Call to the pen
Fansided

2 extreme MLB postseason format ideas to shake up the league

By Colton Stewart

People line up for a photo with the 2021 Braves baseball World Series Championship Trophy at the Anderson University Softball Complex Wednesday July 27, 2022. The trophy is scheduled for 151 stops in the Southeast, commemorating 151 years of Braves baseball. The World Champions Trophy Tour Presented by Truist will travel throughout Braves Country, featuring locations in Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, South Carolina, and North Carolina, according to Braves officials.Braves Championship Trophy Tour Stops In Anderson
People line up for a photo with the 2021 Braves baseball World Series Championship Trophy at the Anderson University Softball Complex Wednesday July 27, 2022. The trophy is scheduled for 151 stops in the Southeast, commemorating 151 years of Braves baseball. The World Champions Trophy Tour Presented by Truist will travel throughout Braves Country, featuring locations in Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, South Carolina, and North Carolina, according to Braves officials.Braves Championship Trophy Tour Stops In Anderson /
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The 1968 Detroit Tigers World Series championship team is highlighted at Town Peddler.Img 1150
The 1968 Detroit Tigers World Series championship team is highlighted at Town Peddler.Img 1150 /

For the first, we revert to the playoffs before 1969 and have the top team in each league go straight to the World Series.

Not only would this lean into the traditionalist’s idea of the game, but I feel it could give the regular season more meaning each month. Teams would have to treat the whole season like the playoffs to make the postseason and potentially win the World Series.

I am unsure if this would make competitive balance worse or better. On the one hand, teams would have to try much more to make the postseason rather than making it from a wild card spot to the Fall Classic on a hot streak. Teams would have to put a solid effort out every year to try and even taste the postseason, and I think that would be very interesting to see.

However, it might be hard to incentivize owners to spend money with such little chance of winning a championship, but I feel it could work out more as time goes on. Other organizations wouldn’t want teams like the Los Angeles Dodgers to go out and have a lineup full of All-Stars like they do, so they would push harder to get better players on their teams.

I do not believe that something like this would ever happen. MLB would be throwing away all the extra revenue they make from playoff television deals and merchandise. However, I think this could drive up regular season interest, increasing the value of those deals for local markets and even nationally towards the end of the season.

It could also drive more fan interest throughout the seasons with tighter races between multiple teams. Even at the beginning of the season, if they offer contests and betting to see who will be the top team in each league, which could be great for casual fans.

To incorporate this type of format, they would have to operate the schedule differently to ensure it is an even playing field of every team going against each other fairly regularly rather than playing most games in the division.

But even looking back to the 2021 season, seeing the Dodgers and San Francisco Giants fight it out for the final spot to lead into the world series would be an incredible viewing experience.

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