MLB is contemplating taking a March Madness approach to its playoffs beyond 2020. March Madness works for several reasons - the Cinderella aspect is particularly great for college kids - but a big reason is that it has a regular season that's about 1/6th the length of MLB.
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And another big issue -- because of the nature of the sport, there's nearly a 0% chance a top seed will be eliminated in the first round. The most typical upset is in a 5-12 game, but the 5s are never the best teams in the country.
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The NCAA is pulling its 68 teams from a field of what, 200 or 300 or more? Even with such a big tourney field, it's not like half the NCAA teams make it. So the bottom seeds have their "nothing to lose" game, but for the most part they're gone by the Sweet 16.
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When you have 30 MLB teams (someday 32, I guess) playing a 162-game season (or a few games less if they reduce), you have no business putting the champions of that season in real jeopardy of losing to sub-500 team in round 1.
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Baseball is far different from basketball or other sports in terms of what can happen in any given game. If the need/desire for profits compels multiple playoff rounds, you *must* account for that difference. Otherwise, any claim to integrity is shot.
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I'm against expanded playoffs. But if these are to be a reality, I plead with MLB not to make the regular season irrelevant. It's already been undermined, but extending the 2020 plan into future years could be truly destructive.
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Possibilities are home-field advantage for all games, requiring the lowest seeds to sweep a series rather than win a best-of series, first-round byes and more. Again, best not to expand the playoffs, but if you must, please do it with some minimal amount of common sense.
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