Rob Manfred has done it again. Another month, another absolute botch. In January the commissioner’s office released its dubious punishment for the Astros, and just this week the commissioner unveiled his plan to ‘revamp’ the postseason. Manfred proposed playoff expansion to 7 teams per league and – most strangely- a choice by the best team in each league for an opponent in the second round.
Over the past decade, Major League Baseball has taken a beating over its so called boring and slow game play. For years the League has been contemplating solutions for this critique – pitch clocks, limiting mound visits. Manfred’s solution does not make any changes to the game play. In fact, he is toying with one of baseball’s strong suits: its unpredictable and consistently exciting postseason.
Why is expanding the playoff bracket so bad, you ask? The current 5 team format guarantees a competitive match-up in each series. Even the regular season wildcard race spurns excitement most years. By letting in more teams you’ll end up with an NBA playoffs style disaster which is boring until the conference finals. Major League Baseball is not a participation contest.
Next, the selection sunday-esque fiasco of opponent choosing will provide predictable, melodramatic television designed to fatten up the leagues revenue even more. Baseball is America’s pastime. It is not a silly game with gimmick entertainment. Selecting opponents in the first round is a break from baseball tradition, another of MLB’s strong suits.
Rob Manfred’s proposal will increase revenue. But that is not the league’s issue. Even as there are less seats filled, the league’s revenue continues to soar. The new playoff system should be roundly rejected. No thank you, Mr. Commissioner.
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America’s pastime, full of lore, needs a change. Yes I said it. Light me up. As someone who has played baseball and been a fan since I could swing a bat, I am cognizant of the tradition. But even the most storied institutions must move with the times.
Recently, Rob Manfred and Major League Baseball proposed a revamping of the postseason structure. The change will expand the playoffs to a total of 14 teams, 7 from each league. These 7 teams will be made up of 3 division winners as per usual, and 4 wild card teams. The top record in each league, respectively, will receive a first round bye and the other two division winners will be able to choose their opponent out of the wild card teams. The two other wild card teams will be matched up. For more detail, you can read up here.
Whew, now that the specifics are out there. I will admit, I do not agree with all of the proposal. But I’m going to start with what I love, and what baseball needs. Expanding the playoff bracket from 10 total teams to 14 teams allows for more competition for meaningful games in September. Often, we see mid-level clubs with little to nothing to play for. What’s worse than watching the San Diego Padres linger around .500 baseball to have no chance at the playoffs and get a mediocre draft pick. This will put more juice into the already grueling and, admittedly, boring regular season schedule.
Another part of the proposal (that is not mentioned above) is the changing of the current garbage that is the wild card round. In the new format, the wild card round will be a best of 3 rather than the current winner takes all format. This new format gets rid of a dominant pitching performance determining a wild card win, but a showcase of a club’s full roster, whilst being short enough to not be an eyesore.
Now, the MLB should entirely bypass the “choose your opponent” nonsense. This an unneeded and utterly useless gimmick that the MLB should avoid at all costs. The playoffs, in all sports, are beautiful because of the unpredictability of it all. There’s a reason why this has never been done.
The Gauntlet 