Should Baseball Expand # Of Playoff Teams?

[Greg Ambrosius]

This topic hasn't gotten much play recently, but it's big, big news as far as I'm concerned. I think Jayson Stark first came up with this idea and it sure looks like Bud Selig is pressing forward on it. MLB wants to expand the number of playoff teams to 10 soon and with it would be an additional playoff team and a quick playoff round for the two lowest wild card teams. The good news is that the regular season will likely remain at 162 games.



Here's the Associated Press story from two weeks ago:



ORLANDO, Fla. -- Commissioner Bud Selig's plan to expand baseball's playoffs to 10 teams gained a sense of inevitability after little to no opposition emerged during meetings this week with owners and general managers.



Selig said his special 14-man committee will discuss adding two wild-card teams when it meets Dec. 7 during the winter meetings in nearby Lake Buena Vista.



"We will move ahead, and move ahead pretty quickly," Selig said Thursday after three days of meetings concluded.



A change would have to be approved by owners, who next meet Jan. 12-13 in Paradise Valley, Ariz., and by the players' association, which has said it is open to the extra round. The additional games would also have to be sold to baseball's national television partners and slotted into a crowded schedule that has already pushed the World Series into November in the past two years.



Because baseball's labor contract runs to December 2011, the extra round of playoffs is not likely to start until 2012.



"I'm not going to rule out anything," Selig said. "We'll just proceed and whatever we decide, then we'll just see how fast we can get it done. Once we pass something, I'm always anxious to get it done."



Selig's committee includes managers Tony La Russa, Jim Leyland and Mike Scioscia and former manager Joe Torre.



There would be two wild-card teams in each league, and the wild-card teams would meet to determine which advances to division series with the three first-place teams in each league.



"I think it's definitely worth looking at. I have no problem with that," New York Yankees co-owner Hank Steinbrenner said.



Some would have the new round be best-of-three, and others would have it as a one-game winner-take-all game. The mechanics appear to be at issue more than the concept.



"I pretty much know where all the constituencies are now," Selig said. "Eight is very fair number but so is 10."



Before leaving the meeting, Texas Rangers president Nolan Ryan agreed with the premise that the extra round of playoffs was more a matter of how than if.



"I think that's right," he said.



Baseball doubled its postseason teams to four in 1969 and again to eight in 1995, a year later than intended because of a players' strike that wiped out the 1994 World Series. The vote to add wild cards first took place in September 1993.



"I got ripped and torn apart, and it was pretty bad," Selig said. "If I had defiled motherhood I don't think I could have gotten ripped any more than I did. But now it's fascinating to me. Now they not only like it so much, they want more of it."



The regular-season schedule will almost certainly not be reduced from 162 games.



"There's not much interest in that," he said.



Selig's committee will also discuss whether to expand video review of umpires' calls, which began in August 2008. Its use has been limited to whether potential home runs went over fences and were fair or foul. Selig has said he's against an expansion but willing to consider it.



"There are opinions everywhere on that," he said. "Managers have opinions. General managers have opinions. Owners have opinions. I want to hear them all and look at them."



A consensus also appeared to have developed to propose a slotting system for amateur draft picks and possibly a worldwide draft when collective bargaining begins next year.



While there is a sense that the NFL, NBA and NHL could be headed for labor strife, baseball players and owners anticipate stoppage-free bargaining. Baseball hasn't had a strike or lockout since the 7½-month walkout in 1994-95, and Selig termed current dealings with the union "a constructive relationship."



"Nobody ever could have dreamed we'd have 16 years of labor peace," Selig said. "In American labor history as I someday will say if I ever get around to writing my book, it probably was as a bad a relationship as ever existed."



Selig also said that baseball's revenue will total nearly $7 billion this year, a record. He also said he was declining comment on Anheuser-Busch's lawsuit against the sport, which accuses MLB of improperly trying to back out of an April agreement to extend the company's exclusive sponsorship deal.



Thoughts??

[Navel Lint]

With the very real possibility of a NFL lockout next fall, MLB has a great opportunity to take center stage in the sports world. An extra round of playoffs (best of 3), would add some excitement both to baseball as a whole and to two extra cities in particular.



I say do it and start with the 2011 season.

[ToddZ]

I like it primarily because it put emphasis back on winning the division for the teams that come from the division sporting the wild card as well as throwing a bone to the division winners, as the WC teams will have to burn at least one pitcher.



Of course, this all depends on who is available after potentially fighting for the playoff spot that last week, but more often than not, it should put the WC winner at a competitive disadvantage with respect to lining up the staff. That said, a counter argument can be made that the division winners may suffer after being idle for 3 or 4 days.



I just think it took some fun out of the season that this year Tampa and the Yankees, and in other years different combination of Boston, NYY and TAM could care less if they won the AL East or took the wild card.



I'm also for the scheduling of DH in season to shorten the time but not the length of the season.

[freddiezee]

They should start using the expanded system as soon as possible. It will maintain interest in more cities during the latter part of the season, even if for some cities it is just a small hope by August. As a Jays fan it would be nice to know that if they could even finish third in the AL East they would have a slim chance to make the playoffs.

Also, like Todd said, it will bring back the importance of September division games in the stronger divisions.

[751542]

freeze,



pleasure reading your post, i believe in my existence you are the 1st admitted jays fan...go bautista!!

[DOUGHBOYS]

What I'd like to see...



Put 15 teams in the American League.

15 teams in the National League.

Best of 21 World Series...





It won't happen in my lifetime, but the evolvment of all sports will begin to treat regular seasons as pre-season's.

Somebody in the future will say, 'Why should ANYBODY be eliminated before playoffs or post-season, ALL teams deserve a chance to win'.

It sounds silly to say now, and some are probably chuckling or thinking I am overly synical. And that's fine.



[ December 06, 2010, 01:12 PM: Message edited by: DOUGHBOYS ]

[Greg Ambrosius]

I don't mind it as long as MLB:



** Leaves the regular season at 162 games

** Makes the wild-card no less than best of three

** Does that in 3 days to make wild card teams work hard and so the teams with byes don't sit too long



If they do that and start the divisional series by Friday at the latest then it's okay. But if teams wait a full week, it could actually hurt those teams who get the byes and then the World Series will definitely last into November. I don't want to see that.



Heck, I don't even like the Wednesday MLB start date and nobody has talked about that yet. Starting the season mid-week before the Final Four seems odd and the weather that first week is going to be just brutal for Midwest teams. Early April is bad enough, but starting in late March? Yikes.