Bruce Bochy on New MLB Postseason Format
If Texas Rangers manager Bruce Bochy was skeptical of the new expanded postseason, he doesn’t appear to be now.
ESPN.com surveyed Major League managers on a variety of topics at the recent Winter Meetings in San Diego, including the new postseason format.
Last season featured six teams in the postseason from each league — three division champions and three Wild Card teams. The top two division winners received byes, while the other four teams played best-of-three Wild Card series, an expansion of the former winner-take-all Wild Card game.
After that, the winners advanced to best-of-five Divisional series, followed by the best-of-seven Championship series.
The Houston Astros won the World Series.
Bochy admitted that he thought the expansion would “flood out” the postseason. But, in the end, he said the best team won.
“You look at how it went, and I know there's some questions going, well, some teams are sitting, it affected them,” Bochy said. “But the best team won. The best team were the world champions. And I think the interest it created, it's good for the game. It's good for a lot of fans throughout our country. And a lot of teams that were battling at the end to get there. So, I'm good with it.”
Bochy won three World Series titles with the San Francisco Giants in 2010, 2012 and 2014 in the former format, with five teams from each league. In 2010 and 2012, the Giants won the National League West before winning the world title.
In 2014, the Giants were a Wild Card team. In fact, San Francisco was the No. 5 seed and beat the No. 4-seeded Pittsburgh Pirates, followed by the Washington Nationals (NLDS) and the St. Louis Cardinals (NLCS) before besting the Kansas City Royals in the World Series.
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard
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