This small tweak would dramatically improve MLB’s postseason format

Fast rule: Beneath no circumstance ought to there be any best-of-three or best-of-five collection wherever in MLB’s postseason format. They each stink to the excessive heavens!

The most effective-of-five collection is a skimpier model of the extra classical and fantastically layered best-of-seven, and the best-of-three is a clumsy, pointless, scheduling nightmare that offers you an identical end result because the best-of-one in a lot lamer style. I by no means appreciated the thought of a best-of-three postseason collection on paper and, to this point, it’s one way or the other confirmed even worse in actuality. You get the entire unpredictability that comes with a brief collection by way of outcomes, and need to construct that uncertainty into the schedule which holds up every little thing else, however you get not one of the assured, pure, prompt, high-end drama that comes connected with the moment elimination of the best-of-one.

Within the three years the present best-of-three Wild Card format has been in place, there’s been twelve of those shoddy collection, and to this point, the winner of Recreation 1 has gone on to win each single one in all them. In reality, the early tide in this stuff has been so sturdy that ten of them have been 2-0 sweeps. What a massively underwhelming method to kick off October!

So if you happen to’re extraordinarily prone to get the identical end result and the identical crew advancing as we did within the gloriously dramatic one recreation elimination format, what are we doing enjoying a best-of-three? Not solely does it not remedy the randomness of a crew’s season coming all the way down to such a small pattern dimension, but it surely holds up all the highest seeds who’ve to attend round for 5 days and stalls the momentum of the complete sport.

That is the disagreeable and painfully drawn out setup we presently have main as much as the beginning of the LDS spherical day-to-day:

Sunday: Recreation 162 for everyone because the season ends.

Monday: Off Day buffer to start out the postseason. (This one is ok.)

Tuesday: 4 Recreation 1s assured (many stacked on prime of one another throughout a workday afternoon).

Wednesday: 4 Recreation 2s assured (many stacked on prime of one another throughout a workday afternoon).

Thursday: Someplace between zero and 4 video games, and also you gained’t know what this quantity seems to be prefer to plan your schedule till lower than 24 hours earlier than they begin.

Friday: Zero video games! (It’s due to an off Day buffer wanted for groups who could have performed a Recreation 3, though they simply had one on Monday.)

Saturday: We lastly begin the LDS spherical.

Sunday: Solely two of the 4 LDS collection are energetic as a result of MLB must get them off sequence for TV functions. So there’s one more off day for half the remaining groups.

That is ridiculous! In 2023, we had been ready round for 2 days with no baseball on Thursday and Friday due to this ludicrous format. This isn’t good for followers, it’s not good for the highest seeded groups, it’s not good for the TV companions who can’t market the unpredictability within the schedule, and it’s not good for the momentum of the game, which badly must be producing pleasure and hooking individuals in throughout this crucial week.

Moreover, this bloated, expanded postseason format treats every of the underside eight groups the identical by throwing all of them in the identical bucket, which is each unfair and problematic. Why ought to a division winner be uncovered to the identical randomness of the best-of-three collection as a 3rd Wild Card crew?

Ideally, there would simply be fewer postseason groups. We’d have extra urgency within the 162 recreation common season, and the massive canine wouldn’t have to attend round. But when we’re going to have this monumental playoff discipline, it actually must be damaged into three tiers (as a substitute of the 2 we presently have, which labored a lot better when the break up was six groups and 4 groups within the previous ten crew format with the 2 Wild Card play in video games).

Happily, there’s a small tweak that will enable MLB to do that and assist the game on all fronts. As an alternative of treating the three, 4, 5 and 6 seeds all the identical and throwing them right into a chaotic best-of-three collection, have the three and 4 seeds face off on Tuesday in a single recreation match up that may determine who advances to the LDS. The loser will then fall right into a single recreation elimination matchup on Thursday.

Who will they play? The winner of a one-game, Wild Card playoff on Wednesday between the 5 and 6 seeds. (And fairly frankly, I nonetheless assume that is relatively beneficiant to the 5 and 6 seeds since for many of baseball historical past they obtained to play zero submit season video games.)

Repeating the opening week of the postseason schedule from above, right here’s what it could appear like below this tweaked format beginning on Tuesday:

Tuesday: Two video games assured, each one recreation collection between the three and 4 seeds to find out who advances to the LDS and who loses and will get pushed to the cliff’s edge. It’s not fairly an elimination recreation, however one thing massive is immediately being determined between sturdy, center tiered groups.

Wednesday: Two elimination video games assured, each between the 5 and 6 seeds with the loser going dwelling. (The winners instantly get on a airplane to no matter metropolis misplaced their recreation on Tuesday. Large drama, and the stuff legacies are product of if you happen to handle to win each!)

