Selig Believes Playoffs Will Expand This Season

11 Comments + Add Comment

• Joe D January 28, 2012 at 11:07 am

  I believe this benefits the Nats or Marlins more than anyone else in 2012 and the better of the two will get into the post season.
  • Clayton Collier January 28, 2012 at 11:12 am

    My thoughts exactly, it would allow the Rangers, Redsox, or Rays and the Marlins/Nationals to make it to October baseball than anything else. Still makes for an interesting August/September, and a much different environment come July 31st.
• srt January 28, 2012 at 11:30 am

  So much for built in travel days. Something has to give.
• Little Nicky January 28, 2012 at 11:47 am

  I’m not thrilled about diluting the post season more than it already is and the fact that round one will be a one game playoff is ridiculous.
  • Bayonne Mets Fan January 28, 2012 at 11:53 am

    I don’t like it either, it’s like they’re compensating the quality of the play in order to try and bring more fans in. Something like this wasn’t needed 10 or 15 years ago because more people liked baseball enough that they didn’t need an added incentive to come.

    Maybe improving the quality of how the game is played would be a better way to go about things. I also think inter league play has run it’s course. I miss the many times the Mets would play the Cards, Cubs, etc. I miss the west coast trips ( 1 time per team is not enough) and I think that has taken away a lot of the natural rivalries that would fill up the park.
    • XtreemIcon January 28, 2012 at 12:09 pm

      I agree about interleague. I’d concede the geographical rivalries (Mets/Yanks, Nats/O’s, Dodgers/Angels, etc.) and take six games a year for a series at each park, but that’s all. No two weeks of baseball that sees the Mets play the White Sox or Mariners, or anything like that.
    • Clayton Collier January 28, 2012 at 12:17 pm

      To be honest, –I have actually been thinking about making a post about this– I think the added playoff spots are not only an effort to keep more teams/fans into the game through September/October, but also to compete with Football and Basketball.

      Interest in baseball has been declining for a long time and with the lockouts going on at the time, I think baseball saw an opportunity to gain a bit more popularity. Basketball has 16/ 30 make the playoffs, football has 12/32, baseball –at the time– had 8/30. More often than not, by mid to late August, you are looking at about 10-15 teams at most still in the mix. Basketball and football have AT LEAST half of their teams in the mix by week 14/15 or the last two weeks of the basketball season.

      With a new generation of fans gravitating towards football and basketball over baseball, I saw this move as a chance to bring fans back into the ballparks and following the season from start to finish. There are unfortunately not a lot of baseball fans left, strictly a fan of a specific team.

      For example, Rockies fans who once the team is out, focus on the Broncos or the the Nuggets instead. Now with the new playoffs, the Rockies have a chance down the stretch, keeping more fans in Coors Field.
  • theonlymaskman January 29, 2012 at 8:50 am

    I agree that the one game playoff distorts the end result. If you’ve played an entire season, why should the outcome be overturned by one game? Let the regular season determine the outcome rather than take the slot away from the team that actually earned it on the basis of a single game. Instead of the one game playoff, if an additional wild card team is considered desireable, then just factor that into the playoff structure and let all the wild cards earn their slot by going head to head against the top seeds as part of the first playoff round instead of against each other. In most instances, the wild cards will then get knocked out and we can proceed to the real playoffs, and should a wild card happen to win, they will truly have earned the right to continue through.
• XtreemIcon January 28, 2012 at 12:11 pm

  I like the extra team. It’s put a ton of pressure and incentive on winning the division and not subjecting yourself to a one-and-done game that could screw up your rotation. All too often we’ve seen teams mail in the last few weeks because at least they have a playoff spot locked up. Now that teams will fight for the division, it’ll make for more competitive games down the stretch for more teams.
• Joey D. January 28, 2012 at 1:21 pm

  I agree 100% with those who preferred the old winner take all system. Team with the best record after a grueling 162 game schedule is crowned champion of division and plays other champions. No second best, only the best.

  Perhaps if all teams played each other in a balanced schedule, with no team having an advantage of the weakest clubs being in their own division (and no inter-league) then the wild card would be fairer. But even this revamping of the schedule would have it’s own drawbacks. Yes, last year’s final day was great but the competition itself was fraudulent – Tampa Bay and Atlanta played teams that already secured their division and treated it like an exhibition contest while Boston played the lowly Orioles who, with their adrenelian running, played like it was the seventh game of the world series.

  Baseball always differentiated itself from other sports by having true champions while mediocre teams in NBA and NHL had as equal a chance at winning a championship as those with the best regular season records. Whatever regular season excitement there was dealt with these mediocre teams playing under the “pressure” of securing the last playoff spot. It makes the regular season meaningless. All teams do is secure a seeding in a playoff tournament. That’s what baseball will become with the addition of a fifth playoff team. How many teams with just 84 victories will in turn become world champions?

  But of course, we are talking about the integrity of the sport. MLB cares less about that than they do creating artificial excitement to draw more fans. But we’re stuck with it so, like it or not, here’s hoping the Mets make it as a wild card entry. Means no more “we’re number one” chants like we had in 1969 but at least we can now have ones that boast “we’re number five”.
• Alan January 29, 2012 at 10:23 am

  Expanding the playoffs by adding another wild card team is fine but the first round should be the two wild card winners facing off against each other in a best of three series. This would also give incentive and reward for the division winning teams as they would have an extra few days to rest and set up their pitching rotations.

  In so far as rivalry’s with inter league play go…..do Met fans really care about seeing the Twins, White Sox or the Mariners comes to Citi Field?

  There was talk of moving the Astros to the American League to enhance their Texas Ranger rivalry and to balance the leagues teams. Doing this enables the math to work out when the schedule looks like this….

  Mets play their N.L. Eastern division rivals 18 games each total 72 games

  Mets play all other N.L teams 6 games each 60 games

  Mets play A.L . East teams 6 games each 30 games

  Traveling becomes easier for players…cheaper for owners!

  And perhaps most important is that for a wild card team to win the World Series it will be a little tougher and once again make winning the division more important!