so with selig strongly considered playoff expansion..

[KPJR]

gives us more reason to play it out next season and not force things...

2012 is the year

[Avenger]

I think playoff expansion is a done deal, the last time MLB decided to expand the playoffs, it was approved by a 22-1 vote by the board of governors(George W Bush was the lone dissenter), there's no way Selig would talk so much about it if he didn't have the required support.

What i'm guessing will happen
-season not shortened
-season starts a little bit early(4-5 days?)
-3 division winners and 2 wild cards for each league, 10 team playoffs
-wild cards face of each other the day after game 162 for a three game series. Division winners get a bi
-Division series get expanded to 7 games.

[baulderdash77]

Bud said last week that the divisional round will stay at 5 no matter the expanded playoffs.

I think they're looking to go to 10 teams as well, but IMO they should go to 12 teams- a la NFL format. It's much more balanced than a 10 team format. 3 divison winners & 3 wild cards per league. The top 2 teams get a bye and the bottom 4 teams slug it out.

Or if they were going to go with a 10 team format, then IMO they should re-align to 4 divisions instead of 6 divisons. It brings a more balanced schedule so the real "best" 10 would make it. 2 division winners and 3 wild cards.

But this is baseball so there's no way they have this "radical" of a playoff expansion or re-alignment.

[baulderdash77]

By the way, I think it's worth discussing that with an extra wild card team, we would have been in the playoffs 3 times since 1994 going back.

We would have been in the running another handfull of times so things would have been more interesting around here. Not to mention all the times that we packed it in a bit early because we weren't in the race or would have been buyers rather than sellers (i.e. this year). I digress, but we would have a profoundly different strategy with expanded playoffs.

Back to reality- It bodes well for us and with us this close to the 2nd wildcard spot. If there is an extra wild card, then we should go for it since we're so close.

[DonYon]

I hope this happens sooner than later. I'd rather not have the playoffs expanded when the jays are finally a 95 win team.

[darth_federer]

The only thing I dont like is that hes proposing that the wildcards play each other in a 3 game series. I think it should be a 5 game series.

[Avenger]

The only thing I dont like is that hes proposing that the wildcards play each other in a 3 game series. I think it should be a 5 game series.

It can't be five, you can't start the Division series a week after the season ends, that's too big of a layoff, you're essentially punishing the Division winners

[SolomonSkyHook]

I think the best thing to do is remove all inter-league games 18 games(6 series).

Use all 18 games to extend series vs teams out side of the division. 1 extra game to a home series, 1 extra game to an away series.

take away 1 series vs a division team(12 games).

So, the season is reduced to 150 games.

playoff are as follows:
-8 teams make the playoffs
-division winners not guaranteed top 3 seed.
-ranking is by record
2010 rank would of been the following under this format:
1) Rays
2) Yankees
3) Twins
4) Rangers
5) Red Sox
6) White Sox
7) Jays
8) Tigers or A's

(1) 1 vs 8, 5 game series
(2) 4 vs 5, 5 game series
(3) 3 vs 6, 5 game series
(4) 2 vs 7, 5 game series

(1) vs (2), 7 games series
(3) vs (4), 7 games series

(1 or 2) vs (3 or 4), 7 games series

World Series, 9 games series