MLB To Announce Expanded Playoffs For 2012

[Gallen5862]

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/

MLB To Announce Expanded Playoffs For 2012
By Tim Dierkes [February 29 at 3:32pm CST]
3:32pm: MLBPA executive director Michael Weiner told Bob Nightengale of USA Today that "we'll have an answer in the next couple of days." Nightengale confirms that players and owners have agreed to expand the postseason for 2012.

[redsfaninbsg]

Basically, if the Reds miss the playoffs now we will all be furious.

[AtomicDumpling]

As if having 2nd place teams winning the World Series wasn't bad enough. Might as well open the doors to 3rd place teams as well.

Why play 162 games to determine the best teams if you are going to allow teams into the playoffs that have already proven they are not the best?

Winning the World Series used to mean that your team had a great season and earned a hallowed place in history. Now it often means that your team proved they weren't all that good in the regular season but snuck into the post-season anyway, caught a few breaks and had a little hot streak at the right time. Teams that can't even win their own little division do not deserve a chance to earn a spot in history. It cheapens the World Series championship and dilutes the accomplishments of the great teams of yesteryear to now be lumped in with some of the mediocre World Series winners of recent years. 2nd place = not good enough, or at least it used to.

How far will Bud Selig go? Won't be long until MLB sinks to the level of the NFL, NBA and NHL where the regular season is almost meaningless and only the playoffs matter.

Making the postseason used to be an exhilarating experience for the fans because it meant your team was thisclose to winning a World Series, but now it doesn't really mean much since 1/3 of all teams make it. Then you still have to win a big tournament before you can claim the championship. It is kind of like youth athletics nowadays where everybody gets a trophy even if you stink.

[1990REDS]

Originally Posted by AtomicDumpling

As if having 2nd place teams winning the World Series wasn't bad enough. Might as well open the doors to 3rd place teams as well.

Why play 162 games to determine the best teams if you are going to allow teams into the playoffs that have already proven they are not the best?

Winning the World Series used to mean that your team had a great season and earned a hallowed place in history. Now it often means that your team proved they weren't all that good in the regular season but snuck into the post-season anyway, caught a few breaks and had a little hot streak at the right time. Teams that can't even win their own little division do not deserve a chance to earn a spot in history. It cheapens the World Series championship and dilutes the accomplishments of the great teams of yesteryear to now be lumped in with some of the mediocre World Series winners of recent years. 2nd place = not good enough, or at least it used to.

How far will Bud Selig go? Won't be long until MLB sinks to the level of the NFL, NBA and NHL where the regular season is almost meaningless and only the playoffs matter.

Making the postseason used to be an exhilarating experience for the fans because it meant your team was thisclose to winning a World Series, but now it doesn't really mean much since 1/3 of all teams make it. Then you still have to win a big tournament before you can claim the championship. It is kind of like youth athletics nowadays where everybody gets a trophy even if you stink.

You don't think a 1 game playoff between cardinals/braves last season would have been exciting and made for great tv.

[1990REDS]

Sorry on my phone and did not mean to bold that section in your post

[blumj]

It's going to be fun, but people are still going to freak out when a 95 win team that used their best pitchers trying to win the division falls a game short and ends up losing the 1 game to an 88 win team that coasted to the 2nd WC and got their pitching lined up and rested.

[cumberlandreds]

This will actually help the division winners. The two wild cards will have to use their best pitcher in the one game playoff. Which will throw the rotation out of whack for the winner of that game. In a weird sort of way it legitimizes the regular season just a bit more, IMO.

[bucksfan2]

Originally Posted by cumberlandreds

This will actually help the division winners. The two wild cards will have to use their best pitcher in the one game playoff. Which will throw the rotation out of whack for the winner of that game. In a weird sort of way it legitimizes the regular season just a bit more, IMO.

Not necessarily. It all depends on how the season winds up. If you are contending for a division championship your going to keep your pitchers pitching on normal rest. The only time your going to set your rotation is if you are guaranteed something.

[WildcatFan]

My one gripe is that one game in baseball rarely determines the better team--it usually only determines the better ace. Also last year the AL East would have had three teams in, which, puke.

[muddie]

Originally Posted by AtomicDumpling

Why play 162 games to determine the best teams if you are going to allow teams into the playoffs that have already proven they are not the best?

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

[IslandRed]

If it's the format they were talking about last fall, I don't have a problem with it. They've come up with a format that accomplishes seemingly opposite goals: keeping hope alive in more places in September while making it far more important to win the division. The wild-card play-in game will be must-see TV. I usually don't give MLB credit for being that smart.

[1990REDS]

Originally Posted by IslandRed

If it's the format they were talking about last fall, I don't have a problem with it. They've come up with a format that accomplishes seemingly opposite goals: keeping hope alive in more places in September while making it far more important to win the division. The wild-card play-in game will be must-see TV. I usually don't give MLB credit for being that smart.

Agreed, I love how much emphasis this new format would put on winning your division.

[Gallen5862]

Think about this interesting scenario. Two teams end the season tied for the division lead. They also had the best record in the League. The winner of tie breaker game is a division champion and the loser is wildcard seed number 1. The team that knows it will be wildcard number 2 knows this in advance. They get their rotation lined up for the wildcard playin game. Meanwhile the wildcard number 1 team uses their ace and lost in the division playin game. Now a team that possibly could have been the team with the second best record in the league will be at a severe disadvantage to a weaker team.

[AtomicDumpling]

Originally Posted by 1990REDS

You don't think a 1 game playoff between cardinals/braves last season would have been exciting and made for great tv.

No I don't. Because neither one of those teams deserved to be in the playoffs last year. Both of them got smacked around in their own divisions and finished in second place by wide margins.

Do we really want to determine who gets a chance to win the World Series based on TV ratings?

Seems to me the goal should be to reward the best team with a championship, not create a system that makes it less likely that the best team wins the championship. How often in the era of expanded playoffs has the best team in baseball won the World Series? Not very often.

It used to be that the World Series winner had a very strong claim to being the best team in baseball that year. Nowadays that is simply not the case. For example, the Cardinals last year were nowhere close to the best team in baseball, and not coincidentally we saw one of the worst-played World Series in history as a result. That mediocre Cardinals team earned the same accolade as the great 1975-76 Big Red Machine. It cheapens the honor earned by great champions of the past to be lumped in the same category as the 2nd-place champions of the wild card era.

[BCubb2003]

We could have the coaches and sportswriters vote for the champion, like in a poll or something.

But I always wondered why the 63rd to 66th best college basketball teams in the country act like they expect a shot at the championship.