MLB expands playoff format from 8 teams to 10

[Dback Jon]

Major League Baseball expanded its playoff format to 10 teams Friday, adding a second wild-card in each league.

The decision establishes a new one-game, wild-card round in each league between the teams with the best records who are not division winners, meaning a third-place team could win the World Series.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=Aj1etyURS0X6fqLHCFHJFj05nYcB?slug=ap-expandedplayoffs

 

[AzStevenCal]

I'll have to think about this but at first blush I don't see how it improves the game. I know a lot of people never cared for the Wild Card addition but I liked it. This almost seems designed to make up for the fact they added a wild card in the first place by further protecting the Division Winners.

Steve

 

[82CardsGrad]

I'll have to think about this but at first blush I don't see how it improves the game. I know a lot of people never cared for the Wild Card addition but I liked it. This almost seems designed to make up for the fact they added a wild card in the first place by further protecting the Division Winners.

Steve

I like it... I consider myself a baseball historian and purist, however, MLB has fallen so far over the past decade or so... they have to change things up and become more watchable, more fan-friendly, more appealing. I despise Selig, but, gotta give him credit here for getting this done. Now, instant replay MUST be next on the list!

 

[Dback Jon]

This does make the reward for WINNING the division all the more important, versus just making the playoffs

 

[AzStevenCal]

I like it... I consider myself a baseball historian and purist, however, MLB has fallen so far over the past decade or so... they have to change things up and become more watchable, more fan-friendly, more appealing. I despise Selig, but, gotta give him credit here for getting this done. Now, instant replay MUST be next on the list!

I agree with all this, I'm just not sure that a 1 game playoff does anything but lessen the value of the existing wild card spot. Up until today, home field advantage notwithstanding, the wild card teams had pretty much the same chance of winning it all as anyone but this extra wild card makes it somewhat less likely. Now, they have roughly a 50% chance of entering the group that up until this year they were already a part of. And for that extra team in each league, you've just changed them to a 163 game schedule.

Steve

 

[Mathew81]

This does make the reward for WINNING the division all the more important, versus just making the playoffs

That's the one aspect of this I like. Being division champs should mean more. I just hope this doesn't expand into another full 5-7 game round in the future.

 

[Kel Varnsen]

I like it... I consider myself a baseball historian and purist, however, MLB has fallen so far over the past decade or so... they have to change things up and become more watchable, more fan-friendly, more appealing. I despise Selig, but, gotta give him credit here for getting this done. Now, instant replay MUST be next on the list!

Yep.

You must be registered for see images attach