Playoffs expanded to 16 teams

[A. Cavatica]

It should be pretty easy to finish above .500 and make the playoffs, assuming the season lasts that long.

And sending Madrigal down for a week to retain a whole year of service time looks a little smarter now.

[thomas35forever]

I hate it. Manfred was pushing for this even before the shutdown, and now, he's getting exactly what he wants. You know he'll use this to make it a permanent thing down the road. What a joke.

[A. Cavatica]

I hate it. Manfred was pushing for this even before the shutdown, and now, he's getting exactly what he wants. You know he'll use this to make it a permanent thing down the road. What a joke.

I agree. Manfred has been awful on all counts.

[TDog]

Manfred is making it increasingly easier for me to ignore major league baseball.

[voodoochile]

Details on the format:

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/m...n-per-reports/

[Frater Perdurabo]

I can’t believe they would do something like this. How can I watch this many playoff games from my stagecoach, whilst wearing a monocle.

[TDog]

I can’t believe they would do something like this. How can I watch this many playoff games from my stagecoach, whilst wearing a monocle.

How can I respect a respect a sport that would crown a champion with a .500 regular-season record? The postseason isn't a tournament. The postseason is where the teams that have distinguished themselves as elite vie for a championship. If you want to cheapen the title, you can expand the playoffs. Allow for trades after mid-season to further distance the team's achievements in relation to their postseason tournament performance. While you're at it, you can mess with the checks and balances of the game to inflate the offense and make arbitrary changes to speed up the game when the changes you've made slow the game down.

If you want a more random World Series that doesn't crown a deserved season champion, by all means, expand the playoffs.

[vegandork]

How can I respect a respect a sport that would crown a champion with a .500 regular-season record? The postseason isn't a tournament. The postseason is where the teams that have distinguished themselves as elite vie for a championship. If you want to cheapen the title, you can expand the playoffs. Allow for trades after mid-season to further distance the team's achievements in relation to their postseason tournament performance. While you're at it, you can mess with the checks and balances of the game to inflate the offense and make arbitrary changes to speed up the game when the changes you've made slow the game down.

If you want a more random World Series that doesn't crown a deserved season champion, by all means, expand the playoffs.

If the White Sox win the series this year and benefit from this format, will you still cry foul?

[Nellie Fox]

If the White Sox win the series this year and benefit from this format, will you still cry foul?

It depends on what their regular season record is. If they only get into the playoffs because of expansion, then yes, I'll reject it.

[TDog]

If the White Sox win the series this year and benefit from this format, will you still cry foul?

Yes, of course I would. Any team that would benefit from this format, that would need this format to make the postseason, would fail to get respect as a World Series champion. Last year the Cubs had the 15th best record in baseball, eighth best record in the National League. Without breaking out if they specifically would have made the expanded postseason, they obviously didn't belong in the postseason. More NL teams finished ahead of them than behind them, and, really, they were brutal in September. It's ridiculous to throw such a mediocre team into the mix for the Championship. And the Mets and Diamondbacks weren't much better. That any of these teams remained in contention for a wild card play-in opportunity spoke to the overall poor quality of baseball last season. Of course, it's possible people would celebrate the "Cinderella" Cubs winning after spending the summer showing the world they just weren't very good. The White Sox wouldn't have that glamorous aura to pull that off. They barely get begrudging respect for going wire-to-wire in the regular season, finishing with the league's best record, and going 11-1 in the postseason.

If you believed your team was good enough to make the World Series, you should be opposed to postseason expansion. If the White Sox benefited from this format, if but for this format they wouldn't make the postseason, the championship would be meaningless but for the fleeting enjoyment of a few White Sox fans and the rest of the world would tell them they didn't deserve it. The teams that have any business playing for the season championship aren't so far behind the division winners. The season tells you some teams are on a different levels than others. There is no reason to add a bunch of what will become low-rated postseason games. Expanding the postseason to 16 teams -- more than half o Major League Baseball -- is akin to an affirmative action program for bad baseball teams to get a chance to get to the World Series.

[Frater Perdurabo]

Ok, fine. If the Sox finish .500 but make the playoffs, get hot, and win it all, you can go sulk in your parlors, clutching your pearls, and yelling at the kids to get off your lawns. The rest of us will watch and it and enjoy it.

I’m just happy baseball is back, the Sox have a promising young team, and that T-Mobile/Sprint gave me MLBTV for free so I can watch on my phone.

I’m an historian, so I appreciate the past. And yes, some things were better in the past. And some things are terrible now. COVID is terrible. The universal DH, and a more inclusive and random postseason tournament, are not.

[PaleHoseGeorge]

Please save your outrage for a topic worthy of it. It's a one-off season -- and it never could have been anything different.

Regardless of playoff format this 60-game sprint was never going to resemble a normal baseball season. Enjoy the spectacle and dream of better days ahead. Because surely they're coming.

[PaleHoseGeorge]

It depends on what their regular season record is. If they only get into the playoffs because of expansion, then yes, I'll reject it.

You're over 50 years late with this particular complaint. The last true championship playoff was 1968. Pretenders have been getting into the postseason ever since. Even worse the unbalanced schedules make the pretenders seem real too.

Two leagues send two champions. One team wins.

[Chez]

I don't like the expanded playoff model. I don't like the new-fangled extra inning rule. I don't like the three batter minimum rule for relievers. But maybe Manfred agrees with the previous observations made by multiple posters about baseball's declining popularity and is experimenting (in a unique season) with new ideas to increase the game's popularity -- especially among the younger generations. If baseball's declining popularity is a real thing, then to not experiment with new changes designed to increase the game's popularity could be construed as ostrich-like behavior (not to be confused with Osich-like behavior ).

[HomeFish]

The White Sox are now favored to make the playoffs:

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/instagra...odds-are-here/