A lot of people complain about the MLB playoff system, but can you imagine if the Major Leagues adopted the Japenese system? 

The Griddle:

Since there are just two six-team leagues, the practice for years was just to have the two regular season champs face off in a best of seven series for the big gonfalon. However, the less popular league, the Pacific League, opted to use a playoff system starting in 2004 and the Central League adopted a similar system last year.

The top three teams in each league make the playoffs. Team #2 and #3 play each other in a best of three with all the home games being played at the second place team’s home park. The winner then faces the #1 team (who is officially the league champion regardless of the playoff results) in a six-game series where the #1 team needs just three wins while the #2 team must win four. The #1 team also gets to host all the games and they are played over a seven-day span.

This obviously has nothing to do with the Mariners, but I came across it on Brew Crew Ball and thought it was… interesting.  If MLB adopted this model, the playoffs might look something like this:

In the American League the playoff teams would be the Los Angeles Angels, Tampa Bay Rays and Boston Red Sox.  Based on what we’ve seen in the ALCS so far, the Rays could beat the Sox in the three game series 2-1, especially when you consider that all the games would be played in Tampa Bay. 

Rays play the Angels for the AL championship, but all the games are played in LA.  Rays would have to take 4 games for victory, while the Angels would only need three.  Probability is already on the Angels’ side and Tampa Bay’s sub-.500 record away from Tropicana Field doesn’t help the Rays’ case.  The Rays did win the season series 6-3 and could have a shot, but it would be an extreme uphill battle, resulting in a probable Angels victory.

In the National League the playoff teams would be Chicago Cubs, Philadelphia Phillies and Milwaukee Brewers.  The Phillies sweep the three game series with the Brewers 2-0, heading to Wrigley Field for the NLCS.  The Phils won the season series 4-3, but the Cubs are very good at home and the Phillies offense couldn’t take advantage of Wrigley like they could at Citizen’s Bank.  Once again, the odds point to the Chicago Cubs winning the NL pennant.

That was just a round about way to get the two teams with the best records in the World Series.  If you wanted to do that, why bother with the playoffs at all?  Sure, an underdog victory would be great when it happens, but it would be so rare that I think the playoffs wouldn’t be quite as interesting. 

Sure, it’s discouraging when your team was the best all season only to get knocked out of the playoffs early, but that’s the allure, right?  Every team starts 0-0.