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.

Rangers Hire Jeff Bannister as New Manager

According to Calvin Watkins of ESPN Dallas and Fox News Dallas, the Texas Rangers have hired Jeff Banister as their manager for the 2015 season. Banister replaces Ron Washington who resigned in September and interim manager Tim Bogar.

Banister has spent 29 years in the Pittsburgh Pirate organization with the last 5 seasons as bench coach.

Read Calvin Watkin's article here.

Adam J. Morris of SBNation has his take here.

Giants Advance to NLDS With 8-0 Win Over Pirates

Madison Bumgarner pitched the Giants into the NLDS last night with an extraordinary performance over the Pittsburgh Pirates. 

Bumgarner tossed a 4 hit complete game shutout, striking out 10 and walking one. He threw 109 pitches over those 9 innings for an average of 12.1 pitches per inning. Only once did he face 5 batters in an inning. Only once did a Pirate runner reach third base. The Pirates got two runners on base in an inning just once and the Giants committed two errors to make that happen.

The Giant starter faced 33 batters and threw an average of 3.3 pitches to each of them. The Pirates popped up to the infield 5 times and flew out to the outfield 8 times. Only two of those fly balls reached the warning track.

The left handed Bumgarner struck out at least one batter in every inning but the 7th. A majority of those strikeouts came on his sweeping curveballs. He had good command of that curve and wasn't afraid to throw it ahead or behind in the count.

The pitching for the Giants was magnificant but the offense was very productive as they took advantage of every opportunity to score runs. Edinson Volquez of the Pirates came into the game with a 13-7 record and a 3.04 ERA. Volquez held the Giant bats in check for 3 innings on 2 hits and one walk.

Hitters are known to make adjustments after seeing a pitcher for the first time. The Giants adjusted to Volquez in the fourth. Pablo Sandoval led off the inning with a hard single against the shift used against him by the Pirates. Hunter Pence followed with a single to left. Brandon Belt waited out a walk, his second of the night, which loaded the bases for Brandon Crawford. There wasn't a person at the stadium, listening on the radio or watching on TV who predicted what would happen next. 

The left handed hitting Crawford lifted a high fly ball to right that kept going and landed in the first row of seats just beyond the short right field fence for a grand slam.

Crawford hit the 1 ball 2 strike curveball out of the park and into history, becoming the 1st shortstop to hit a grand slam, in any playoff game, in MLB history.

Those four runs were plenty enough for Bumgarner, but the Giants were not through with the Pirates pitching staff. They scored again in the 6th when Hunter Pence led off with a single, advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored on a single by Brandon Belt for a 5-0 Giants lead.

Pittsburgh led the NL in come from behind victories in 2014. 41 times this season they rallied to win games. The largest margin they overcame was 5 runs, so the Pirates weren't out of this game yet.

In the seventh, the Giants loaded the bases again with no outs. Pirate reliever, Jared Hughes got Hunter Pence to hit into a 4-2 fielder's choice that cut down Joe Panik at the plate but Brandon Belt singled to drive in 2 and the Giant lead was now 7-0.

The Giants added another run in the eighth when Gregor Blanco walked, Joe Panik singled and Buster Posey drove in Blanco with a single, giving the Giants an 8-0 lead.

The only Pirate threat of the night came in the bottom of the eighth. After Bumgarner got Brent Morel to foul out to right, Jose Tabata hit a ground ball to short that Crawford misplayed. Josh Harrison then hit a grounder to third. Joaquin Arias, in for Pablo Sandoval, threw too late and too wide to first. The ball got by the first baseman and the Pirates had runners at 1st and 3rd with one out. 

Bumgarner struck out Jordy Mercer and got Andrew McCutchen to ground into a 6-4 fielder's choice to end the threat.

It's on to Washington, DC for the Giants for a best-of-five NLDS series with the Nationals, beginning tomorrow, the 3rd of October.

Giants in Pittsburgh for National League Wild Card Game

The San Francisco Giants travel to Pittsburgh tonight to take on the Pirates in the National League Wild Card matchup. The winner of this game will advance and take on the National Leagues best team, the Washington Nationals on Friday the 3rd of October.

The Giants have a recent history of winning the World Series in even numbered years. In case we have forgotten, this is 2014, an even numbered year. Since moving to San Francisco from New York in 1959, the Giants have been to 10 post season series and won the World Series in 2010 and 2012.

The Pirates, on the other hand, are making just their second appearance in the playoffs since losing to the Braves in the NLCS in 1992. The Pirates lost to the Cardinals in the 2013 NLDS three games to two. Before 2013 the Pirates had not had a winning season in 20 years, dating back to 1992.

San Francisco finished the 2014 season 12th in the major leagues in Runs Per Game with 4.1, 10th in Batting Average at .255 and 17th in Home Runs with 132. They will start Madison Bumgarner against the Pirates. Bumgarner finished the year with an 18-10 record and a 2.98 ERA. He struck out 219 batters in 217 innings. Madison issued 43 walks and his K:W ratio was a very good 5.09. He had a 1.09 WHIP and gave up 21 home runs on the year.

Pittsburgh who ended the season 10th in the MLB with a 4.21 RPG, 5th in hitting at .259 and 6th in HRs with 156 counter with Edinson Volquez. Volquez was 13-7 in 2014 with an ERA of 3.04. He struck out 140 in 192 innings. He issued 43 free passes for a K:W ratio of 1.97. Edinson finished the season with a 1.23 WHIP and surrendered 17 home runs.

Both the Giants and the Pirates can hit. Their pitching is adequate. This is a one game, winner take all contest in which both managers should pull out all the stops. The Giants get the nod for the better relievers. In the final analysis the Giants should win this game and advance.

 I pick the Giants to win. That being said, throughout baseball history teams who should not have won did win. Case in point, the Pirates were playing the Orioles in the 1979 World Series, when down three games to one, against arguably the best pitching staff in the majors that year, they won three games in a row to win the Series.

MLB Wild Card Teams To Meet

The 2014 Major League playoffs begin in Kansas City on Tuesday the 30th of September. The Oakland Athletics, a team that went 9-16 over their last 25 games, and didn't clinch a wild card berth until the last day of the season, will take on the Kansas City Royals, who haven't been to the playoffs since winning the World Series in 1985.

The Royals start their ace, James Shields. Shields was 14-8 on the year with a 3.21 ERA. Oakland counters with Jon Lester, 16-11 with a 2.46 ERA, a trade deadline pickup from the Boston Red Sox. The winner on Tuesday night will take on the LA Angels. All of the ESPN experts are picking the Athletics to advance. My prediction is Kansas City with the relief pitching of the Royals saving the victory for Shields.

Read the ESPN story

The San Francisco Giants will travel to Pittsburgh, PA to meet the Pirates in the one game National League Wild Card matchup. Madison Bumgarner, 18-10 and a 2.98 ERA is scheduled to start for the Giants against Edinson Volquez of the Pirates. Volquez was 13-7 on the year with a 3.04 ERA. The Giants finished 6 games behind the LA Dodgers in the NL West, while the Pirates had a chance to force a one game playoff with the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Central, but the Pirates lost and the Cardinals won, so the Pirates finished 2 games in back of the Cardinals. The winner of this game will take on the Washington Nationals. The experts are split over this game. My prediction is that the pitching of the Giants will overcome the streaky hitting of the Pirates

Read the ESPN story of the National League matchup.

Sporting News MLB Video Preview of Wild Card  Games