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THE CURRENT (NEW) FORMAT OF THE MLB PLAYOFFS WHICH INCLUDES THE WILD CARD BEST-OF-3 SERIES HAS DEEP FLAWS TO MOST FRANCHISES INVOLVED.  PLEASE SEE MY THOUGHTS BELOW ON HOW TO FIX ALL ISSUES. 

1. The fact that the MLB has 4 WC games played in 2 (or 3) days is insulting to 1/2 the clubs. Why do I say insulting? Well if you play the rigorous 162 game season and reach the playoffs, your franchise’s players, coaches and fans deserves 2 rewards (beyond a cool t-shirt by Fanatics, and a champagne bath in your clubhouse the day of your playoff clinch).

Reward A – The chance to be showcased on national TV in a primetime slot (6:00-8:00pm ET).

Reward B – If it is a Wild Card series, each team deserves at least 1 home game which allows for fair play and home field advantage for the 4th seed (or in this case, 3rd seed in the current format).

(Pause on this for one second—I want to make clear that any outcome is possible in a short series even when balancing home games.)

[jumping back to Reward A]

It can be argued just this week: IF The Tampa Bay Rays played in a primetime spot rather than a lonely midday on a Tuesday/Wednesday, their fans may have made more of an effort to show up in St. Petersburg and may have drawn out 24k-30k attendance instead of 14k-16k. The larger crowd of the fans may have fed the Rays players MORE energy. By having primetime games it allows unknown small-market players like Pablo Lopez & rookie Royce Lewis to introduce themselves and their teams to a possible audience of 3-10 million viewers instead of the average 2.25 million that thr 8 games did this past week, or the 2.28 million in 2022 (according to sportsmediawatch.com).  

Going back to Reward B…It would have been nice for the 5th seeded Marlins to get a home game for the first time in 20 years. Would it have made a difference? No, BUT it would have been nice for the Miami players to hear LOANDEPOT PARK at its loudest. A playoff home game in our market would help grow the game in South Florida. THE MARLINS being able to sell early priority playoff seating to those who sign up for the next year’s Marlins Membership (season ticket packages) for a friendly return for early playoff priority. This also while giving a whole new generation of fans the chance to experience the electricity of at least one guarenteed playoff game. I am using the Marlins as an example but same can be said for Arizona who did not make the playoffs since 2017.

(Remember I said the current postseason setup has flaws? Well here is the other.) 

2. The almost week off from baseball for the two top seeds in each league is detrimental to the game. Yes, rest for players is nice but how much rest is too much rest? Look at 2022 the Atlanta Braves got ran over by the Phillies, who were really hot due to the wild card round. Same thing with the Padres over the Los Angeles Dodgers. If you look at Saturday’s Division Series games, three of the teams that had long breaks lost game one.

My point is that the long breaks are not competitively fair for the one and two seeds. It is hard for a team to remain hot and ready at the highest level when they are icing themselves due to the long wild card round wait for opponents. Consider this “Wild Card break” is the longest rest for any team all season long from Spring Training game one on. This is even longer rest then most players have during the All-Star break known as the Midsummer Classic.

I know you’re probably anxious to see how I have fixed it so here we go (in a deep announcer voice: THE FOLLOWING IS THE IDEA, BASED ON THE REGULAR SEASON AND ALL TIEBREAKERS AFFIRM THE SEEDINGS)

THE MLB ELIMINATES THE NEW WILD CARD SERIES ROUND. IT IS REPLACED WITH THE A WILD CARD PLAY IN MINI TOURNAMENT.

Consider the regular season ends on a Sunday.   

FIRST RULE: AL/NL GAMES in the Postseason are TO BE PLAYED IN PRIME TIME. Starting times are 6:08pm & 8:38pm.

SCHEDULING FOR GAMES FOR BOTH AL & NL

MONDAY: 6 seed travels to 5 seed to play in A ONE GAME ELIMINATION for the opportunity to play the 4th seed tomorrow for the Wild Card.  
-WINNER IMMEDIATELY TRAVELS TO 4th SEEDS CITY.

TUESDAY:  4th seed HOSTS winner of 5/6 seed game to play a ONE GAME ELIMINATION for the Opportunity to play number one seed.
-THE WINNER MOVES ON TO PLAY THE 1 SEED IN THE DIVISION SERIES ON THURSDAY. 

REMEMBER THE ISSUES ADDRESSED? THE ABOVE WC mini tournament HAS NOW SOLVED THE 1st Problem (well part a and part b—6th seed does not get a home game, but Wild Card 4/5 do).

Prime time is fixed: ALL teams get prime time television and 2 of 3 wild card teams get a home game making the 4th and 5th seed MORE meaningful, mainly the 4th seed because you only have to play ONE wild card game in your HOME park. 

“BUT WAIT WHAT ABOUT THE LONG LAYOFFS FOR THE 1 & 2 SEEDS?!? I promise the tournament also solved the number 2 issue, which was the issues with time off for top seeds. 

HOW? 

Well remember I said the Wild Card tourney winner’s DIVISION SERIES STARTS THURSDAY (giving the wildcard team a much deserved day off before an actual series)? WEDNESDAY can be the start of the Division Series between the 2/3 seeds in each league! This means no 6 days off between the end of the regular season and game 1 of the DS & means every day has POSTSEASON BASEBALL! All games get featured in prime time between games the 3 Wild Card winners, and now all the seeds and their fans get a respectable playing time where the league can showcase their deserving stars! 

🎤 🫳🏼 LMF HAS FIXED MLB’S #POSTSEASON. This would be the best for baseball, great for TV, no days wasted off.

Thank you for reading.

Photo by MediaNews Group/Pasadena Star-news