Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig more or less put his stamp on this during an announcement late in January, but it not appears even more official that an expanded playoff system will be introduced in 2012. MLB’s new postseason system will include an additional wild-card team from each league and introduce a one-game playoff to determine which club moves on to the League Division Series.
Ken Rosenthal ‘broke’ this one, though official word of the expansion has been on the horizon for some time.
Michael Weiner, executive director of the MLB Player’s Association, later told Bob Nightengale of USA Today that an answer will be announced “in the next couple of days”. According to Nightengale, all that is needed is the official announcement as the players and owners have agreed on an expanded playoff format.
During a press conference late in January, Selig indicated that he couldn’t remember an issue that teams ever wanted more than the additional wild-card team.
The idea behind the expansion is that it will not only give an additional team from each league a shot at postseason play, but it will make the road to the World Series harder for wild-card teams. In this way teams will be rewarded more for winning their division.
There are also the additional do-or-die games that will be played before the more traditional series even begin. For these reasons, most around the game seem to be in favor of the expansion.
It’s hard to argue against expansion as most figure to be in agreement that the road to the World Series should be more difficult for wild-card teams as opposed to division winners. Not only that, but teams have another opportunity to make the postseason and baseball fans are guaranteed at least two play-in games per season.
What are your thoughts on playoff expansion?
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