game WC playoff series that starts with a doubleheader in WC1’s ballpark on Tuesday and (if there is a split) then a Game 3 at WC2’s park on Wednesday? Obviously that would deplete the pitching staff for the WC winner more than it currently does, but is adding an extra advantage to the club with the best record all that big of a deal? Also, if depleted pitching staffs are that big of a concern you can always add a couple roster spots for that series or push the start of the LDS to Saturday without adding much time to the season.
You have to admit, Wild Card doubleheader day would be a pretty epic day of baseball, especially for the hosting team.
I think there are some folks that won’t approve of this idea:
1) team owners who can get some extra revenue from the Spring games
2) any business in Florida or the Phoenix area that relies on the tourists to spend money in their area
regular season baseball in mid/late March is no good. I agree with the poster above– add a few more doubleheaders in the schedule to shorten the season by 5-7 days, then make the Wild Card playoffs best-of-3.
I would propose the following for a specific 16 game period, which would cut out 3 days from the season:
You play 4 games in 3 days against all 4 division rivals plus 3 games against someone else with one travel day built in. During this 16 day period (which would be the same for all teams), every team can carry 26 players. No need for an extra player during a doubleheader, a team can carry 26 players for the whole period.
or add more wild card winners. make two leagues and no divisions.
top 8 go from each side.
3 game series to 4 each side.
5 game series to 2 each side.
7 game series for lcs.
7 game for ws.
that way, we’ll be more like the nba and have sub 500 teams playing in the playoffs….
There is nothing “unbaseball-like” about one game playoffs – this is game 163, just as in cases of tie-breaking. My main objection to the game is that it is considered to be part of the playoffs, when it’s really the last regular season game.
Totally agree. This is not yet postseason baseball.
It is by definition post-season baseball. Seems silly to not call an elimination game played after the final regular season game playoffs.
so you would want them to have 40 man rosters for this game?
I like punishing the wild card teams, but one concern I’ve had is when one wild card team is clearly better than the other and also better than other division winner. How about if WC#1 has a better record by X wins, the wild card play-in becomes a doubleheader where WC#2 has to win both. You reward the 3 division winners and the 1 great WC, but punish the second WC who should just be happy to be there.
…but also punishes the First wild card by making them one game and possibly play two, setting back their rotation. Seems like the same rewards and punishments are there.
If we’re getting crazy, what about a Champions League style 2 game home-away playoff where the away team gets 2 points for every run and the home team gets 1 point for every run. Add the points from the two games together for a winner.
We aren’t getting crazy.
You’re right, that’s crazy.
So if you win the first game 2-0 and you’re in the second game, bottom of the 9th tied 0-0. Do you wait for two outs and try to let them score only one? or do you try to win it the next inning and give the other team 3 outs to score at least two?
Does the team refuse to score? Do you refuse to tag them? then what?
how about one 18 inning game? As Ernie Banks would say “Let’s play 4”
Yeah, let’s invent a whole other scoring system that only gets used for a couple of games. eyeroll.
For what it’s worth (probably very little), my main objection to the one-game wild-card thing was that eventually someone would say we should increase it to 3 games, because that’s more “fair.” Then it’ll go to 5. Maybe even 7. Hey, looked what happened to the LCSes; they’re 7 games now.
The thing is, it’s not supposed to be baseball-like. It’s a last-ditch attempt for two teams that failed to win their divisions. Good teams, yes, but they didn’t win. That’s the point. (For me.)