MLB Playoff Changes

The Major League Baseball season is long, slow and long. But let's be honest: by mid-August, only a handful of teams actually have a chance to make the playoffs. Players on non-contending teams go down with mysterious season-ending injuries, attendance suffers, and fans hope their teams lose so they get a better draft pick. Although this is an problem in most sports, it is especially prevalent in baseball. To combat this issue, the playoffs should include more teams, and the regular season less games. Baseball idealists believe cutting back to a 154 game season would destroy the integrity of baseball's most hallowed records. However, steroids have already tainted almost every major record that has been set in the past 48 years since baseball changed to a 162 game season. In fact, many records set before the switch were set during the 154 game season anyway. The biggest advantage to the following proposal is that it makes baseball more exciting, especially in September. This year, there was only one exciting playoff race (Tigers and Twins). It also gives seeding a greater importance, and allows fans to watch what they really want - highly competitive playoff baseball. Anyway, to the playoff proposal:

12 teams - 3 division winners, 3 wild card teams.

What makes the NBA, NHL and NFL playoffs exciting? More teams. Just because one team performs well against an overwhelmingly large number of poor teams does not mean that it deserves a free pass to the World Series. Consider this: what if the Los Angeles Dodgers and Los Angeles Angels played in a division with more than one semi-competitive team? If they played in the AL East, they might not even make the playoffs. This system would force them to play against more quality opponents.

All series are 7 games.

In a 5 game series, teams that do not deserve to win can steal the series by using their top 2 pitchers in games 1,2,4 and 5. If teams want to pull the 2001 Diamondbacks' World Series tactic of overusing their top two pitchers (Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson,) let them. (I must say, that was one of the most emotionally painful baseball series of my life...) With this change, teams like that won't be able to survive multiple 7 game series.

Top 2 teams in each league get home field advantage choice.

As in the NFL, these teams would get a bye. However, their home-field advantage would not be mandated by the MLB; they would get to choose which 4 games they want to play at home. Since home field isn't as big an advantage in baseball as in other sports, there should be a greater reward for higher seeded teams. This could become extremely useful if teams have pitchers who throw better on the road or at home. Teams could schedule home and away games as they please so that their pitchers would have the biggest advantage.