~2022 MLB Thread~

[OrangeAfroMan]

I guess it just feels like it's incentivizing being a fan of an average team over a good team.  
I'm a Dodgers fan.  With this expanded playoff, I already know LA is in the postseason before the season starts.  It doesn't matter.  Last year, the Giants somehow won the division, but it didn't really matter, because I knew LA was getting in, too.  

So instead of fans of subpar teams being bored the last couple of months of the season, the fans of the best teams get to be bored all year long.  

Is that a good trade-off?  

[ELA]

My guess is teams who know the regular season doesn't matter because they are in get better ratings than teams who know it doesn't matter because they aren't.

I don't disagree with you in general, that there needs to be a rational balance between rewarding play and entertainment, I just think we are a little ways apart on where it falls.  I didn't like the move from 4 to 5, but it grew on me because it incentiveized winning your division in a format where schedules were unbalanced.  The 5 to 6 move does nothing for me.  Inherently a baseball playoff format is going to suffer because it's a sport won on the margins, and you can't capture that it a 7 game series.

Flip side, football, particularly college football, is the opposite.  That's why I support the 12 team, 10-2 model, with first round and quarterfinals played on campus.  It gives meaning to all of the conference races, but doesn't actually prevent the best team from winning.  UL Lafayette can storm the field when they win the Sun Belt, I'll actually watch the game, and then they'll go get blasted 56-10 in a road game at the SEC runner up a week later.  We'll get to the same(ish) 4 teams, but on a more entertaining path.

I actually think the better solution for pro sports is to do a slanted win requirement.  Do a 16 team playoff, so fans have a reason to stay invested, but while the 5, 6, 7 and 8 seeds have to win 4 games, the 1 seed just has to win once, the 2 seed twice, the 3 seed thrice, and the 4-5 is a true best of seven.

[OrangeAfroMan]

I actually think the better solution for pro sports is to do a slanted win requirement.  Do a 16 team playoff, so fans have a reason to stay invested, but while the 5, 6, 7 and 8 seeds have to win 4 games, the 1 seed just has to win once, the 2 seed twice, the 3 seed thrice, and the 4-5 is a true best of seven.

That's a cool idea, haven't heard one like it before, specifically.

This isn't something that irks me to no end or anything, I just don't think most people realize that baseball is different from the other sports.

[longhorn320]

you guys are forgetting about the home field advantage

so yes you might know you are in the playoffs from the start but you dont know how much home field advantage stacks up yet

home field advantage is very important

so that means a good team will still play hard to get it

and nobody is bored

just reduce the wc teams to 1 for each league and lets play ball

[FearlessF]

we've talked home field many times regarding college football

is it really much more for MLB??

[longhorn320]

we've talked home field many times regarding college football

is it really much more for MLB??

besides the crowd support I think being home team has an advantage by batting last at the end of the game

[OrangeAfroMan]

MLB has the smallest HFA of the 4 pro sports.

[longhorn320]

MLB has the smallest HFA of the 4 pro sports.

and yet everyone wants it

[847badgerfan]

we've talked home field many times regarding college football

is it really much more for MLB??

The home team gets to sleep in their own beds and not travel, which is an advantage. Other than that, not much really. Fans only cheer when a good play happens. Not so much before.

[FearlessF]

the guy standing on the mound is the biggest factor

does he have good stuff that game or great stuff

[OrangeAfroMan]

Going to the DBacks opening game - got good seats.  

[Brutus Buckeye]

Is anyone outside of perhaps the immediate Cleveland area actually going to root for a team called the "Guardians"? 

[longhorn320]

Is anyone outside of perhaps the immediate Cleveland area actually going to root for a team called the "Guardians"?

Is their logo a racoon?

[ELA]

Is anyone outside of perhaps the immediate Cleveland area actually going to root for a team called the "Guardians"?

Did anyone outside that area root for the Indians?