The Mets are doing great and playoff baseball is a wonderful thing, especially when your favorite team is involved. The Mets took the lead in the Division series and now have two chances to win one game and advance to the NLCS. My oldest brother is a Dodgers fan and I know several people who root for L.A. My hope was for a trip to face the Dodges in the NLCS. But the Dodgers are in the same boat as the Phillies – facing an elimination game today and needing to win twice to advance.
The NL Central champs lost in the Wild Card round and the other two division winners might get knocked out in the first round they play, too. And it’s not like we haven’t seen division winners get knocked out early before, either. It’s one thing when it’s the Mets, who’ve been the best team in baseball for 4.5 months, knock out the third division winner. But the D’Backs entered the playoffs last year as a Wild Card team, one who had a 32-39 record in the second half of the season. And they made it to the World Series.
Is it good for baseball to have a playoff format that consistently eliminates the best teams over 162 games in the first round they play?
It seems fair to say that no one wants a rubber stamp, where the team with the most wins in the regular season always makes it to the World Series. But in the NL, we have to go back to 2017 where in a 162-game season, the team with the most wins made it to the World Series. And if the Padres eliminate the Dodgers, that will make six full years where the best team during the regular season didn’t make the Fall Classic. It seems we’ve gone beyond fluke and into territory where the current format needs to be changed.
*****
Join us in the Game Chatter for today’s 5:08 p.m. game — https://substack.com/chat/1934025/post/01d83f29-fa3d-4d92-a990-e6168a6b35ea
Gotta go for the jugular tonight.
I have zero interest in going back to Philly to face Zack Wheeler with a fired up squad behind him and a grandstand full of howling phanatics in front of him.
Feels like Mike Scott in 86.
Bingo!
Obviously a fan of the wild card format since it got us in 2 of the last 3 years, however i don’t think it’s ultimately good for the game to consistently have 5 and 6 seeds in the world series. The long regular season should matter for something.
I would shorten the regular season to 154 games and make every playoff series best of 7. The longer the series, the greater the chance for the better team to settle in and emerge.
(and now I’ll wait for your detailed and well researched article providing evidence for or against this assumption)
I don’t know if there’s an easy answer here.
I’ve long felt that the top team should get to pick their opponent. But do you have them pick before the Wild Card round or after?
My other thought is to have the two teams with a bye play one or two games against each other during the Wild Card round. It wouldn’t count for anything and teams could take it as seriously as they wanted. But it would be a chance to have players face some competition and not sit around for five days
Not a fan of this new format either. The bye seems to hurt more than help as 5 of 8 bye teams have lost with PHI and LA currently on the ropes. Doubt they’ll ever reduce # of playoff teams but something needs to be done if this trend continues.