MLB to announce expanded playoff format tomorrow

[British_Pharaoh]

According to Ken Rosenthal of FOXSports.com, MLB is expected to announce expanded playoffs on Thursday.
It's about time. MLB commissioner Bud Selig pushed for expanded playoffs to begin this season, but the matter was held up for weeks in order to figure out scheduling. Under the terms of the new collective bargaining agreement, there will be two wild card teams in each league instead of one. The two wild cards will then play each other in a one-game playoff, with the winner advancing to the Division Series

Rotoworld

[Cerebral_DownTime]

More doesn't equal better.....

Bud Selig is a moron.

[leadpipe]

Looking forward to the day when game #7 of the World Series is in mid-December.

Make it a 10:00pm start time as well, you know, just to make sure no kids catch a glimpse for danger it might grow the sport.

[e0y2e3]

TVSportsratings ‏ @tvsportsratings
Median Age of All-Star Game audiences: NBA=33, NHL=44, NFL=47, MLB=52

TVSportsratings ‏ @tvsportsratings
Between '02 and '12, median age of NBA All-Star audience dropped from 38 to 33. Between '01 and '11, MLB grew from 46 to 52.

[leadpipe]

TVSportsratings ‏ @tvsportsratings
Median Age of All-Star Game audiences: NBA=33, NHL=44, NFL=47, MLB=52

TVSportsratings ‏ @tvsportsratings
Between '02 and '12, median age of NBA All-Star audience dropped from 38 to 33. Between '01 and '11, MLB grew from 46 to 52.

Baseball defenders like to point to the attendance figures. Which, are fine from a local standpoint I guess. Nationally the sport has huge, huge problems - especially, as your figures indicate, with anyone from a new guard.

Difference between NFL/NBA and MLB is that people will watch an NFL or NBA game that does not involve their home team. All these Tribe fans goin' to games and supporting the TV ratings are not watching a Cardinal/Dodger game.

The Pro Bowl - an exhibition game that even the staunchest football fan would refer to as a joke, outdrew a World Series game this year.

[Govbarney]

NFL, CFB, NBA, NCAA Tourney, NASCAR, and to a smaller extent the PGA and UFC are National Level Interest Sports, you watch because its a "event" even if your team is not involved.

The MLB now finds itself in the same level as the NHL, MLS, and Boxing, they are Local Interest Sports. You watch your team, but no one else's, and they have no one to blame but them selves.

[ChoccoIndians]

AFL in Australia has had 8 teams out of 16 qualify for the finals that's 50%. It is now 8 of 18 with discussions on whether to make it 9 or 10 of 18.

So as someone who has watched finals with more teams and games let me go on the record as saying DON'T.

MLB should leave it as 6 teams, 8 teams and they are starting to have teams just "Making up the numbers"

[NH Tribe Fan]

I like it.

1. Baseball certainly needs to become more fan and kid friendly to survive in the long-haul. As previous posters noted, having WS games start at 8pm doesn't help. Making another wild card slot will not hurt in generating "buzz" though Expanding the playoffs will not kill baseball, fans believing their team has no chance does. Lengthening the season doesn't hurt, esp. if it's only 1 more game. Plus it gives added incentive to win the division.

2. I don't see how the unbalanced schedule survives this change after this year (since tickets have already been sold). This is also a good thing, the unbalanced schedule has done more to kill rivalries (Red Sox vs. Yankees comes to mind) since playing each other becomes so commonplace, no need to look forward to the next meeting. The old too much of a good thing seems to apply here. Also it will help smaller markets generate more revenue since instead of getting a few games with a top team at home, a balanced schedule makes more opportunities for the big bad teams to come to town which = more revenue.

15 teams per league (after Houston moves) = 14 teams * 11 games against each team in the league = 154 games per year then 8 Interleague (2, 4 games series based on winning % from previous year's regular season) thrown in.

3. You can't shorten the season as that will make the purists irate and make a lot of records meaningless. I don't think the lengthy season hurts as much as 3-4hour games and seeing the same teams play your team more than 1/3 of the season.

[bac5665]

People watch NBA games that don't have their team in them? Weird.

[idoctribefan]

162 games is clearly not enough to figure out which team is more deserving of a playoff spot: #4 or #5. So a 163rd game is most definitely necessary to see whether a 90-win team or an 87-win team is more deserving of continuing on to the playoffs.



