News Flash: 2020 Schedule & Playoffs

[Flash]

FGM GMs:

I hope all is well with you.  COVID-19 has certainly turned our lives upside down, and given the state of things, it looks like the country is going to be battling it for some time to come.  Hopefully, all of you, and your families are safe.

As you know, after negotiations between MLB and the MLBPA had broken down, the MLB Commissioner has stepped to mandate an abbreviated 60 game schedule. The shortened season will begin on July 23rd and end on September 27th (10 weeks of play).  There will be three divisions:  East, West and Central. Each division will have 10 teams.  As I understand it, each team will play 10 games against their division foes (NL West, AL West, AL East, etc).  That will be 40 games.  The remaining 20 games will be played against the other teams in the division (4 games each). 

The Divisions are:
1: West (AL West & NL West)
2:  East (AL East & NL East)
3: Central (AL Central & NL Central) 

Given this information, FGM has to be a little creative if we are going to have a regular season and a playoff system.  Along with that, I believe that we have to do the following to play 60 games and have a viable playoff scenario within the 10 week MLB schedule.  Here's what I have come up with:

Jul 23-26:   7 games
Jul 27 - Aug 2:   8 games
Aug 3 - 9:   9 games
Aug 10 - 16:   9 games
Aug 17 - 23:   9 games
Aug 24 - 30:   9 games
Aug 31 - Sep 6:   9 games

Sixty (60) games of league play.

Then we have an adjustment to begin the playoffs:
Only 1 AL Wildcard Team and only 1 NL Wildcard Team (This eliminates the one week of play required to determine a #4 seed (Wildcard Winner)

Playoffs
Sep 7 - 13:  AL and NL Division Series
Sep 14 - 20:  AL and NL Conference Series
Sep 21 - 27:  World Series

We usually have a two week World Series battle and end the season one week before the MLB season actually ends, but with the shortened season of 60 games, I'm thinking the best option is to shorten the playoffs and have the World Series played on the final week of the season.  I'm guessing that players will not be resting for the playoffs and the regulars will play during the final week, so our World Series teams would still be able to field a competitive team.

Trade Deadline would be extended to August 31st (instead of July 31st) because that's the date MLB has set for the  2020 season.

 

[dedreger]

 

Thanks, Flash.  I hope you and yours are well.

[ldsjayhawk]

This sounds like a great plan.  One question... Are we going to maintain normal divisions or do like MLB?

[Colby]

Great plan.

[Flash]

This sounds like a great plan.  One question... Are we going to maintain normal divisions or do like MLB?

Your question made me realize the proposed schedule doesn’t work unless we go with 3 Divisions.  Which means we can expand our playoff scenario.  Having 3 Divisions will actually allow us to have 3 Division Winners and 3 Wild Card teams.  The three Wild Card teams will be determined by W-L records of the remaining 27 teams—regardless of division.

We will have 7 weeks of league play and 3 weeks of playoffs.  Here’s what the playoffs will look like:

Week 8 - Wild Card Week
Game 1:  #3 Wild Card vs #3 Seed (Division Winner)
Game 2: #2 Wild Card vs #1 Wild Card
Seeds #1 & #2 get a Week 8 bye.

Week 9 - Conference Series
Game 3: Game #1 Winner vs #2 Seed (Division Winner)
Game 4: Game #2 Winner vs #1 Seed (Division Winner)

Week 10
World Series