Frank Firke at The Hardball Times thinks outside the box about the MLB schedule and playoff structure. I really like this kind of article, as it tries to incorporate a number of tried (balanced schedule) and untried (relegation) fixes.
One of the strengths attributed to Bud Selig was his ability to get the owners to reach a consensus before making a change. Bud required all the owners to be on board. The downside to that was the solution to scheduling always seemed to be, “Let’s do what the NFL does.”* I doubt Selig ever sat down with the owners and said, “Let’s agree to think outside the box about scheduling, and come up with three proposals.”
Of course, the owners don’t take kindly to change, either. When Selig wanted a realignment, his team, the Brewers, was the only one willing to change leagues. Selig finally got six five-team divisions by holding the sale of the Astros hostage to the move.
Rob Manfred seems to be more open to new ideas, or at least having them discussed in public forums. Personally, I like the idea of shuffling the divisions each year so that it is tougher for teams to repeat, and easier for other second division clubs to make the playoffs. Adding the second wild card appears to have caused more team to think about winning in the current year, rather than throwing in the towel early. A mixing system that put five poor teams in the same division would encourage those teams to build now, since they each would see the possibility of making the playoffs.
*The NFL, however, is much more pro-active in adjusting the game. They tinker with the placement of the hash marks, the yard line for kick offs, the distance of a field goal, when the quarterback is considered sacked, all designed to keep the average score of a game at 42 points.
from baseballmusings.com http://ift.tt/1OmOIjo
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