There are probably a bunch of reasons that MLB will claim they are doing this, but here are the two big ones IMO:

1. They get two extra gates and two extra games' worth of advertising revenue.
2. Greatly increasing the odds that both the Yankees and Redsox make the playoffs each year.

[andrew6586]

This is such a dumb idea. Just stupid. Bud Selig is a joke and the worst commissioner I have ever seen. I thought the All-Star game counting for homefield wsa dumb, this just makes him look worse. What's the point of this? A team can fight to be the 4th best team in the league and still not make the playoffs. What a crock of shit.

[gotribe31]

The only thing I like about it is that it provides a real incentive for teams to win their division rather than just coasting to a wild card. More meaningful baseball in September is a good thing, both for the fans and for the sport.

Put it this way; this pissess me off MUCH less than the other provisions in the new CBA that limit draft and international FA spending.

[NH Tribe Fan]

162 games is clearly not enough to figure out which team is more deserving of a playoff spot: #4 or #5. So a 163rd game is most definitely necessary to see whether a 90-win team or an 87-win team is more deserving of continuing on to the playoffs.



There are probably a bunch of reasons that MLB will claim they are doing this, but here are the two big ones IMO:

1. They get two extra gates and two extra games' worth of advertising revenue.
2. Greatly increasing the odds that both the Yankees and Redsox make the playoffs each year.

Money certainly is a reason, but I think it is more of a way to increase interest in the final weeks of the regular season.

But as for #2, it's been what, twice in 10 years where they both didn't make it? I think this assumes and recognizes that the Sox and Yanks will make it every year and this opens the door for another team. It also handicaps the non-division winner, making it less likely the Sox or Yanks (or whoever wins the Wildcards) will last longer in the playoffs. It will put a significant premium on winning the division so you don't have to throw your ace in the wild card playoff game then only get your ace once in the 5 game series.

Use the Yankees as an example, they will need to throw CC in the Wildcard game. Assume they win, now they will only get CC once (and on short rest) in the division series. That makes them much weaker.

I really don't see how this is bad for small-mid market teams. It will really make things interesting in the NL too.

[Adverb Harry]

2. Greatly increasing the odds that both the Yankees and Redsox make the playoffs each year.

This. I'll go to my grave believing that's the main reason.

[Govbarney]

This is the equivalent of the "Notre Dame Rule" in the BCS.
Bud Selig wakes up in cold sweats from the nightmares about a post season w/out the yanks and/or red socks.

[Govbarney]

Stole this from ESPN

Matter of chance
The table below shows each's team playoff odds under the old and new formats, as well as their odds of reaching the LDS under the new format. In past years, making the playoffs was the same as reaching the LDS, but not anymore. (Teams sorted in order of 2012 playoff odds.)

Team OLD FORMAT ODDS 2012 ODDS 2012 LDS ODDS
DET 79.0% 89.3% 78.4%
TEX 71.5% 80.0% 65.5%
NYY 66.8% 78.8% 64.8%
LAA 57.4% 74.3% 60.5%
PHI 57.5% 65.5% 55.4%
ARI 51.0% 63.6% 50.4%
BOS 41.8% 56.9% 40.7%
ATL 44.4% 56.9% 42.6%
CIN 44.2% 54.4% 44.2%
TB 36.2% 52.9% 37.4%
SF 39.3% 48.7% 39.0%
MIL 39.5% 48.4% 39.7%
COL 31.9% 44.7% 32.1%
STL 32.0% 39.4% 32.5%
MIA 20.0% 27.9% 20.6%
WAS 16.4% 24.2% 18.0%
CLE 17.0% 22.4% 18.3%
CWS 12.1% 16.0% 13.0%
TOR 6.0% 10.7% 7.2%
CHC 7.6% 10.2% 8.2%
MIN 5.8% 8.0% 6.4%
KC 5.3% 7.2% 6.0%
LAD 4.6% 6.4% 5.1%
PIT 4.0% 5.3% 4.3%
SD 3.7% 4.8% 4.0%
SEA 1.5% 2.6% 1.9%
OAK 1.4% 2.2% 1.7%
NYM 1.4% 2.0% 1.7%
BAL 0.5% 1.1% 0.7%
HOU 0.2% 0.5% 0.3%