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The finagling over how to implement baseball’s expanded playoff format in time for the 2012 season continues, and Toronto Blue Jays reliever Carlos Villanueva is among those pushing to make it happen.

Under terms of the new collective bargaining agreement, a second wildcard team in each league is to be added by the 2013 season but commissioner Bud Selig has said he’d like to see the post-season expanded for the upcoming year.

Villanueva, elected by the players association’s executive board as an alternate representative in December, said Wednesday that the union has seen a proposed schedule and offered some feedback, adding, "I’m confident that we can get something done."

"Personally, I would like it to happen," he said. "I think it’s an opportunity, especially for a team like us, to get involved deeper in the race. But it depends on if both sides can get together and make something work."

The unresolved issues revolve primarily around scheduling, how best to shoehorn the one-game playoff into the existing post-season schedule, how to ensure that a team doesn’t have to make multiple cross-continent flights within a short span and how to satisfy the needs of the TV networks.

"It’s just planning everything out so everybody feels comfortable," said Villanueva. "We’re trying to work it out so it’s going to be fair."

March 1 has been mentioned as a deadline to get things done, but Villanueva said that wasn’t necessarily the case.

"I think if we’re going to do it, as long as we have something done before the season, I don’t see a problem, or why it couldn’t happen that way," he said.

A-Mac78 wrote:Why are they adding a one game wildcard playoff to expand the post season? It's moronic.

Copy the NFL system. 12 teams make the post season, the top 2 teams in each league get a first round bie. Much better for everyone, more ticket and tv revenue plus no more AL East being the division of doom for the Jays. They would just have to finish in the top 6 in the AL.

SharoneWright wrote:1-game playoffs are the definition of 'wildcard'.

SharoneWright wrote:1-game playoffs are the definition of 'wildcard'.

satyr9 wrote:

SharoneWright wrote:1-game playoffs are the definition of 'wildcard'.

I've actually changed my mind about 1 gamers completely since I heard about them, but I want it expanded. One thing I don't much like about larger playoffs is how much it negates coming in first overall, that includes now with just the one WC. So give me 7 playoff teams in each league, but 2-7 play 3 1 game WC playoffs and first is the only team with a bye.

I know that won't be everyone's cup of tea, it wouldn't have been mine a couple months ago either, but I've warmed up to the idea. That I dramatically prefer to making 4th and 5th the equivalent to 2nd tier playoff teams who don't rate a series. Embrace the 1 game playoff!

Michael Bradley wrote: I want the Jays to make it because they slayed the monsters (Boston/NY), and not because they got the second wild card and then won a one game "flip a damn coin" sudden death against a better team. It just waters down what I consider(ed) the only major sport left where making the playoffs is an accomplishment.
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The worst team in baseball can win a one game playoff against the best team in baseball. IMO, baseball should never have a one game playoff, unless there is a tiebreaker situation.

satyr9 wrote:

SharoneWright wrote:1-game playoffs are the definition of 'wildcard'.

I've actually changed my mind about 1 gamers completely since I heard about them, but I want it expanded. One thing I don't much like about larger playoffs is how much it negates coming in first overall, that includes now with just the one WC. So give me 7 playoff teams in each league, but 2-7 play 3 1 game WC playoffs and first is the only team with a bye.

I know that won't be everyone's cup of tea, it wouldn't have been mine a couple months ago either, but I've warmed up to the idea. That I dramatically prefer to making 4th and 5th the equivalent to 2nd tier playoff teams who don't rate a series. Embrace the 1 game playoff!

Parataxis wrote:

satyr9 wrote:

SharoneWright wrote:1-game playoffs are the definition of 'wildcard'.

I've actually changed my mind about 1 gamers completely since I heard about them, but I want it expanded. One thing I don't much like about larger playoffs is how much it negates coming in first overall, that includes now with just the one WC. So give me 7 playoff teams in each league, but 2-7 play 3 1 game WC playoffs and first is the only team with a bye.

I know that won't be everyone's cup of tea, it wouldn't have been mine a couple months ago either, but I've warmed up to the idea. That I dramatically prefer to making 4th and 5th the equivalent to 2nd tier playoff teams who don't rate a series. Embrace the 1 game playoff!

The thing is, adding a second wildcard actually makes coming in first MORE important, not less.

You come in first, you're in the playoffs - you get a wildcard, you need to play a 1 gamer to get in.

