1. Do nothing. “There are surely some people who don’t care, and that’s fine. It’s a matter of opinion and taste. For others, having a losing team (or teams) in the playoffs would be a further assault on the sanctity of the regular season — the six-month marathon that is at the heart of what sets baseball apart from the other sports.”
2. Drop playoff slots that would be filled by a losing team. “You have just five teams reach the .500 mark in a league? Fine. You get five playoff spots. The team that otherwise would have played a seed held by a losing team advances to the next round…[But] The problem with this idea is pretty obvious: MLB has broadcast contracts to carry a certain stock of playoff games, and not playing those games would be something of an issue.”
3. Draft from another division or league. “If you win a division with a losing record, congratulations. That division title flag is your only reward — because your division doesn’t get a playoff slot. Most seasons, you would be able to simply take a winning team from another division to fill the spot, one that otherwise would be on the outside.”
4. Vastly increase the difficulty of the road for sub-.500 teams. “Use ghost wins — i.e., the losing team has to spot its opponent a win at the start of the series. Don’t give losing teams any home playoff games, even if they survive the wild-card round. The ghost win follows them through each round of the postseason they reach.”
5. Use only intraleague records to determine playoff slots. The reason for all the losing records in the AL is that for some reason the National League is much stronger this year, so it has won the majority of the inter-league games. Thus the American League as a whole has lost more games than it has won: The AL is 45 games under .500 against the NL this season. Doolittle: “This would be reflected in the standings, so maybe you could overlook an overall losing record because it’s the league record that matters.” Me: No.
6. Kill the leagues and divisions. “You have a 30-team scrum and a schedule that is all about jostling for postseason seeding. This isn’t what baseball has ever been, and I’m personally not a fan, but it is simple and clears up any handwringing about superior teams ending up in a subservient playoff position because of the format.”
7. Fix the schedule. “Put the interleague schedule back the way it was or even reduce it from that. Increase the number of games between teams battling for the same playoff spots. Increase the number of games between league and division foes down the stretch. No more last-week interleague games. I am very much in favor of doing this.”
Me too. In fact, I would eliminate interleague play completely.
The piece concludes,
“Ideas to avoid a season like this, and its possible consequences, can get pretty weird pretty fast. But you don’t have to get wacky, weird or even nutty to get there. You just have to avoid being shameful.”
Yes, because letting bad baseball teams get honors and opportunities that are supposed to be rewards for being good teams is shameful. And unethical. The situation exists in great part due to the greed of the owners, players and networks: more teams in the post-season means more games, more ads, more money. #7 looks to me as the only option (other than #1) that doesn’t embody the phrase, “The cure is worse than the disease.”
Ethics Alarms 
An excellent piece! Baseball’s playoff system has been somewhat disagreeable to me ever since expansion in the 90s. And it’s only gotten worse. The revenue generation of the playoffs is so tempting that the push to widen participation is hard to curb. Look at college football’s bowl system over the last 30 years or so…college basketball…it’s everywhere.
Speaking only of baseball, I think the playoffs should be for the very best teams. That means the division winners and one (1, uno, 2-1) wildcard team – the team with the best record that didn’t win a division – to have four teams on each side.
And yes, I am a huge fan of eliminating interleague play. I have never liked it (just like I’ve never like the DH, but different topic). One of the things I loved about baseball before interleague games was the speculation of how certain teams would fare facing each other in the World Series and, to a lesser extent, the All-Star game.
But far more important, if it’s the division standings and records that determine eligibility for the playoffs, then interleague games have no business in the sport (excepting the ASG and the Series), unless it be to water down win-loss records and thereby require bigger playoff brackets to resolve things.
So #7 for me as well.
I’m kind of scattered again this morning, but it’s a Friday before a holiday weekend, so…
The problem is money, as you identified.
The one solution I really don’t like (though I am not sure I understand #3) is #4. Make it harder for bad teams to win in the playoffs. That is unfair by definition. No home playoff games? Ghost wins? Hogwash! (Not my preferred curse for this idea.) Why not make all the players on the bad team bat and throw with their weak hand? Or play barefoot? Or without gloves?
If you have a system where bad teams make the playoffs, tough. What’s that Hyman?
“This is the business we’ve chosen!”
The solution is for good teams to beat bad teams. That is the whole concept of the playoffs. If good teams can’t beat bad teams, shame on them.
-Jut