Excellent question. Major League Baseball has undergone plenty of changes over the past years, but they have implemented more changes for the upcoming 2020 season, and have recently proposed a new playoff format. Baseball in 2020 is certainly different than baseball 30 years ago

The MLB feels the needs to change, as the last 12 years have seen a dip in attendance across the league.

Baseball has even introduced new pace of play rules to speed up the length of the games, which is recognized as an issue. From limited mound visits to shortened breaks between innings, Major League Baseball is well, trying.

Current Saga

And all of this at a time when the Houston Astros are under so much scrutiny for their sign stealing scandal. Players across the league have been quite outspoken about the topic, expressing their distaste in the situation, especially none more than the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Dodgers feel the World Series title should be given to them and stripped from the Astros.

So yes, Baseball is a mess right now but is that stopping the continuing adjustments of the game we call America’s Pastime? No, not at all.

New Rules for 2020

The days of bringing in a reliever to face one batter, only to be replaced by another reliever are over, as the MLB has implemented a three batter minimum for pitchers along with a myriad of other changes. This article can be found here.

Among those changes is shortening the time managers have to challenge a play. The new time managers have to challenge is 20 seconds, compared to 30 seconds just a season ago.

Short attention spans?

But why? Have humans developed shorter attention spans over the years? Or is baseball lacking a compelling part of the game that does not interest the viewers?

This article agrees with the latter. The key is being able to evolve the ‘content’ to entice the viewers. In this case baseball games are viewed as a product. So it would appear to be in the MLB’s best interest to evolve the game with time. It is not quite that easy though.

Running from Change

Change is hard. The skeptics and players of today will continue to bash new ideas of trying to fix baseball because in their view, baseball does not need fixing (With the exception of the sign stealing scandal). The players and managers grew up watching baseball and emulated the players and tendencies of their time. So now, all of a sudden with all these changes at hand, everybody panics.

People are scared of change, I am a victim of it too. When you get used to something and have a certain idea of how something is, changing it seems outlandish and unlike the sport. This in a sense ruins the game and what the players play for.

As someone who plays a sport, (tennis) there are talks about shortening the game of tennis, which I disapprove of. Why? I grew up watching tennis a certain way and developed a way of thinking of how it should be played. Now if you were to change it, everything gets thrown off the rails.

New Playoff Format Proposal

So here’s a proposed change in baseball, one that isn’t official yet and it involves a new playoff format. 2 more teams from each league would make the playoffs, making 14 total teams in the playoffs, with one team from each league receiving a bye to the division series. In addition to this, the other division winners would select who they would play in Wild Card weekend.

What? This would supposedly increase fan interest and create more postseason broadcasting opportunities for networks. Check out this article for the entirety of the plan and how some big name players reacted.

It is starting to sound gimmicky if you will. This kind of proposal is where we have to put our foot down.

It would ruin the integrity of the game.

First off, having 14 teams in the playoffs makes 46% of the league a playoff team. (This in comparison to the current 33% of the league.) The problem with this, is that there are not 14 good teams in the league for every postseason. At this point we would just be handing out free postseason berths to teams who do not deserve it.

Having 14 teams make the playoffs makes the 162 game season irrelevant. The point of having 162 games is to separate the great teams from the good teams. The entire point of the playoffs is to see the great teams battle it out, not see good teams play in October. Making the playoffs would be too easy.

Playing baseball in October is supposed to be hard. Making the route to the postseason easier is not the answer baseball is looking for.

Then you want to have teams pick their opponent? From a team standpoint, teams that are selected to face teams will now play with a chip on their shoulders, and give them all something to prove.

It would create a bulletin board material aspect to the wildcard teams who were selected over, and the team who has done the selecting could find themselves out of the playoffs shortly.

While that isn’t necessarily bad, this scenario can easily be avoided. It sounds to me that ‘draft’ of match ups is just a way to gain more viewership at the end of the season. Which would destroy everything baseball has been built on over the last decade.

The playoffs are for a special select amount of great teams, not good ones.

Conclusion

Is baseball wrong for trying to change the game and tinker with different rules to increase interest? Not at all. Whether you have a business or in this case the game of baseball, it is important to evolve with the current times to keep up with the demand of the consumers.

However there comes a point where someone has to put their foot down and stand up for the integrity of the game, and expanding the playoffs would be detrimental to what the game has stood for years. There is a reason to have 162 games, it’s to separate the great from the good. There is no need to be adding good teams to the postseason that do not deserve a playoff spot.

What are your thoughts on this topic? Leave a comment below and thanks for reading!