I was thinking about how well the NFL was setup and I was wondering if we could apply some of the things that they are doing right to the MLB. Here are some thoughts:
1. Balance each league. 16 teams in each league. Two new teams would need to be introduced.
2. Move to four divisions with North/South/East/West. Let's figure out who goes where.
NL
=====================
North
===========
Chicago
Milwaukee
Cincinnati
xxxxxxxx
South
===========
St. Louis
Houston
Atlanta
Florida
East
===========
Pittsburgh
New York
Washington
Philadelphia
West
==========
Colorado
San Diego
Arizona
San Francisco
AL
===================
North
===========
Detroit
Cleveland
Minnesota
Chicago
South
===========
Tampa Bay
Kansas City
Texas
Dodgers
East
===========
New York
Boston
Toronto
Baltimore
West
===========
Angels
Oakland
Seattle
xxxxxxx
This leaves us with two spots open. Also note, these divisions aren't as territorial as I would like, but the NFL ones aren't super strict either. I would recommend that a team be created in Las Vegas for the American League because purity and integrity are absent from both and it is a great locale. The other team for the NL is a bit of a question mark. Perhaps Indianapolis? Thoughts here are welcome.
3. Now that the teams are decided, move the playoff system to six teams (two wild card) and seed each team by regular season record with the highest seed getting a bye. The first round should be a best of three series.
4. Take away home field advantage from the All-Star game and go back to the every other year switch that it used to be.
5. Other fixes would be to revamp the schedules to put even more focus on divisional importance and decrease the number of interleague games or make the interleague more like the NFL.
Does this work?
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Omaha Nebraska?
ReplyDeleteThe Nebarska Cornholers win the NL north division title!
ReplyDeleteI think the MLB playoffs and world series could be reengineered such that it created more buzz and excitement.
ReplyDeleteIn every other sport people who don't watch regular season play watch the playoffs, at least when there is a good enough story. The Tampa Bay Rays were a huge story, and the ratings were terrible.
I think that more teams and less games per series would cause more excitement.
I do not know how owners would respond to those proposed changes.
I do think you system does make those changes.
I don't think there should be a bye week. It's baseball, you gotta be out there everyday.
ReplyDeleteAlso, 3 game playoff is rediculous.
I think Steinberg has to expand.
ReplyDeleteI also think that you may be trying to fix what ain't broke.
Uber-Agent Scott Boras wants to increase the World Series from 7 games to 9 games. That is interesting. What about instead of home field advantage, they changed stadiums every game and went to a new place for each game that way there would be at least 4 games and hopefully they could be across the country to draw new people in. Am I high?
ReplyDeleteYou are high. Home field advantage should go to whatever team has a better regular season win %. They should keep it at 7, but play 2-2-1-1-1. But that could be a lot of travel.
ReplyDeleteI think rob is right.
"I also think that you may be trying to fix what ain't broke."
I think the diesel is meeting the fur with this one.
ReplyDeleteI think that the idea behind more games is that it adjusts for luck as everything reverts to the mean. This makes sense in concept, but in America you have to have playoffs, and anytime you have playoffs you are introducing luck. You are not making a real judgement about who was the best team throughout the season, you are letting teams battle it out for a trophy.
ReplyDeleteWhat I am saying is, you know which team was better during October, not throughout the whole season.