New Playoff Structure, two different takes from same playoffs.

[Trov]

This is the first year under the new structure.  Like it or hate it, it is hear to stay.  I have seen comments about how it is terrible because it is taking away from the regular season, which the more you expand playoffs that will always be the case.  Back before the wild card era, we had 2 teams from each league make it, and sometimes the divisions were heavy to one side or the other.  This still would happen with wild card, but then that good second team would have a chance.  Then we added a second wild card, because the Twins had to good 163 games in short order, so why not have a mandatory one right? 

Now we have 3 wild card teams, all for more money for teams because playoff TV deals are worth a ton.  With the top 2 division teams getting byes some speculated if the break would hurt those teams.  Then in the NL, the wild card teams won their series against the teams that got the bye.  Many fans said see this is not right.  Both the Padres and Phillies won in 4.  Now the Phillies, the 3rd wild card team has advanced to WS, and they faced off against the 2nd WC team.  We can speculate if it was Phillies and Padres being hot because they had to fight for the playoffs, where the Braves, who did fight for the bye, or Dodgers were coasting and got the bye, which led to WC winning.  However, when you look at the AL everything was different.

In the AL we have Houston, who coasted to the number 1 seed, and has yet to lose a game.  They have both come from behind late in games, and lead the whole way.  They were on the ropes against Seattle, in first couple games, but made the come backs and won.  The Yankees were down 2-1, but made it to the ALCS, only to be swept.  So Houston, clearly the best team in the AL did not have clear issue with bye, although, they were on the ropes early, Had those games went other way maybe we have a WC team from AL as well.  

Can we draw anything from this first year of playoffs, other than that a baseball series is always hard to predict, and the best team does not always win?  Should we, as fans, demand a smaller playoffs with longer series to help have the better team win?  Should we get rid of byes so not team gets rusty? Should we leave it be for a few years and adjust if needed? 

[Vanimal46]

I don’t think there’s anything to conclude from the first year of this playoff format. Baseball playoffs are always random… more random than the other 3 major sports. That’s the beauty of it. Chip, chair, and a chance. Philly got hot at the right time.