Playoff Expansion: The Next Big Thing

The Rays, even at 70-58, need a miracle to get in the
playoffs.  With a second wild card, however, they
would be in the middle of a heated pennant race.

A 10-team playoff system is coming, and this is great excellent for Major League Baseball and its fans

It's an exciting time for Major League Baseball, as this year's October playoff schedule will most likely be the last not to include 10 teams fighting for a World Series championship.  Commissioner Bud Selig visited the Cubs TV booth, highly rare for the somewhat secluded comish, and although he couldn't commit to a definite yes on expansion, it seems all but decided upon so far.

The details of how it all will work won't come until after the World Series even if they have been decided on.  The general details include a plan to add a wild card team in each league, creating a 10-team postseason instead of the current eight and adding a 'wild card round' before the Division Series where the two wild cards would battle to earn a spot in the regular eight-team bracket.  The wild card round would be either a one-game win-or-go-home setup or a best-of-three series.  Both would skyrocket TV ratings to begin the postseason, which MLB could use as the TV ratings from the 2010 playoffs were wildly variable depending on the round.

What does this do for the regular season?  Think about this the next time you watch a Yankees-Red Sox game near the end of this season.  While the game is between two excellent teams fighting for postseason seeding, the game really doesn't mean anything at all.  One team will win the division and the other will take the wild card, but both make the playoffs.  Next year and beyond, that same Yanks-Sox game will decide who cruises into the playoffs with a few days off to rest up and get ready for the ALDS while the other has to battle on little rest in a frantic few games to even get into the ALDS.  I can't wait for this newest postseason development.  It tests the true character of baseball teams.  It challenges the game within the game, including the mental game that allows players to overcome adversity when their bodies are overwhelmed physically and mentally.  Those results should be exciting.

Yankees vs. Red Sox?  An intriguing and historical matchup
but not one that really matters currently regarding the playoffs.

This postseason, on the other hand, will just that same old, same old three-round eight-team system.  But if this season were 2012, who would still be battling it out for an increased chance at the playoffs now?  This year's wild card races are slightly disappointing, as the Yankees/Red Sox and Braves have run away with the respective spots for each leagues, holding at least a 7.5 game lead as of today.  The Rays and Angels, both at least 10 games over .500, are well out of the wild card race.  But if there was a second spot for them to fight for, the two teams would all over it and battling like we haven't seen.

If there was a second spot in the NL, the Giants would hold it by just two games over the fading Cardinals, who would suddenly catch a whiff of October and go after it.  Even the Reds at five games back or Nationals at six back could make a run for it.  The possibilities seem to go on and give so many more teams in the league life down the late stretch run that seems to fade in importance for most teams.

Fans crave October baseball and owners do too for the money it reels in.  It has to be highly frustrating for teams like those Rays and Angels, both very good teams this season but both of whom will need a miracle to play in October.  Adding this new spot opens the door for other teams in the league that might not even be competing for the division to get it anyway.  It almost seems too good to be true, but I can't even come up with an even somewhat-convincing counter argument.  It's just the right thing to do.  If Selig pulls the trigger on this one, it will mark a new era as baseball's most exciting pennant race ever.