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John Smoltz, who never met a bad idea he didn't like, suggests the way to help division winners avoid suffering from layoff-itis would be to change the Division Series to best-of-7. That's a completely brilliant idea…if you want the World Series to compete with the NFL on Thanksgiving Day.
However…I see no reason they couldn't expand the DS to Best-4-of-7 if they get rid of the Numbfred Round and the two ridiculous wild cards. You have roughly the same amount of games (sacrificing ONE game, at most) for TV, and you eliminate the possibility of a crap team like the Tigers or the Mets screwing around for 36.4% of the schedule (Mets, 24-35) before getting hot and possibly winning something they don't deserve.
I don't mind if a team overcomes a slow start (like the 1951 Giants, 1978 Yankees, 1969 or 1973 Mets and others on that list of mine) to overtake the front-runner and actually win something, but I've never liked rewarding mediocrity. If ditching teams that finished 3rd out of 5 in their division (FFS!) helps equalize the playoffs without sacrificing any of that precious, precious TV lucre, I say do it.
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