Wacky new MLB playoff format is on the table

[Judge Jude]

Joel Sherman
@Joelsherman1
https://nypost.com/2020/02/10/mlb-pl...lity-tv-twist/ EXCLUSIVE: MLB is planning a radical change to their postseason perhaps by 2022, hoping to move from 5 to 7 teams in each league and -- get this -- have the teams with the best records pick their playoff opponents.

"The plan is to have this all play out on a show on the Sunday night the regular season ends and have representatives picking teams on live TV — think the NCAA selection show, but just with the teams making the selections. The rights to that show is part of the enticement to potential TV partners."

[fuhrdog]

I hope this is a joke.

[onejayhawk]

I hope this is a joke.

Most marketing campaigns have that phrase attached at some point.

J

[The Dane]

Hm. I wonder how their bracket works. If the top seed gets a bye in Round 1 (7 teams indicate this is the case) and they choose a team that barely squeaked in, say the 7th seed, does that mean the 7th seed survives the first round of elims simply by virtue of being chosen as top-seed victim? Seems weird.

Edit to add: Okay, now I've read the whole piece. I get what they're doing. Still seems weird. I doubt it would break anything.

[madducks]

I like the 7 teams from each league playoff format and one team hosting all 3 games of a wild card series. But, the pick-your-own-opponent-on-a-TV-show part really sounds stupid. Just do it the same way as other sports with the highest seed vs the lowest seed. There is really no need to reinvent the wheel here.

[mgwiz22]

They still need to add a new team to balance the leagues.

[chancellor]

Trevor Bauer is right.

[DMT]

Trevor Bauer is right.

Yep..

https://twitter.com/BauerOutage/status/1227053354741682176?s=19

[harmon]

I think I'll vote for the changes if only cuz douchebag is a way too nice word to describe Bauer.

[madducks]

They still need to add a new team to balance the leagues.

Then it will unbalance the divisions. Right now they all have 5 teams. Unless they copy the NFL format and go with 4 divisions of 4 teams, give 2 of 6 playoff teams from each league a bye week and have 2 wild card series in each league.

Expansion is coming. It's probably only a few years away. I'm betting that Portland, Oregon gets a franchise.

[chancellor]

It’ll be interesting to see. The two logical places are Portland and Charlotte. But I suspect Seattle and Atlanta will fight both of them like crazy. And I really doubt MLB will do anything until it can sort out the Tampa Bay/Montreal debacle that’s going on