Michael Bradley wrote:The only good thing about expanded playoffs is it rewards the division winner. Other than that, I am against any type of playoff expansion, even if it may help the Jays. After 20 years of not making the playoffs, I want the Jays to make it because they slayed the monsters (Boston/NY), and not because they got the second wild card and then won a one game "flip a damn coin" sudden death against a better team. It just waters down what I consider(ed) the only major sport left where making the playoffs is an accomplishment.

I understand the extra WC will ultimately be good for baseball fans who may get a playoff race out of this (i.e. Toronto), but not a big fan of the way it is being presented. The worst team in baseball can win a one game playoff against the best team in baseball. IMO, baseball should never have a one game playoff, unless there is a tiebreaker situation.

SharoneWright wrote:

Michael Bradley wrote: I want the Jays to make it because they slayed the monsters (Boston/NY), and not because they got the second wild card and then won a one game "flip a damn coin" sudden death against a better team. It just waters down what I consider(ed) the only major sport left where making the playoffs is an accomplishment.
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The worst team in baseball can win a one game playoff against the best team in baseball. IMO, baseball should never have a one game playoff, unless there is a tiebreaker situation.

So you want a 13-game series between the 8th and 1st seed,,,, or you don't believe 162 games can't sort out the contenders from the pretenders???

Or you think the form of the playoffs matters more than the worth of the teams who get promoted from a marketing point of view?

satyr9 wrote:

SharoneWright wrote:1-game playoffs are the definition of 'wildcard'.

One thing I don't much like about larger playoffs is how much it negates coming in first overall, that includes now with just the one WC. So give me 7 playoff teams in each league, but 2-7 play 3 1 game WC playoffs and first is the only team with a bye.

Michael Bradley wrote:If the 2nd wild card had been implemented from 2002-onwards (last ten years) in the American League, then the first Wild Card team would have averaged almost FIVE more wins than the second Wild Card team (95.2 vs. 90.3).

Michael Bradley wrote:

SharoneWright wrote:

Michael Bradley wrote: I want the Jays to make it because they slayed the monsters (Boston/NY), and not because they got the second wild card and then won a one game "flip a damn coin" sudden death against a better team. It just waters down what I consider(ed) the only major sport left where making the playoffs is an accomplishment.
.
.
The worst team in baseball can win a one game playoff against the best team in baseball. IMO, baseball should never have a one game playoff, unless there is a tiebreaker situation.

So you want a 13-game series between the 8th and 1st seed,,,, or you don't believe 162 games can't sort out the contenders from the pretenders???

Or you think the form of the playoffs matters more than the worth of the teams who get promoted from a marketing point of view?

My thoughts on the playoffs are simple: either go back to the two division format that existed prior to the Wild Card implementation (so the playoffs start with the LCS) or keep things the way they are. The playoffs should be very hard to get into. Don't water it down with more teams.

If the 2nd wild card had been implemented from 2002-onwards (last ten years) in the American League, then the first Wild Card team would have averaged almost FIVE more wins than the second Wild Card team (95.2 vs. 90.3). So while the second Wild Card team over that span did at least average 90 wins (i.e. a very good team), it was still five wins less than the team they would be facing in a one game playoff to determine who moves on. Is that fair? If the Jays won the 2012 Wild Card with 96 wins and then had to play the Rays who won 91 games in a 1-game playoff, how would you feel about that?

Michael Bradley wrote:If the 2nd wild card had been implemented from 2002-onwards (last ten years) in the American League, then the first Wild Card team would have averaged almost FIVE more wins than the second Wild Card team (95.2 vs. 90.3). So while the second Wild Card team over that span did at least average 90 wins (i.e. a very good team), it was still five wins less than the team they would be facing in a one game playoff to determine who moves on. Is that fair? If the Jays won the 2012 Wild Card with 96 wins and then had to play the Rays who won 91 games in a 1-game playoff, how would you feel about that?

• Major League Baseball and the players' association continue to unravel the final details needed to implement the 10-team playoff field this year. Because the baseball calendar is already in place for 2012 and there is very little time left for this extra round of playoffs, there will probably be something of a high-wire act to squeeze everything in given how it's structured. But personally, I think it'll be great, because the new system will reinforce the integrity of what it means to win a division, and because the winner-take-all games have been tremendous theater during the last five years. The other day in Lakeland, retired manager Tony La Russa mentioned that in the discussion of commissioner Bud Selig's advisory board, there is a general sense that the wild-card teams have been given a relatively easy road in October, without much of a built-in handicap. La Russa noted that his 2011 Cardinals were one example of this on their way to becoming World Series champions.