Posted by Sabrina B. @gametimegirl
Major League Baseball and the union have agreed to expand the playoff field by two teams to 10, a change that will take effect in October.
At the time baseball’s new labor agreement was forged in December, sources from both sides said the expanded playoff field would be put in place for the 2012 season, provided the two sides could figure out how to squeeze in the extra playoff required.
It has been a complicated process because there is little flexibility in baseball’s October calendar.
Under the new format, the Nos. 4 and 5 seeds in each league — the wild-card teams — will meet in a one-game playoff, with the three division winners awarded a first-round bye.
The members of the advisory committee have told commissioner Bud Selig that they believed the wild-card teams’ path through the playoffs has been too easy, and the advantage for division winners has not been great enough. Baseball officials hope an expanded postseason field will alter the landscape, as well as keep more teams involved in the pennant races longer.
“The enthusiasm for the 10-team structure among our clubs, fans and partners has been overwhelming,” commissioner Bud Selig said in a statement. “This change increases the rewards of a division championship and allows two additional markets to experience playoff baseball each year, all while maintaining the most exclusive postseason in professional sports.”
If the format had been in place last season, the Atlanta Braves in the NL and the Boston Red Soxin the AL would have captured the extra playoff spot. Instead, each missed the postseason by a single game after epic September collapses.
“I would’ve taken it last year,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez joked Thursday.
At Red Sox camp Thursday, several players were wary of the change to the postseason.
“One game? That’s kind of crazy,” designated hitter David Ortiz said. “You know how many things we’ve got to move around and pack for one game? It’d make more sense for two wild cards to play at least a two-out-of-three series while the other teams take a break for three days because they won their divisions.”
The Texas Rangers have won their division the last two seasons and advanced to the World Series. Still, they like the new plan.
“I think it’s great,” infielder Michael Young said. “Another team gets in the playoffs and it makes it so that winning the division matters more.”
Rangers catcher Mike Napoli, noting that wild-card teams have fared well in the postseason of late — the St. Louis Cardinals were a wild-card team and won the World Series over Texas last year — said the new playoff format would give the division winners a little more of an advantage.
“That’s the way it should be, I think,” Napoli said. “You play 162 games with the goal in mind of winning the division. You want to make the playoffs and this gives another team a chance to do that, but the division is the big goal.”
WRITTEN BY: Information from ESPN The Magazine’s Buster Olney, ESPN.com senior Jayson Stark, ESPNDallas.com’s Richard Durrett, ESPNBoston.com’s Rick Weber and The Associated Press was used in this report & FULL STORY HERE
