Additional Wild Card

[Moose Wallbanger]

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=800588

 

Read the article about Selig possibly adding another WC to both leagues in the future. How would that work with only 1 additional WC in each league? 5 playoff teams means a bye for one team all the way to the LCS. I propose that MLB looks at breaking down the divisions one more time to possibly gain more races and adds two WC per league. As it stand right now only 8 of 30 make the playoffs, by far the least of NFL (12 of 32) and NBA (16 of 30...a joke by the way). If 2 WC are added, then still 12 of 30 is better than the NBA. With the top two teams in each league getting a bye to the next round.

 

Proposed Realignment (NFL Style):

NL East NL North NL South NL West

1. NYM 1. MIL 1. ATL 1. LAD

2. PHI 2. CHC 2. HOU 2. SD

3. WAS 3. CIN 3. FLA 3. SF

4. PIT 4. COL 4. STL 4. ARI

 

AL East AL North AL South AL West

1. NYY 1. CWS 1. TEX 1. LAA

2. BOS 2. DET 2. TAM 2. OAK

3. BAL 3. MIN 3. KC 3. SEA

4. TOR 4. CLE

 

I would love this for the NL and hate it for the AL. 2 divisions with 3 teams! Don't think that would work. Just to play out the scenario though, assuming division winners and two wild cards, playoffs would have looked like this:

 

First Round Byes: NL (PHI, CHC)

First Round Matchups: NL (MIL @ LAD, NYM @ HOU)

 

First Round Byes: AL (LAA, TAM)

First Round Matchups: AL (MIN @ BOS, NYY @ CWS)

 

Even though it goes against my theory of having more races being created, the leagues could also realign back to East and West with the ability to have the two division winners and the top 4 teams after make the playoffs.

 

Proposed realignment (old MLB style):

 

NL EAST NL WEST AL EAST AL WEST

1. NYM 1. LAD 1. NYY 1. LAA

2. PHI 2. SD 2. BOS 2. OAK

3. WAS 3. SF 3. BAL 3. SEA

4. PIT 4. ARI 4. TOR 4. TEX

5. ATL 5. COL 5. DET 5. KC

6. FLA 6. MIL 6. CLE 6. CWS

7. CIN 7. CHC 7. TAM 7. MIN

8. HOU 8. STL

 

Takes away some races but look at the playoffs:

 

First Round Byes: NL (PHI, CHC)

First Round Matchups: NL (STL @ MIL, HOU @ NYM)

 

First Round Byes: AL (TAM, LAA)

First Round Matchups: AL (CWS @ BOS, MIN @ NYY)

 

Wow...surprisingly, either way, the only change if new teams are added is the Cardinals in for the Dodgers in teh second scenario and I think it is easy to argue that the Cardinals are the better team.

 

Since most of you guys are more in tune with the pulse of the league and I'm an infrequent contributor, I would like to hear your thoughts on how you think MLB would proceed if additional WC were implemented as Selig said. Keep in mind, the article did only mention 1 more per league. Throw me a scenario...

[Fatter than Joey]

5 playoff teams means a bye for one team all the way to the LCS.

 

I think the way they would do it -- is have a WC round, like the NFL did it a long time ago -- so effectively the 3 division winners would get byes, and after the WC round you would have 4 teams in each league.

[mls4]

Too much of a good thing. The one Wild Card worked, but let's not get greedy.

[dlk9s]

The reason baseball teams have champagne showers when they make the playoffs is that it's really hard to do so in MLB. I really don't like the idea of watering down the playoffs further.

[Diskono]

As happy as I am that we ended up with the wild card, I'd still prefer the old 2-division format. I'd even get rid of divisions altogether (and have the league winners go directly to the World Series), but that would be a travel/scheduling nightmare.

[jhart05]

I'd be fine with adding one wild card per League. Why would they consider this? Revenue of course.

 

I would give the team with the best record a bye to the LCS. But this may cause problems, as you'll have the two best teams sitting around for a week getting "cold".

 

On second thought, maybe this isn't such a good idea. Maybe just change the LDS to be a 7-game series and be done with it.

[Moose Wallbanger]

Maybe I'm just a traditionalist, but I wouldn't mind seeing the old format of two leagues, east and west, and adding 2 WC per league. I don't see any scenario where adding 1 works. I don't believe it dilutes making the playoffs. Yes four more teams make it, however, 8 out of 30 is an awfully low amount of teams making it every year, especially when you have the type of league without a salary cap that almost guarantees a Yankee and/or Red Sox presence every year.

[slack00]

I'd favor another wild card, with the assumption that it would add a "Wild Card" round. Having only 5 of 16 (or 14) teams make the playoffs still makes the regular season meaningful but this would also add additional meaning to each position. The race for positions would add excitement in itself. Also, it would reward Division winners with a little time off to get their rotation in order and to rest players.

[dadofandrew]

They'll go to 2 wildcards when they add 2 more teams, making 4 divisions of 4 in each league.

 

It'll probably happen sooner than you think. The game is peaking, so it makes sense. I would expect to hear about a "commission" soon.

[SoCal Brew Crew Fan]

I don't know how they add two more teams. Some of the recent adds are not exactly thriving. Tampa Bay made the playoffs and had poor attendance. Florida is a disaster. Weren't we trying to contract teams a few years ago. New cities would have to build stadiums and fill them...neither will be easy to do in this economic climate.

 

I think they should stick with what they've got. 4 teams in each league gives everyone a shot, but keeps it special to actually make the playoffs. The NBA and NHL regular seasons are a joke...I'd hate to see baseball's 162 game season be as meaningless as theirs.

[Invader3K]

My feeling is "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." The nice thing about MLB is that you don't have teams skirting in that really don't deserve to be there (though that is an arguable point we could re-hash all day), like in the NBA.

 

Some day they will add two more teams and things will even out, but until then, I hope they stick with the current system.

[jhart05]

I would really hope they don't go to 4 Divisions of 4.

 

Greater chance of a sub .500 team making the playoffs.

[dlk9s]

Maybe I'm just a traditionalist, but I wouldn't mind seeing the old format of two leagues, east and west, and adding 2 WC per league. I don't see any scenario where adding 1 works. I don't believe it dilutes making the playoffs. Yes four more teams make it, however, 8 out of 30 is an awfully low amount of teams making it every year, especially when you have the type of league without a salary cap that almost guarantees a Yankee and/or Red Sox presence every year.

This is the same number of teams that make the playoffs now, just reshuffled.

[logan82]

I guess I wouldn't be to bothered by adding one more wild card if they did it as a 3 game series. I would rather just stick with the current playoff format. The playoffs already go to deep into the fall and the bad weather. If every team that built a stadium was smart enough to get one with a roof, I wouldn't have a problem with extended playoffs.

[holybannana]

I think it's fine as it is. It's special for most teams to just make the playoffs.

 

Baseball plays every night almost and it's all about the pennant race in September and parts of August. That's such an exciting time of the year in this sport as the last couple years have showen. Temas slip and others rise in the final weeks and all hell breaks loose.

 

I enjoy the race to the playoffs. Other sports have it to an extent, but baseball, with so many games, has insane volatility this time or year.

 

And getting there is pretty special.

 

In baseball, every team in the playoffs is really good and had a good year. In football and especially basketball, there are always a team or two (or more) that basicly suck, backed in and don't really deserve to be there.

 

The teams that performed for 162 games shouldn't have to have their odds of making the WS even less.