MLB Continues to Make the Wrong Calls on Its Evolving Playoff Format

Finishing among the top records in the league entitles a team to host the first two playoff games of a series, right?

Yes, the better teams are also awarded for their success with home-field advantage. But isn't a key part of that advantage being able to open a series in your home ballpark, with your home clubhouse, in front of the home crowd? Let's add sleeping in your own home to that list.

It's a fundamental part of playoff competition, no matter what the sport. The team with home-field advantage opens the series (or one-off game) at home.

MLB apparently doesn't agree with that. As the Associated Press reported, baseball's new playoff format will change the Division Series from a 2-2-1 format—in which the top-two seeds in each league host the first two and, if necessary, fifth games of a series—to a 2-3 format that allows the lower seed to host the first two games.

In case that paragraph was a bit obtuse, let's clarify: The two teams with the best record in each league will have to begin the playoffs on the road. They will still technically have home-field advantage, hosting the last three games of the series.

But, a club that finished with the better record over a 162-game schedule and earned the right to open a playoff series in its home ballpark will instead have to begin its postseason traveling to another city, playing in the opponent's ballpark and facing a return home down two games to none.

How much does home-field advantage really mean in such a scenario?

Yes, a team with the better record could lose its first two games at home under the traditional format. But if the higher seed can't capitalize on its advantage, then it should have to fight for its playoff life on the road. The team put itself in that position by squandering the benefit awarded with regular-season success.

This new format penalizes the higher seeds to begin with. How is that fair?

The whole idea is to accommodate the new one-game playoff between wild-card teams. The extra travel day that would've been included in the Division Series was eliminated with the 2-3 format. But why are the teams that didn't win their division getting the break?

Is this a good place to mention that adding the extra wild card was ill-conceived to begin with? Trying to shoehorn it into a playoff format that worked just fine only confirms that notion. Why mess with something that wasn't broken?

The only bright side to this new format is that it might last only a year. MLB has the option of going back to the 2-2-1 series in 2013 with a few extra days on the schedule. The regular season will begin on Mar. 30 or Apr. 1 next year instead of the roaming Apr. 4-6 start we had this year. 

Oh, by the way, these two extra wild-card games might prevent you from seeing two Division Series games this year. As The New York Times' Richard Sandomir reported on Twitter, TBS acquired the TV broadcast rights to the two wild-card games. That left MLB to buy back two playoff games from TBS.

So if you don't have MLB Network, you will not be able to see two Division Series games this postseason. Is taking games away from a wider possible audience really the best idea? According to the AP, moving those games to MLB Network is available in 30 million fewer homes than TBS. That will include some fans in home markets. 

Yet the warped postseason TV package somehow seems like a good fit with this new mangled playoff format. Punish the better teams, and prevent fans (and hometown fans) from watching games. It all makes sense. No, it's actually nonsense. 

Follow @iancass on Twitter.