Royals broadcaster Denny Matthews has a plan to completely revamp the MLB postseason

Unfortunately for Major League Baseball, one oft-discussed topic during the playoffs has been whether to tweak the postseason format.

Three teams won 100 or more regular-season games, yet none managed to win a postseason series. And they combined to win just one playoff game.

Denny Matthews, the Royals’ radio voice, thinks a change should be made, but it’s not in response to this month’s playoff upsets.

“Over the past few years, it has become quite obvious that there are two things that have become less relevant and less important: The regular-season schedule and the National League and American League,” said Matthews, who is in the broadcast wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

“MLB has put them in a blender and now they are one in the same. Now there is hardly any difference between the NL and AL now that we have the balanced schedule. Every team in the major leagues will play every other major-league team — both leagues now have the DH — same rules for everybody.”

Matthews noted that 12 of 30 teams currently make the postseason field, and that has diminished the importance of a 162-game regular season, in his opinion.

“The playoff system, as it’s designed right now, is really not designed to identify the best teams,” Matthews said. “It’s really set up to eliminate the best teams, which it’s done quite a bit in the last five or six years.”

That has been the case this season.

And that’s why Matthews’ idea, which he formulated a year ago, would have a five-month regular season that ends in early September, and then see all 30 teams enter the playoffs. Yep, every team would be in the postseason in Matthews’ plan.

Matthews envisions a bracket that could include all 30 MLB teams or perhaps one with the AL on one side and NL on the other. One thing about Matthews’ idea is he’s open to tweaking certain aspects of it.

In the latter plan, the American League and National League champion would each get a bye and the rest would go into a bracket from a No. 2 vs. No. 15 matchup down to No. 8 to No. 9. Those would be a best-of-five series.

The second round would also be a best-of-five series, then the following three rounds, including the World Series, would be a seven-game series.

Matthews sees multiple benefits to his plan. First, he believes television networks would pay handsomely for broadcasting some or all of the expanded postseason. Owners would love to see their team play meaningful games in September.

And then there are the fans.

“We all know how much people enjoy filling out their brackets for the NCAA basketball tournament,” Matthews said. “All baseball fans would realize that at the start of the playoffs every team has a chance to go to the World Series.

“So even casual fans fill out their brackets and become involved. It creates conversation and interest. It gives people the opportunity to communicate and bond, it makes interesting office pools and is just plain fun.”

Matthews said he presented his idea to Royals CEO and Chairman John Sherman, who found it intriguing. What do you think of the idea? Vote in our poll.