MLB adding another wild card team per league

Christophersp10 · Post #1 » by **Christophersp10** » Wed Feb 29, 2012 8:06 pm

Per Ken Rosenthal.

Official announcement tomorrow.

Expect Wild Card A and Wild Card B to play in a 1 game playoff for the winner to move into the playoffs.

personally, I like the idea. It forces teams to go out and win their division and not settle on the Wild Card. It also keeps the season interesting for a couple of other teams who are fighting for that second spot.

Post #2 » by **dockingsched** » Wed Feb 29, 2012 8:33 pm

i like it a lot.

High 5 · Post #3 » by **High 5** » Wed Feb 29, 2012 11:44 pm

A one-game playoff is always exciting, but it's a stupid way to decide a team's season outside of ties. A team can win 95 games and then on a single flukey error or missed call can have their entire season ended by a team that only won 85 games. That makes an already too long season feel even longer.

Post #4 » by **craig01** » Thu Mar 1, 2012 12:36 am

I like it a lot. I just wouldn't want it to evolve into a 3 or 5 game series down the road

As far as the 95 win wild card team being ousted on a potential fluke, aren't they already gifted in by being a wild card?

High 5 · Post #5 » by **High 5** » Thu Mar 1, 2012 2:00 am

craig01 wrote:I like it a lot. I just wouldn't want it to evolve into a 3 or 5 game series down the road

As far as the 95 win wild card team being ousted on a potential fluke, aren't they already gifted in by being a wild card?

Not if they're the second best team in the league.

Post #6 » by **craig01** » Fri Mar 2, 2012 12:56 am

High 5 wrote:
craig01 wrote:I like it a lot. I just wouldn't want it to evolve into a 3 or 5 game series down the road

As far as the 95 win wild card team being ousted on a potential fluke, aren't they already gifted in by being a wild card?

Not if they're the second best team in the league.

But also second in their division

High 5 · Post #7 » by **High 5** » Fri Mar 2, 2012 2:41 am

Bottom line, the second best team in the league after 162 games deserves more than 1 game in the postseason. You can't treat baseball like football. It does the sport a horrible injustice IMO.

Post #8 » by **Da Schwab** » Fri Mar 2, 2012 10:57 pm

High 5 wrote:Bottom line, the second best team in the league after 162 games deserves more than 1 game in the postseason. You can't treat baseball like football. It does the sport a horrible injustice IMO.

This is exactly how I feel about this more perfectly stated than I could've.

Post #9 » by **Rafael122** » Sat Mar 3, 2012 12:26 am

Good news for the Nats!

Apathy · Post #10 » by **Apathy** » Sat Mar 3, 2012 4:55 pm

what a gimmick

Dirty Water · Post #11 » by **Dirty Water** » Mon Mar 5, 2012 4:57 pm

High 5 wrote:Bottom line, the second best team in the league after 162 games deserves more than 1 game in the postseason. You can't treat baseball like football. It does the sport a horrible injustice IMO.

Well that may have happened before 1995 too so I don't think this is really a step in the wrong direction.

I like it much better than the old system. I just think they shouldn't have instated it until realignment in 2013 when the Astros move to the AL West. Has anyone seen the travel and series schedule format for the playoffs this year? It's absurd. The LDSs are a 2-3 format... meaning yes, a wild card gets the first two games of the series at home against the #1 seed. Because otherwise wild card teams could potentially have to play 3 games in 3 cities in 3 days... or even worse if there is an actual one-game play-in game.

So we are potentially looking at a team playing game 162, 163 tie-break, wild-card play in, LDS series all in a row in 3 different cities.

meatball sub · Post #12 » by **meatball sub** » Tue Mar 6, 2012 4:36 pm

craig01 wrote:I like it a lot. I just wouldn't want it to evolve into a 3 or 5 game series down the road

I'm in the same boat. If they made it a play-in series, it would only be for money. Sure, eventually one of these games will be won on a fluke play and pundits will be calling for an extended series so flukes don't happen. But if it ever really happened, it will mainly be because of the extra television money it would generate. The fluke would give them a reason to do so.

As far as the play-in game, any time you can get more teams thinking they have a shot at the postseason it's good for the game. If anything, this makes those "meaningless" games in April and May that much more important for everyone because, like many have said, it puts a greater emphasis on winning your division instead of settling for the wild card. There are going to be four or five more teams playing their asses off in August and September because of this new system.

We'll see more tightly contested division races down the stretch and that's a big win for the game overall.