Thursday: Two elimination video games assured with the winners advancing to the LDS and getting an off day on Friday.

Friday: Two assured LDS video games because the two collection matchups selected Tuesday evening shall be prepared to start out.

Saturday: 4 video games assured, and in stunning style, this primary occurs on a weekend, which is a day you’ll be able to freely stack video games within the afternoon with out most individuals having to work.

Sunday: 4 video games assured as a result of not like the present system, the LDS collection are already naturally off sequence and also you don’t want one other aggravating off day in-built.

This proposed format is:

• Way more dramatic
• Orders of magnitude extra digestible for the typical fan
• Simpler to marketplace for the networks
• Fairer for the individuals because it preprograms a bonus for the three and 4 seeds over the 5 and 6 seeds.

As an alternative of subjecting eight completely different groups to the identical stage of chaos with no distinction, you’ve now tiered the twelve playoff groups into three clear teams of 4. You’ve got the 1 and a pair of seeds who will all routinely advance to the LDS with a 100% likelihood of being there, you’ve gotten the three and 4 seeds with a 75% likelihood of constructing the LDS (the 2 assured from the Tuesday video games after which assume they win the Thursday recreation half the time), after which you’ve gotten the 5 and 6 seeds with a 25% likelihood of constructing the LDS (two of the 4 shall be eradicated on Wednesday after which assume these winners will win the Thursday recreation half the time).

This then leaves you with an LDS that may, over the long-haul and on common, encompass the 4 greatest groups, three of the following 4 greatest groups, after which one true Cinderella that may have simply cheated loss of life not as soon as, however twice in what was in all probability bonkers style.

At this level, it in all probability goes with out saying that the LDS will get expanded from a best-of-five to a best-of-seven. Not simply due to the opening assertion from their piece and the very best groups within the sport deserving a completely fleshed out collection (didn’t you need extra Dodgers vs. Padres when that collection ended final 12 months?), but in addition as a result of the house owners have to make their a refund from the misplaced postseason stock from earlier within the week. This not solely does that, however will in all probability add a few video games within the trade-off.

Picture by Daniel Shirey/MLB Pictures through Getty Photographs

Now with the majority of the work finished, I believe it could additionally assist the game in the event that they made another tweak: Make the seven recreation LDS format 3-2-2 by way of dwelling vs. highway. It will once more make the schedule so a lot better for each the viewer and the networks as a result of it aligns three of the 4 days the place the game may have 4 postseason video games stacked on prime of one another with the weekend. These dates on this format could be the primary Saturday of the postseason, the primary Sunday, a Wednesday (can’t keep away from it), after which if all of the collection went lengthy, once more on the next Saturday. I believe that is so vital to make the postseason work on a macro stage and hook individuals in.

Two video games per day is ideal throughout the work week Monday by Friday. Any greater than that and so they begin stepping throughout one another, forcing followers to fragment into their favourite collection, which in the end makes it so tough to generate nationwide buzz for the remainder of October. Quite the opposite, the weekend is strictly the place you need the video games stacked as a result of you’ll be able to unfold them out all day with much less of a rankings consequence. You possibly can even begin the Sunday slate at midday earlier than the NFL begins.

Lastly, whereas the additional dwelling video games could appear like an enormous benefit for the upper seeds, it’s truly not. There’s no sport the place dwelling discipline issues lower than MLB, and truthfully, followers of the groups which were the very best over 162 video games deserve a weekend the place they get three dwelling video games to kick off the festivities. Since even a seven recreation collection will convey random outcomes the place the decrease seeds advance with shocking regularity (as a result of the MLB postseason is loopy) that’s an important reward!

It additionally forces groups to make use of their bullpen extra proper off the bat, which makes for a a lot, a lot better baseball collection than the disappointing and disorderly off-day crammed mess we have now now. On this present format, two of the highest 4 groups within the sport play simply two video games within the first 9 days of the playoffs. (They begin with 5 days off, get one other off day between Video games 1 and a pair of to get the collection off sequence for TV, after which there’s a journey day between Recreation 2 and Recreation 3.) I’m sorry, however that’s simply not baseball. It wants to vary!

For the general comparability, right here’s the present system vs. the proposed system by way of what number of video games could be on the docket every day. Draw your individual conclusions as to which is best.

The MLB postseason must be the crown jewel of the game, and if it’s handed accurately, it would develop into that in just some brief years. There’s a lot chaos naturally baked into this DNA of this organism, you don’t have to throw chaos on prime chaos with such a broad brush. As an alternative, you want a tiered, structured system the place you set up the mayhem.

However most of all, there must be no best-of-three and no best-of-five collection wherever within the MLB postseason format. Both a collection is value letting play out for a full seven video games, or it calls for each groups instantly be thrown into the fryer. Convey the drama, and get this proper sooner or later!