MLB to Expand Playoffs, Add Wild-Card Teams

Major League Baseball and its Players Association are closing in on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement, hoping to announce the new plan during the 2011 World Series.  While several issues are still up for debate, both sides have apparently agreed on a plan for playoff expansion.  It’s being reported that MLB will add another wild-card team and that a one game playoff will be added to determine who moves on to the ALDS.

While nothing is official yet, sources are saying that this new playoff system could fall into place as early as next season.  Because the current CBA expires in December, it’ believed that the additional wild-card round would begin no later than 2013.

Players and management are for the idea, as it will allow more teams to contend for playoff spots.

But, while this is something both sides can generally agree upon, the big players in all of this are the television networks.  This is another way for the league to generate money, as they will now have two additional teams to sell to TV.

Both teams and networks support a sudden-death game as opposed to another best-of-three series.  Players don’t want to see that much down time for division winners.  Networks believe that the drama of a single-elimination contest would generate higher ratings.

While this appears to be all but a done deal, there are still those who oppose the idea of an added wild-card team and playoff round.  Their reasoning is sound in my opinion.

Say two teams claim the final wild-card spot, one far superior to the other during the regular season.  As we all know, any team can beat any other team on any given day.  This factor is supposed to be limited during best-of series.  Is it really fair for an inferior team to move on to the ALDS because they could win a single game against a far superior opponent?

This question as well as the general debate over levels of competition between divisions is another issue driving negotiations.  One way to solve or at least lessen the problem would be to divide the leagues into two 15 team divisions.  This way teams in different divisions would have similar schedules.

The division divide and draft-slotting are two of the larger issues holding up talks.  Still, Major League Baseball is in far better shape than other professional sports, as their deadline still seems attainable.