In Depth: The New Playoff Format

The new playoff format has sparked the rise in young teams. Such as the
Edmonton Robins and the Alexandra Yankees. This new format gives elite teams such an advantage. First of all, the best of three. It is tough to beat an elite team in one game. A three-game series, that is super tough. The number one team, San Diego Bombers, won the World Series. That could mean that this new format is working out. Let’s ask the elite teams in Franchise Ball what they think about the new format.

Question 1: Do you think that the new format will have fewer upsets?

Oakland Obzen: “To be honest, I can still see an unusual amount of upsets because the game still feels the same as if it was single elimination, we just get more tries at it.”

San Diego Giants: “Yes, the new playoff format will have fewer upsets.”

Toronto Blue Jays: “I think that the number of upsets will differentiate compared to the old format. There will still be a good number of upsets but teams will not have much more of a right to complain about them losing through just one game because of a 3 game series. There will not be as many upsets but as we saw last season there were still a good amount of upsets in certain League Brackets.”

San Diego Bombers: “I think there will be fewer upsets in the new format.”


Question 2: How do you think that elite teams will benefit?

Oakland Obzen: “I think statistically everyone, even elite teams will have a better chance now that we get multiple tries at different pitchers.”

San Diego Giants: “Elite teams will definitely win more playoff games. And the World Playoffs are going to be stacked every season.”

Toronto Blue Jays: “In short term, it will benefit new teams. They will make the playoffs but in the long term, it will definitely hurt them. After going through most of the wildcard and getting out 1 game before the finals I realized that most of the teams I played did not have much of a quality playoff team to them. The newer teams will not be motivated to get many players or do as much scouting and once their 3 season boost of stats is out they will be in for a bad surprise.”

San Diego Bombers: “The elite teams should have an advantage if they dominated the regular season.”


Question 3: Do you like the new playoff format?

Oakland Obzen: “All that being said, I really do like this format, this is how playoffs for baseball are supposed to happen and it feels more natural.”

San Diego Giants: “I used to be against the new format, but after playing a season of it, I really enjoy it. I believe it will reward good teams.”

Toronto Blue Jays: I like the fact that it minimized upsets and I love the idea of the League 3 Game series but the wildcard is just too big. Nobody should be in the playoffs if they do not have 35+ wins. I played guys going 30-30 and one may have even been below 30 wins. This should not happen in my opinion and I feel like it loses the quality of the wildcard playoffs I used to love. The wild card expansion is a good idea but I feel they went too far.”

San Diego Bombers: “I think the new format is great and rewards active players.”

Question 4: Do you think that higher-ranked teams will win more titles?

Oakland Obzen: “I think higher ranked team will win more league titles, however we’re still early into having this feature, on one hand you get to use more than one pitcher so you aren’t getting eliminated because of a bad pitching appearance, the other hand playoffs still feel different from the regular season overall, kinda like an exhibition game.”

San Diego Giants: “After seeing the Bombers win the title, and Shimakze being the runner up, I think that higher-ranked teams will mostly be winning the title.

Toronto Blue Jays: “Higher ranking teams is very general and it depends on the toughness of their schedule. I feel as though quality teams will go a lot farther and do well but I do not feel teams will do better because of their ranking. Ranking I feel do not say much but if you mean quality teams I definitely believe so.”

San Diego Bombers: “The higher ranked teams will probably win more titles.”

The you to Oakland Obzen, San Diego Giants, Toronto Blue Jays and San Diego Bombers for making this article possible!