PLAYOFF EXPANSION

Pending Baseball Player’s Association approval, Bud Selig, Commissioner Major League Baseball announced that the playoffs will be expanded to an extra team in each league!

Expansion means 10 teams will now qualify for the playoffs, instead of eight that have existed.

Depending on the competition in each division, you could conceivably have three teams from one division making the playoffs! If anything, it makes is very interesting to have an additional 1-game playoff between the wildcard teams, then the three game series for the winner, before the seven game World Series.

In 2011, in the American League East, the collapse of the Boston Red Sox would not have been, they would have qualified for the playoff, along with the New York Yankees winning the division and the Tampa Bay Rays gaining the playoff spot they did get. There is the example of the first three teams in the American League East getting to the playoffs. In the National League East, the Atlanta Braves would have qualified to win the final spot in the playoffs.

My guess is that the team with the best record would get a bye, while the two wild card teams would play one game, then move on to a three game series with the second best record in the league, then the winner advances to the league championship game, probably a best of seven.

Is it good for baseball?

Revenue wise it is a great idea because both TV and locally, the teams involved generate more income. For the team winning it’s division and the best record in their league, it is an incentive to play hard to get a bye.

But that may mean changing the compensation of the additional team impacting the playoff structure. It could also water down the prestige of the World Series if the team with the worst record to qualify went all the way. Would the World Series lose its meaning, being how (a some could argue ‘marginal’) team gets hot and wins it all?

Way back in the late 60’s before the playoffs came into being, you had one team from each league meeting for the world championship of baseball. There was simply 10 teams form the American League, and 10 teams from the National League, and the winner of each league met in the World Series. Then Baseball expanded to 12 teams and 6 team divisions, 2 in each league as the need for divisions became apparent.

Do you think it is watering down the value of the World Series as representing the true champions? Comments?