MLB is continuing to propose radical changes this offseason. Earlier, it was a complete overhaul to Minor League Baseball, potentially eliminating 42 teams. Now, they want to change the playoffs. I highly recommend taking a look at the full article posted by Joel Sherman.

The main goals here are: incentivize regular season winning from start to finish, add excitement in order to add new fans and keep current fans…and make more money. There’s lots of negative responses to the proposal going around. Even our own Trevor Bauer ridiculed MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred via Twitter:

No idea who made this new playoff format proposal, but Rob is responsible for releasing it, so I’ll direct this to you, Rob Manfred. Your proposal is absurd for too many reasons to type on twitter and proves you have absolutely no clue about baseball. You’re a joke. @BauerOutage

For argument’s sake, let’s take a look at the positives and how they’re looking to achieve them. Enhancing the regular season. A few different things go into play here. 14 teams would make the playoffs instead of 10. More teams going for it means better baseball. The top team gets a bye in the first round. The teams in 2nd and 3rd place would choose their playoff opponent instead of just playing the lowest respective seeds. Now, the thought here is to keep the top teams from coasting once they’ve reached the top. And while that would be incentivizing to an extent, if a team is far enough ahead, you’ll still see it from time to time. Another side of this is home field advantage. At least in the first round, the home team plays the entire series at home. So that will give teams more of a reason to want to finish at the top than the mentality of “just make it to the playoffs and anything can happen.”

The next major goal is adding excitement. I see three parts to this. The biggest one is listed above. Teams trying harder to win a higher percentage of the games will obviously add excitement. How much that would tangibly change is the important thing here. If it actually changes things, great. If not, what’s the point? The second part of the excitement is the sheer fact that with more teams in the playoffs, there will be more playoff games played. Playoff games are fun. This ones simple. Lastly, there will be a one night event. Remember how the two teams choose their opponents? Well the MLB wants this decision to be aired live. Picture the Lebron James free-agent team decision. Some people love this stuff, others receive it with a massive eye-roll. But…they watch, because they are affected by the results. Also affected are the two unchosen teams who would face each other.

Finally, the money. The big thing I am seeing is that people see this as a Major League Cash Grab. Money would be brought it from the Live Decision, and the additional playoff games. While this is true, it’s important to note that it’s not only the MLB and the owners that would benefit. With more teams making and potentially making the playoffs, more teams would be inclined to spend in order to make the playoffs, as well as place higher in the rankings. What will they be spending money on? Of course there’s coaching, player development or anything else, but the players. That’s right, they players themselves should also be receiving higher contracts, or more contracts in general, as opposed to seeing free agents unsigned months into the regular season. Weather it will be a proportional increase, I’m not the one to say.

I just wanted to to see some of the potential positives and allow yourself to imagine it playing out yourself. What do you think? Would this be good for the game? Or is it “a joke?”

(Photo via mlb.com)

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