Selig expects expanded playoffs to start this year

[NoGOPZone]

Commissioner Bud Selig expects baseball to expand its playoffs this season.

Players and owners have already agreed to add an additional wild-card team in each league, but are still deciding whether it would take effect this year or in 2013. Selig said there are scheduling issues to be worked out—once they are, the new 10-team format would begin with a one-game playoff.

“I really believe we’ll have the wild card for 2012, this year,” Selig said Friday night in Chicago at a White Sox fan festival. “Clubs really want it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an issue that the clubs want more than to have the extra wild card this year.

“We’re working on dates right now. That’ll all take place. It looks to me like we’ll have it because I’ve told everybody we have to have it. It’ll be exciting. One-game playoff, it will start the playoffs in a very exciting manner,” he said.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=AjYGB2hHoKcwbYGvW8T5BBQ5nYcB?slug=ap-expandedplayoffs

[Kingofalldems]

1. Looks like we have a shot

[Auggie]

2. "Clubs really want it." Did anyone bother to ask the fans?

One game playoff. Nothing but a greedy attempt to make more $ in postseason while making a mockery of a 162 game schedule. Plus an enormous waste of time.

WORST IDEA SINCE THE DH. I HATE IT.

[El Supremo]

3. This also means an additional tie breaker game if...

any teams are tied for a division and the other team would be a wild card. Since 1995 the team with the better head-to-head won the division in that case.

And it would now be possible for a third place team to win the World Series. (both wild cards from the same division)

Too many teams! Go back to two divisions each and have a three game series to break ties.

[KamaAina]

6. Well, it's already possible for a 9-7 mediocrity to win the Super Bowl

only New England stands in the way of such a farce.

And think of the AL East. Third place there isn't really all that bad.

But seriously, a one-game playoff? A pitching mismatch would decide that for sure.

[HuckleB]

8. Well, a 10-6 mediocrity won the Super Bowl last year.

If playoffs determine the league champion, then the possibility that the hottest or the healthiest team will win the championship, regardless of regular season performance.

[Upton]

4. This is going to be really unfair..

if I understand this new format correctly, you could be the first wild card and finish 6 games or so ahead of the added one, yet still have your entire season on the line in a 1 game playoff. If they're going to add a team, at least make it a 3 game playoff.

[Auggie]

5. Yep

What's more: You'd want your ace to start, right? But that screws up how you use him in the multiple game playoff to follow. So instead of seeing Tim Lincecum or Cliff Lee pitch twice we'd see maybe Barry Zito or Joe Blanton. Fucking perfect.

Keep it the way it is. This is bullshit.

[KamaAina]

7. At least we'd have a shot to see Lincecum and/or Zito pitch

instead of playing a pitching wedge onto the 16th green.

[HuckleB]

9. There are so many parts of it that make no sense.

This is baseball. If you're down to your fifth starter, or lucky enough to have your ace ready, then the odds of you winning this one game playoff are dramatically different.

It's ridiculous.