Do The MLB Playoffs Need To Be Changed?

The talk around major league baseball these days, mostly from Pirate and Cub fans, is the need to revamp the current playoff system to make it more "fair".

As it stands today, the Pirates and Cubs, the two wild card teams in the National League, will face off in a one game play-in to see who gets to continue on in the playoffs. These two teams have the 2nd and 3rd best records in the league, both records better than either the Mets and Dodgers, the Division Champions of the East and West. Alas, the rules were set up this way to give one more team a chance at the World Series.

Some call the current system a watered down version of what a World Series should be about, a wild card team with a low won/loss record can become the World Champs. We need to face reality. The only way to ensure that the best two regular season teams reach the World Series is to go back to, dare I say, the way it was when the winner of the American League faced the winner of the National League in the World Series. That will never happen again. Money, read TV contracts and additional gate receipts, has changed that forever.

My take on the playoff system is this. If the wild card is the best way, let's take the example of the NBA and take the eight teams with the best records and seed them accordingly. The plan I propose would have a best-of-three 1st round with the #1 seed taking on the #8 seed and so forth with all three games played in the ballpark of the team with the better record.

With single travel days between games of a series and playoff rounds, the World Series would still be decided within 31 days from the start of the first round.

To accomplish my idea, three teams would have to be added to the current format.

The National League has the controversy this year so I'll use them for my example. As it stands now the Cardinals, Pirates and Cubs all have better records then the Mets or Dodgers. Add the Giants, Nationals and the Diamondbacks to the playoffs to make an eight team playoff.

The teams would be seeded like this: Cardinals #1, Pirates #2, Cubs #3, Mets #4, Dodgers #5, Giants #6, Nationals #7 and the Diamondbacks #8. Yes, the Diamondbacks are under .500 but this can happen and must be allowed for the format to work.

The 1st round would be a best-of-three, all in the stadium of he team with the better regular season record. One would hope this scenario would keep all eight teams fighting to win the most games possible. This would also give the team with the better record a decided advantage.

One travel day would be allowed between the last game of the season an the start of the playoffs. The games in my fictitious playoff would begin on the 4th of October. The 1st round would be played on consecutive days. All teams, in both leagues would begin and end on the same days.

Television would have 6 regional games and 2 national games to broadcast on each day.

After completion of the 1st round on the 6th of October, or a day earlier if the series is won in 2 games, a travel day is scheduled and the 2nd round of the payoffs would begin on the 8th of October. These best-of-seven series would again give the advantage to the team with the better record. There would be 2 games at home, 2 games away and then 3 games, if necessary, at home. With travel days between the sets of games the series would be over by the 16th of October.

A league championship round would begin on the 18th and, with the same 7 game format, be concluded by the 26th of October.

The World Series would begin, after a travel day, on the 28th and the World Series Champions would be crowned no later than the 6th of November.

So what would this accomplish? First, the "wild card" teams would have a three game series rather than the current one and done concept. Secondly, the teams with 1 or 2 excellent pitchers cold have them pitch the first game of the 1st round and have them available to start the first game of the 2nd round and again in game four of that series. Thirdly, the fans would have playoff baseball almost constantly for a month. Fourth, this would eliminate the stupidity of the All-Star game deciding home field advantage for the World Series. And finally, the team with the better record would have more home games to eliminate the lower seeded teams.

There you have it. I only hope that Commissioner Manfred reads this and gets the team ownership, players association and television to institute my plan for the 2016 World Series. Not to worry Commissioner, just mention my name, and my blog site when you make the announcement.

Jason Motte to Sign With Cubs

Jason Motte, who has played his entire career with the St. Louis Cardinals, has agreed to a 1 year deal with the Chicago Cubs for a reported 4.5 million dollars.

Motte missed the entire 2013 season after undergoing "tommy john" surgery.

In 2012, Motte had 42 saves and an ERA of 2.75

Some Details of Jon Lester's 6 Year 155 Mil Deal With the Cubs

By now, everyone knows about Jon Lester signing a 6 year 155 million dollar deal with the Chicago Cubs. Here is a paragraph from the ESPN article on the deal as told to Jayson Stark.

Among other incentives negotiated by Lester and his agents, Seth and Sam Levinson, the deal includes a signing bonus of $30 million to be paid over the life of the contract and a full no-trade clause. Lester will earn $145 million between his base salary and signing bonus and receive either a $10 million buyout after six seasons or a $25 million vesting option for the 2021 season that could bring Lester's total take to $170 million, a source familiar with terms of the contract told ESPN.com's Jayson Stark.

Congratulations to you Mr. Lester. Read the ESPN article here.

Cubs Fire Rick Renteria - Prelude to Hiring Joe Maddon

The Chicago Cubs have fired their current manager, Rick Renteria, to hire the ex-manager of the Tampa Bay Rays, Joe Maddon.

Just 2 weeks ago, Renteria was given a vote of confidence by GM Theo Epstein who saw no reason that Renteria would not be back on the Northside for 2015.

Here is a quote from ESPN writer Jesse Rogers's article on ESPN, by Theo Epstein today.

"Last Thursday, we learned that Joe Maddon -- who may be as well suited as anyone in the industry to manage the challenges that lie ahead of us -- had become a free agent," Epstein said. "We saw it as a unique opportunity and faced a clear dilemma: be loyal to Rick or be loyal to the organization. In this business of trying to win a world championship for the first time in 107 years, the organization has priority over any one individual. We decided to pursue Joe."

The Cubs, as usual, handled this very poorly. Renteria did no worse than the 52 managers before him that failed to get the Cubs to the World Series. He was given 1 year to turn around a Cub team that has underperformed as long as the current generation of Cub fans can remember.

In my opinion, Renteria was given the bum's rush and I am sure he will land a managerial position elsewhere.

But read the ESPN article here and decide for yourself.

Joe Maddon To Cubs?

So the free agent manager, Joe Maddon, appears to be ready to sign a contract to manage the Cubs for 2015. This signing will be the Cubs third manager in the three years that Theo Epstein has been the General Manager.

Unfortunately, Rick Renteria, the current manager of the Cubs hasn't been fired yet.

Assuming the paperwork gets signed, the unfortunate casualty is Renteria, the baseball soul who’d been hired not even a year ago, and who in the absence of public support from Cubs management was compelled this week to release a statement of his own.

It was so sad. Humiliating, you’d imagine. So humiliating, were the final negotiations with Maddon to go sideways Epstein would have had to fire Renteria anyway, because you can’t have an employee kicked to the curb and then dragged back into the clubhouse and reinstalled as team leader and organizational conscience.

Tim Brown of yahoo Sports has a good article here. I think the timing was poor and Renteria should have been fired or at least reassigned before any leak of negotiations, but baseball is a business and a team must act in their best interests.