14 thoughts on “Two More Playoff Teams Added”

  1. While I understand the sentiment of creating a greater incentive to win the division, this has vast potential to be inherently unfair or ugly.

    Say the AL East has two teams with 101 & 99 wins, and the #5 seed comes out of the AL West with 89 wins…yet the #5 wins a one game playoff and moves on, despite being 10 games worse on the season while the team with more wins against better ALE competition is sent packing because their starter developed a blister in the second inning…or worse, a blown call in a single game.

    There’s also the problem of a Game 163, followed by a Wild Card game….or a three way tie for the #5 spot, followed by the Wild Card game.

    It’s all drama, to be sure, and probably good for ratings in the short term…but it’s also a lousy way to decide a champion, albeit not that different than the two Cardinal championships this decade, both of which have been won by mediocre teams…not to mention the impossiblity of last years’ scenario where spots were decided on the last day, as both ATL and BOS would have made the playoffs.

    With 1/3 of the league now qualifying for the playoffs, there’s sure to be more crappy champs – some of whom finished 3rd over 162 games – on the horizon who get hot and win a month-long tournament which is starting to resemble the NBA or NHL…

  2. Well said Rings. If we are gonna do this wildcard, let’s do it baseball style and have a 3 game playoff between the two wc teams to determine who goes on. It can easily be done by having them play a doublehitter at the wc team with the best record and followed if needed by another game the next day at the other wc team home ground. This would allow much time for for the other teams to sit around. However….a one-game wc playoff…come on, that ain’t baseball!

  3. Best idea:

    In the event of a tie, the teams bid cash to advance, and the richest team goes forward.

    1. Better yet..a home run derby for a tiebreaker! (only kidding…this ain’t soccer where one game wins rule!)

  4. A one game playoff doesn’t make any sense (cents, yes!) from a true sporting perspective. I mean, the ’62 Mets could beat the ’27 Yankees in a one game playoff. I recommend that at the end of the regular season the top 12 teams in each league play a double-elimination tournament. Then the winner from each league would play an expanded 9-game WS. An extra bonus would of course be the additional revenue. Talk about drama.

    1. If you win your division, you won’t be subject to the instabilities of a one game round.

        1. Gets more teams involved, and it makes it more difficult for a non-division winner to make it to the WS. I’m all for it.

        2. Kevin, if you are adding more teams to the playoffs, it actually makes it more likely for a non-division winner to make it to the world series.

          1. Check that, a one game playoff between the 4th and 5th best teams won’t affect the division champs, but I still don’t see how it makes it more difficult for a non-division winner to make it to the WS. Inevitably we’ll presented with a scenario where the 9th and 10th best teams in MLB will be going head to head in the WS. My feeling is that this dilutes the integrity of the game, which is based on the hard slog of a 162-game schedule.

            1. I think the 1 additional W needed to make it to the WS makes it more difficult.

              From a qualifying standpoint, there is an additional team. From a playoff structure standpoint, there is still only 1 non-division winner in the DS round.

  5. Some poor guy for Atlanta gave up 6 HR in 2 innings today – Raburn, Boesch, Fielder, Young, Peralta & Jackson.

    1. Raburn just hit a GS, does this mean he’s “Raburn” all spring training?

Comments are closed.