Increased good teams chance of making the playoffs. Lowered the great teams chances of winning the World Series.
Yep. And if they have the playoffs in a neutral site, there won't even be a home field advantage (not that its critical in baseball as is).
WE'RE GOING TO THE WORLD SERIES IN ARLINGTON! @TWS1986 From the start of summer training camp, players have made sacrifices to play through the COVID-19 pandemic. For the postseason, Major League Baseball wants them to make at least one more. As part of a plan to help players avoid infection, the league has informed the Players Association that it wants contenders playing at home the final week of the regular season to lock down in hotels, according to sources familiar with the discussions. The idea of such a quarantine would be for players to get through the thick of the incubation period for COVID-19 before the expanded playoffs begin. The league is weighing whether to stage the best-of-three wild-card round in teams’ home parks and then move to controlled, bubble-like environments or enter bubbles from the outset. Either way, players would stand the best chance of reducing their chance of infection by leaving their families and residences and isolating in hotels as the regular season draws to a close, league officials and scientific experts say. “If you’re going home to your family, you’re at risk,” a person with knowledge of the situation says. “Even if you do everything right, you can’t control what the people you live with are doing.” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the incubation period for the virus is thought to extend to 14 days, with a median time of four to five days from exposure to the onset of symptoms. The league is awaiting input from the union on the lockdown concept and how families might fit into postseason bubbles, sources say. The union, which negotiated a $50 million bonus pool for the players and has worked closely with the league on health and safety protocols, is thought to be open to any ideas that will help avoid outbreaks of the virus and ensure the completion of the postseason. One postseason plan under discussion, according to sources, is for the American League playoffs to be played at two of the three parks in Southern California: Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, Angel Stadium of Anaheim and Petco Park in San Diego. The National League playoffs would take place at the two parks in Texas: Minute Maid Park in Houston and Globe Life Field in Arlington. The World Series likely would be in Arlington to help MLB and Fox Sports maximize television ratings from the Central time zone. Other regions still might draw consideration. No plan will be final until it receives ownership approval. And for now, the sites for the wild-card round remain an open question. The advantage of playing the round at home parks would be to cut in half, from 16 to eight, the number of teams that would end up in bubbles. The more people who enter a bubble, the more difficult the environment is to control. If a lockdown for the final week of the regular season was in effect, contenders either would finish on the road or by simulating a road trip at home, then continue in that mode for the entirety of the postseason. Such a plan would make it more feasible to play the wild-card round in home parks. The best-of-threes already are set to take place entirely at the home of the higher seed, requiring the visiting team to take only one flight to play the series. No matter where the league chooses to play the wild-card round, the current plan is for the Division Series, League Championship Series and World Series all to be played in bubbles. During the postseason, players will be tested every day for COVID-19, sources say; during the regular season, they are tested every other day. The goal is to get through the postseason without the type of outbreaks the Marlins and Cardinals experienced earlier in the regular season. Players always deal with elevated pressure in the playoffs. In this season of COVID-19, the sacrifices they make just to play in October might need to be greater, too.
if they are going to a neutral site and eliminating travel, they should go back to a best of 5 minimum for every round. Reduce the randomness, especially with more teams in.
No, fewer games = more randomness, at least IMO. In a best of 3 series, you drop game 1, no more room for error. In a 7 game series, you drop game 1, no biggie, could have just been "one of those days" and there's 6 more left.
right. They start with best of 3 now. I’m saying make all minimum best of 5. Best of 7 should stay that way.
I am watching GM1 of Mets vs NYY, and after 6, Mets up by 5 in a 7 inning game. So, I went to watch Rangers/Dodgers. Later I look at the scoreboard and the Mets lost . I think I am more angry about that game than any one of the Rockets losses. How can we ever be rid of those smug, callas Yankees when teams fall on their sword when they have the game won? Yea, yea, yea, its baseball, it happens. Screw that! Mad
