Should The MLB Expand The Playoffs? The Argument For A Second Wild Card

I think baseball should promote two more AL teams (Portland and Memphis maybe?) and then divide into four divisions instead of only three. Eliminate the wildcard completely. However, barring that, the wild card series need to be a 5 game series.

I have been writing about this for months, only to be disagreed with every time.
Good to have someone else see it the same.

Adding a game would give an unfair advantage to teams who have byes to rest their starting pitching.

but in a different way. The DS needs to be 7 games. Otherwise, no.

It seems like a no-lose situation. Playoff teams get to sell more tickets, it’s more even.

1 game playoff

Makes for the division title mean so much more.

I have no “sour grapes” reaction to not making the playoffs this year, we weren’t good enough, that’s it. Too bad we were better than some divisional winners, we know who we play every year, we build a team to compete with the best teams in our division and we didn’t have enough. Same as how Texas spends and builds a team to compete with the teams in their division, not ours.

Baseball playoffs seemingly take forever anyway, do we really want to add another week? I like how it is, 4 teams, it’s simple and works well.

Baseball already runs waaaayyyy too long as it is – November baseball, really?

Playoff baseball is special because so few teams make it. This would just water it down. Baseball’s postseason gives it an identity. Leave it to the other sports for that half the teams make the playoffs stuff.

No, no, no, a thousand times no. They would be playing baseball in December at this rate. There would be little incentive to actually win any division. Why no go whole hog and have an NBA/NHL playoff and everyone’s a winner. The wild card rewards teams who are better than just average, a wild wild card starts down the slope to .500 teams making a playoff.

and just going back to pre 1969. Two leagues. Winners of the regular season play each other in the World Series. Home field advantage alternates every year.

  I think the playoffs already are way, way too long. However that isn’t going to happened, because of TV and Playoff revenue.

An expansion of the playoff would only work if the expansion consists of divisional playoffs that are best out of 3; only way I can think of without making it seem like it’s getting longer.

Even if it’s only getting longer by a game at most, teams that are the second wild-card have a higher chance of burning out. The MLBPA would certainly want to add a day off somewhere just to give that second wild-card team a fair shake.

Especially considering if that second wild-card team plays in a tough division and has a better record than say a division champion; wouldn’t that be something…to see fatigue set in on a team that certain could beat a division champ only to get hosed by that champ because of player fatigue and/or injury.

And don’t tell me that won’t play a role because it will.

Aside from that, if you want to do this simple as this: shorten the season a bit. The season ends a bit too late as it is anyway (this counting the playoffs). Sure the stingy owners will probably complain, but they need to suck it up; make it more of a financial incentive to make the playoffs and perhaps you might see owners who realize it’s worth their time to make a little less profit in the short-term in order to secure long-term gain.

And who knows what that might lead to…oh I don’t know, some semblance of parity like in the EN-EFF-ELL? :-)

that you have to think of is the amount of time off for 6 out of the 10 playoff teams that won’t be playing in the first “Wild Card” round. Baseball is a game that’s meant to be played just about every day, and 6 of those 10 teams would be facing almost a week off (Most likely a day off at the end of the year + 3 game series + Travel day + Day off).

That would be beneficial to getting the starting pitchers healthy and rested, but I would have to think that a lot of hitters would have their timing thrown off. Mark Teixeira has said that the disproportionate amount of off days in the playoffs makes it a lot harder to keep his swing fine tuned, and this just adds to that (but maybe he’s just an MFY wuss).

Also, baseball has easily the lowest winning percentages in major sports because there’s so much randomness involved in the game. Does it really make sense to devalue the 162 game season in favor of a 3 game series? The playoffs are already a watered down crapshoot without adding another ~90 win team and a 3 game series to the mix.

I think it will be hard for Bud and his lackeys to say no to this, as it is sure to increase revenue, but I certainly don’t think it’s in the best interest of the fairness of the game.

Eliminate divisions, balanced schedules, take the top 4 teams in each league. Voila, problem solved.

Makes the regular season a lot more meaningful for a lot more teams. Makes the playoffs more exciting, but at the same time makes it harder for mediocre teams to fluke their way into the World Series. Makes the trade deadline that much more exciting, with more teams having to decide if they’re buyers or sellers.