2024 Rule Changes

December 13, 2023, 07:36:47 PM

We're getting really close to finalizing rule changes for 2024. I don't believe you're going to notice any drastic changes, which is a good thing! Everyone knows by now I hate Arbitration with a passion. But passion doesn't equate to having a good plan for replacing it, so we've decided to table that discussion for at least another year.

In the meantime I do want to run something past the league as a whole.

Historically MSB has operated with a format of 4 divisions, 2 conferences. After expansion we tried to geolocate the divisions to try to build some natural rivalries, but that didn't turn out the way we hoped. For one - for me personally I don't have any geological partners since I live in SoDak

And after a few teams have come and gone the whole geolocation kind of went out the window anyway. But for multiple years in a row there was a team in the Frick who ended up with a very good record but missed out on the playoffs since they just happened to be in a stacked division. The first couple years this happened we thought it would be cyclical or it was a fluke. But it seemed to happen year after year. So we made the decision to scrap the divisions and just go with 2 conferences. This isn't 'breaking news' for people who have been around awhile!

However, it happened again. This past year the teams with the 5th and 7th best overall records were again ineligible for the playoffs.

So the question is - are we ok with that? Should the playoffs be about representation of the best teams or the best teams respective to their conference? I have no illusion of grandeur, my Dogs were not better than any of the teams that qualified for the playoffs. Especially after my deadline deals! But you can make a very good argument that with the 5th best overall record at the time of the trades I should have been a buyer, not a seller.

Also of extreme note - last season had the playoffs been seeded by overall record, not records within the conference, our eventual World Series winner (shout out Brian and his Rougarou) would actually not have qualified for the post-season. So a very good counter argument can be that regular season records are not always a predictor of playoff success.

Long story short:
There are 3 ways we can approach this "problem".

Option 1 - this isn't a problem and make no change.
Option 2 - ditch the conferences, make one giant conference with a 152 game balanced schedule (4 game home and away series vs every other team) with the top 8 teams advancing to the playoffs
Option 3 - go back to 5 team divisions and not worry about geolocating the teams to try to balance the divisions.

All of these options have some pros and cons. Option 3 is most like MLB, but no matter how we structure the divisions it's really hard to account for the swings in standings. It wasn't that long ago that the Bums were, well bums. But through some shrewd trades and good drafting they have been a perennial playoff team the past couple years. Option 2 is the most "democratic" but would be the biggest deviation from real-life.

So what does the league want to do? Please chime in.