Will Extending the Playoffs Really Dilute the Regular Season?
by J-Doug on Nov 19, 2010 2:50 PM EST
in Economics of Baseball
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PrintBy far the most common complaint I read regarding Selig's plan to add a second wild card is that it would "dilute the regular season." Personally, I'm suspicious of this argument, and I'll tell you why in a bit. Today, however, I've read two of the more entertaining and cogent posts on the issue. The first comes from Carson Cistulli over at FanGraphs:
For people who possess even the minorest capacity for developing narrative, the playoffs, the World Series, and the winner of same — it’s all irrelevant. Note, please, that this is not the same thing as saying that winning itself is irrelevant. No, winning is an essential goal for players to have. Games wherein the participants are unconcerned about the outcome — well, those aren’t games, at all.
In case you couldn't tell, Carson is against the idea. The second comes from William J. over at TYU:
Honestly, I'm with William J. on this one. I love the regular season narrative, and I love the playoffs too. I've already stated why I think adding playoff teams might be a good idea for baseball. I'm now ready to take a more definitive stance: I do think adding more playoff teams would be good for baseball, just so long as we don't go overboard like the NBA and the NHL.Normally, the idea of diluting the regular season would be abhorrent to me... I am not sure there would be much of a dilution, at least not much greater than what exists now. In fact, if constructed with just a little bit of common sense, an extra wild card might actually return integrity back to the regular season.
The regular season is not sacrosanct. I understand that there are plenty of people who don't want to mess with it, and there's a vocal group who would like an even shorter season. But let's remember that adding playoff spots keeps more teams in contention deeper into the season. For these teams, the regular season becomes significantly more important than it would be otherwise. Sure, adding two teams might not have an overwhelming effect, but it would have an effect--a positive one--nonetheless.
Add to this the number of teams that would invest more resources into gambling for a shot at October, and I believe a small expansion of the playoffs could have a very positive impact on baseball--including the regular season.
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Great post. I'll add / minimize / clarify:
1. The post-season is already a crap shoot, this will indeed make it more of one.
2. The regular season is already the better way to determine the best teams.
3. Extending the post season will make the post-season more of a crap shoot and the regular season even more important.
4. And both (regular and post) will be more exciting because of it.
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Can't really disagree with any of that.
I respect point #2 a great deal, and the people who hold that point of view. Personally, however, I don’t care. It’s not always about picking the best team. If the best team won the World Series every year, I would find it exceedingly boring. I don’t want to live in a sports world where the SF Giants (we can argue whether they were the best or not) couldn’t have won the World Series this year.
Nor, for that matter, would I want to live in a world where the NY Giants couldn’t beat the 18-0 Patriots in the 2007-08 Super Bowl.
Blogger and Editor, Rational Pastime Blog. Twitter: @RationalPastime.
That's kinda my point.
The people that are worried about finding the best team should already be referring to the regular season, and thus their arguments about the post-season being diluted are irrelevant. Or rather, further irrelevant.
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Definitely agree with those points.
I started off against this idea, but I’m slowly coming around to it. Thinking about this past season, it would have made the AL Wild Card race a lot more exciting, as the Rays and Yankees were basically battling it out for that slot for the remainder of the season. If there was another WC team, Boston and Chicago would have been battling it out right until the end.
Of course, it would have put a lot less pressure on the Rays…taken some of the drama out of the season. I have a feeling I’ll enjoy this change now that the Rays won’t be quite as good, but selfishly I’m really glad Boston didn’t make the playoffs this year.
I love Casey Fossum. Now try and take me seriously.
by Steve Slowinski on Nov 19, 2010 3:55 PM EST up reply actions
If there's another wild card, maybe the Jays go all in on Halladay's last year instead of trading him
Then what happens?
They're not just hitting home runs. They're doing the little things, like hitting doubles.
162 game season makes any post season kind of moot
I’d like to see a 140 game schedule (at the expense of interleague); more scheduled double-headers (day-night if necessary); expanded playoffs ( format is problematic) and a best of 9 WS.
Fewer teams
The fewer teams that are in the postseason, the less of a ‘crapshoot" it becomes. Adding more teams simply disguises the bigger problem, and that is that Major League Baseball needs to get the financial situation straightened out. They want teams with less money/less talent to be given more of a shot, but all it is doing is creating “false hope” in the eyes of anyone who knows baseball. Sure the regular season is much more meaningful. And it will become a lot less meaningful for the top teams who are well ahead of the 5 or 6 seed at seasons end. They could have basically a month of close to meaningless games, if they were to expand. This is the worst idea Bud Selig has ever proposed, and it will make the game a lot less appealing. He needs to be replaced, and there needs to be some kind of cap, so that you don’t need extra playoff spots to make up for the “financial inequalities” that currently exist.
by goeaglesxxxix on Nov 19, 2010 6:37 PM EST reply actions 1 recs
Your last point, to me, is the key one.
Add to this the number of teams that would invest more resources into gambling for a shot at October, and I believe a small expansion of the playoffs could have a very positive impact on baseball—including the regular season.
As the fan of a small market team, we don’t get many shots. The ‘99 Cincinnati Reds team, which lost a one game playoff to the Mets thanks to Al Leiter, were the last shot we had until 2010. I like the idea of making one more chance available for teams to get into the postseason. If nothing else, for purely selfish reasons—I’d like to see my team in the playoffs more often. Yes, I really am that shallow.
I also like the idea of making the wild card teams “work for it.” Hopefully the scheduling would be such that most wild card teams would find their rotations screwed up for the division series, etc. It certainly would make teams like the Rays/Yankees battle that much harder for the division title—no one wants to subject themselves to a one-game or three-game series if you can avoid it. Far too much of a crapshoot. Wild card teams will still win it all, but it will be a more stressful road than it is now.
-j
I write at:
Beyond the Boxscore | Red Reporter | Basement-Dwellers.com | Twitter: @jinazreds
I think it's all about wanting to see your team in the playoffs more often
Within reason, of course. Hard to prove, but to me this is a major stumbling block for competitive balance in the MLB. Thanks for the small market perspective.
Blogger and Editor, Rational Pastime Blog. Twitter: @RationalPastime.
It’s my opinion that Baseball has the best playoff system in sports. I’d much rather see the schedule balanced a little more, less off days in October, and the DS expanded to 7 games. I really hate the idea of a team that is 3-7 (or more) games behind in the Wild Card being able to erase that deficit by winning 2 out of 3 games. THAT would cheapen the regular season for me.
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