MLB: 2022 Postseason

The Game Room
221

This will forever be my pet peeve with baseball until they come to their senses and change things.

How can you play an endless 162 game season over 6 months and then give teams the bum’s rush through the playoffs with 3 and 5 games playoff series? It’s not only ridiculous, it is also unfair. A part of what constitutes a really good team is depth. Short playoff series favor the weaker team. It also favors luck. All playoff series should be 7 games. It’s just that simple. Cut the regular season back down to 154 games or, better yet, 150. No one is going to miss losing 12 regular season games.

222

In round 1 the lesser team has to win with all 3 games on the road. That seems OK.
But round 2 with 5 games should probably be 4 games for the team with home field advantage. Give them a real advantage. I think that would help even more than a 7 game series.

223

If I’m the weaker team, I’d much prefer less games even if they are on the road because it is a matter of good pitching. You need more pitching depth and a better bullpen for a 7 game series.

224

Classic example this year though. The Yanks from early in the year had a big pitching advantage, but due to a lot of injuries, the Yankees bullpen is now inferior to Cleveland’s.

225

I agree the division series should be 7 games. The Dodgers win 111 games and are ousted in a 5 game series, doesn’t seem right.

226

I agree with 7 game LDS series and a shorter regular season. Let’s bring the overall schedule back so that game 7 of the World Series is played in October, not November. Nobody likes winter baseball. Have we ever had snow flurries during a World Series?

227

Game one in 1979 was canceled in Pittsburg due to snow. So not just flurries.

1997 also had snow flurries in Cleveland of course. Marlins were the visitors.

2008 saw snow in Philly.

etc.

228

Is LDS - League Division Series?

I’m totally fine with the division series being 7 games if the regular season is shorter, and I’m totally fine with the regular season being shorter. The wild card round’s fine at 3 games. You don’t get one of the top two seeds, ya takes your chances.

Here’s my ideal state that could reasonably happen:

  1. Add two new teams.
  2. Each league is just two divisions, East and West.
  3. Play 12 games against divisional opponents, 9 against the other division, no interleague play. (9 is not ideal but oh well.) That’s 156 games.

The TWO division champions gets a bye, which is cleaner than “the two division champs with better records than the third” and makes winning the division an even bigger deal. Then you have four wild cards. Under such a scenario in 2022 - let’s assume our expansion teams are bad teams - your first round byes are the same teams anyway, you’d just get some minor changes in wild card seeding in the NL. Maybe the AL too, I don’t remember who won the season series between Cleveland and Toronto.

My second choice would be expansion by two teams, then 4 4-team divisions. This gives you a pretty clean scheduling approach of 18 games against divisional rivals, 8 against extradivisional teams, for 150 games. I’m all for a shorter regular season (hell, in the NBA and NHL too.) Best two division winners get byes, the other two division winners get total home field advantage for a wild card series.

  1. Extend the division series to 7.
229

Yes, as in ALDS and NLDS.

(If it was a reference to Latter-Day Saints then I’ve been misinterpreting this entire discussion.)

230

I agree that they seem to have our number this season. But I also agree that I’d like the chance to find out. :slight_smile:

I literally laughed out loud!

231

Either that, or you were part of the free-speech movement at Berkeley in the '60s, and did a little too much LDS. :wink:

232

The start of ALDS game 5 is delayed due to weather…technically it’s due to radar, because it isn’t raining in NY yet (but it’s expected to start in 10-15 minutes). The next meeting to discuss the forecast is at 7:45pm.

233

Raining already in nearby Northern Monmouth County. (About 30 miles)

234

And it’s raining there now (8:15). Projected 45-60 minutes of rain, followed by field prep.

TBS is showing some sort of game show I’m not familiar with.

235

It’s now just after 9pm and the delay continues…I have to get up early for work tomorrow, and at this point if they play tonight I don’t think I’ll be able to watch the game. :sob:

(I’ve heard of this Cube show, but I don’t care for it. I keep watching 10-15 minutes of something I’ve recorded on my TiVo, then checking in with both the MLB app and TBS, then watching another 10-15 minutes of something, etc.)

236

My crazy idea:
• make each league 16 teams/4 divisions
• play 102 games, more within the divisons than outside them
• divide each league into laterally-seeded groups based on records
• play 30 games all in the groups
• reseed into vertical groups (typical seeding)
• play 30 more games within qualifying
• send each group-winner to the DSs
• tie-breakers are based on short-series wins

No team is eliminated long before the playoffs begin

237

9:42 p.m. Rained out, to be played tomorrow at 4:07.

238

Good news. I couldn’t have stayed awake for a 10:00 start.

239

I wonder if this will change the pitching match ups.

240

I’m really bummed that the game got rained out, the first really cold day of the year here on top of a horrific day at work made me just want to forget about things. I think I’ll just find a classic game on YouTube before bed