It looks like baseball is going to be adding two playoff teams starting next season. Both the players’ union and owners seem to be in agreement with this, which leaves three questions:
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Will this change be good for baseball?
In my opinion, adding 2 more playoff teams will be a great change for baseball. In case you don’t already know, there are two leagues in baseball, with three divisions in each league. Every division winner gets a playoff spot and each league gets one wildcard. In 2012, there may be another wildcard spot added to both leagues, changing the number of teams that make the playoffs from 8 to 10. The rest of the four major sports have more playoff teams than baseball. Hockey and basketball have 16 playoff teams each and the NFL has 12. More playoff teams means that more fans are invested in the postseason. Baseball will now have two more fan bases that are excited for baseball in October.
This change will also make the regular season more exciting. These two postseason spots will add more teams to the playoff mix at the end of September meaning more teams will be invested at the end of the season. Less teams will be trading their best players off, less teams will shut down there young pitchers for the year, and more teams will be fighting for the playoffs. What isn’t great about that?
A great example of how this change will help baseball is the 2008 season. In 2008 the Angels, Rays, Red Sox, and White Sox made the playoffs. They had 100, 97, 95, and 89 wins, respectively. The Yankees has 89 wins that season and lost the playoff race by 6 games. That means that even though the Yankees had the same amount of wins as the White Sox, they were out of the playoffs a week before the end of the season. It you add another wildcard team for the American League that season, the Yankees, the Twins (88 wins), and the Blue Jays (86 wins) would have been fighting for that last spot. The Twins were in the division race anyways, but the Blue Jays and Yankees were done before the last week of baseball started. Adding this playoff spot would have kept these teams in the hunt until the end of the season making baseball more exciting.
Will adding two playoff teams take away from the importance of the regular season?
Some people argue that adding two wildcard teams will make the regular season less important and I couldn’t disagree more. I think it will make the regular season even more important. Right now, each league has four playoff spots. The only advantage the 1 seed has over the wildcard is home field advantage. That isn’t much of an advantage considering there are 162 games in a season. Team A could have 110 wins, Team B could have 80 wins, and they will have the same chances of making the World Series, other than home field advantage. By adding another wildcard spot, teams that win the division will have a first round bye and will be able to rest their players.
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In the past, there have been times when two teams from the same division clinched playoff spots early. Rather than fighting for the division and top seed, they decided to rest their players because the difference between the wildcard and division winner wasn’t that drastic of a difference. Adding a wildcard playoff game will make winning the division very important. Now those two teams will be competing until the end of the season fighting to stay out of the play-in game.
Should the wildcard round be a one game elimination or a best-of-3 series?
Nothing in sports is more exciting than a single elimination game; winner moves on, loser goes home. Some of the best baseball games in the past couple of years have been the play-in games to make the playoffs. If baseball decided to go with the one game elimination approach, people will realize that the wildcard games are the most exciting games of the playoffs every year.
In the end, I think adding two wildcard teams to the playoffs is a great decision by Major League Baseball. And making it a single elimination game would bring even more excitement to the sport.
I agree that baseball needs to expand their playoffs. I feel MLB should copy the NFL and go with three division winners and three wildcard teams in each league. The two best record teams get the bye and of course worse record plays best record in the first round. Maybe three game playoffs in the wildcard games, five game playoffs in next round, and seven game for league finals and world series. I'm just saying that would be awesome for baseball and fans!
ReplyDeleteI agree that a one game playoff would be more exciting, but we all know that The MLB would never agree to it. There is more money to be made from having a best of three series and its all about the money these days.
ReplyDeleteI am no baseball purist by an means, but I don't necessarily agree with this expansion. The baseball postseason is sacred. It's simple, you have 162 games to prove you are the best team in your division. If you can't do that, you don't belong in the playoffs. With the one wildcard spot, the best division is essentially rewarded with 2 teams. This is about as great of an idea as expanding the NCAA March Madness tourney.
ReplyDeleteThe NFL is different, some key injuries during the season could really keep the "best" team from making the playoffs. With only 16 games, you need those wild card spots. The NBA and NHL playoffs are just a joke. When half the league makes it, the playoffs simply become a second season with the Bucks and Timberwolves of the world left out. Baseball, on the other hand, has enough games that the best teams will rise to the top.
Adding another team in each league will just water it down. Your argument about home-field advantage in the postseason is wrong too. The teams that make the postseason in baseball are truly equal, unlike other sports, so there is no need to give them any advantage over each other.
The MLB is going to do this because it will generate more money and buzz about the postseason. Unfortunately, while they should be making sure the world series isn't being played in snowy conditions, they are trying to make it longer. Taking advantage of a possible absence of football in October is a smart business move, but it's not good for the sport.
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