Master Index of Archived Threads


A's owner suggests making first round of playoffs one game

metirish Nov 19 2008 11:17 AM

If I remember "Moneyball" correctly Billy Beane wanted the first round to be best of seven , he called the post-season a "crapshoot". ] NEW YORK -- Lew Wolff has a way to shorten baseball's postseason: Make the first round best-of-one. "I'd make it one-game-and-you're-out for the first series," the Oakland Athletics owner said Wednesday. "It would be exciting. It would be great." Begun in 1995, the division series has been a best-of-five competition. Some people have advocated it be expanded to best-of-seven, matching the league championship series and the World Series. Baseball commissioner Bud Selig has repeatedly said he favors the current format. Wolff said he hasn't brought up his concept with Selig. "No, I'm afraid to do that," he said. Under the current format, Game 7 of the World Series wouldn't be until Nov. 5 next year. Selig said during this year's World Series that the postseason has too many off days, but shortening it appears to be impossible if Major League Baseball sticks to having the World Series start on a Wednesday, a schedule that began in 2007. On other matters, Wolff said he's inclined to keep newly acquired outfielder Matt Holliday for the entire season, even if he becomes a free agent next November and leaves the A's. "I'd rather take the two draft choices than lose him in the middle of the season," Wolff said. Holliday, obtained from Colorado, is represented by Scott Boras, who advocates that clients not sign contracts before filing for free agency. Wolff said that in preparing for an amateur draft, he noticed that certain prospective picks were on "one board with different colored cards." "What is that?" he asked his baseball operations employees. The answer, he said, was: "Scott Boras clients." I'll say right now that I don't like the one game playoff at all.

Edgy DC Nov 19 2008 11:22 AM

I think they should have a one-game season. Imagine the excitement, with everything at stake, all the chips on the table. My God!

John Cougar Lunchbucket Nov 19 2008 11:33 AM

I like one-game play-in only if they added a second wild card. The very crapshootiness of it would give xtra incentive to go for the division, plus give the division winner a tiny freshness advantage in the next (first) round.

Benjamin Grimm Nov 19 2008 11:54 AM

Yeah, there's no way a team that wins its division by ten games should be able to be eliminated in a single playoff game. I don't understand the reference to World Series "Game 7" however. Weren't those things abolished years ago?

Gwreck Nov 19 2008 03:36 PM

Any sort of contraction of the playoffs is generally a good idea. Adding teams, rounds or lengthening series is generally a bad idea. That being said, one game playoffs are too short. I suppose a best 2-of-3 would be interesting, but a 1-2 stacking of games is unfair; and 1-1-1 takes too much time. My preferred change for the first round would give best-record team a 2-1-2 series against the wild card team, and to play the wild card team, even if they were from the same division.

Nymr83 Nov 19 2008 04:52 PM

I'd hate to shorten the already too short 5 game series. The shorter a series is the more likely the lesser team will win it, or the team with the best 1 or 2 starters will win it instead of the team with the more balanced rotation. I'd rather see the first round expanded to 7 games, with an appropriate penalty for the wild card team (less home games being the best one I can think of.) But if you're going to add games to the playoffs you need to cut days somewhere, whether its travel days during the playoffs or days during the regular season (156 game schedule or scheduled doubleheaders on 3 home dates for each team.) The regular season needs to end by about September 25th every year, not October 3rd.

Benjamin Grimm Nov 19 2008 05:18 PM

Since baseball is the only sport I watch, I'm not in favor of reducing the number of games in a season. (Although I do wish that 2007 and 2008 had 145-game schedules.) I'd go with fewer travel days and/or in-season doubleheaders. Or this: Start the season earlier, scheduling as many early season games as possible in warm-weather or domed locations. Playing colder-weather games in the start of the season isn't as bad as doing it in the important games of the year, the LCS and World Series. I do agree that the LDS might as well be seven games. Series without the wild card team would be 2-3-2 and the series that does have the wild card team could be 3-1-3 or 3-2-2.

Nymr83 Nov 19 2008 06:38 PM

They already try to fool around with the early season schedule, but they end up with sunny skies in Cleveland while the Indians are playing in Texas and snow in the 2nd week when the Indians come home. I think they just shouldn't worry about weather in April, theres plenty of time to make games up.

Frayed Knot Nov 19 2008 08:16 PM

Any suggestions that either reduces the playoffs or lessens the home gate by subtracting reg season games or adding DHs is a non-starter. The thing with baseball's "problem" of the post-season going too long is that it's entirely self-inflicted. Bud and the networks lengthened them just last year and as long as they're going to put extra days-off into the mix they've got no right to complain if the weather blows up on them. The Phils had 17 off days during their 14 game run to the title. As far as the format, I always liked the double-WC one-game play-in system. After that the home field question matters less (HF is a vastly overblown "advantage" anyway) because you've already thrown the biggest obstacle in the way of the WC team. Then I'm all for making the first round be 5 games straight (it's not like teams don't play that way all year) and make it a simple 2-3 format to cut down on travel. MLB is afraid that bunching the games like that kills the TV ratings but they're probably losing them anyway as the whole post-season loses momentum from spreading the games out so long. Blow out all those off-days and and it would knock a week off the time needed even with the extra play-in game.