Major League Baseball’s halftime has arrived. The Home Run Derby is set to kick off tonight in Kansas City
This past November, Major League Baseball decided to implement a second wild card team in each league into the new CBA going forward.
The past postseason format, which contained only one wild card team from each league, was implemented in 1994 and was first officially put into playoff action during the 1995 postseason. Originally, the wild card team made it so each league would have an even number of four teams in the postseason. The wild card of course, being awarded to the team in each league with the best record of the non-division winners, (3 divisions in a league plus the wild card meant a four team playoff in each league).
This decision to expand the postseason to a non-division winning team back in 1994 had baseball purist in an up-roar and rightfully so. Yes, the wild card provides more excitement for fans at the end of a season (just use September, 2011 as a reference). However, purist felt that it took away the value of winning the division. In a way it did, but fast forward to now.
It seems obvious that die hard baseball fans would be outraged by the decision in the new CBA, to allow yet another wild card team into the playoff mix. Now a total of five teams from each league will have a shot at winning the World Series come October. It’s obvious these writers and fans would be ready to torch MLB headquarters, right? Wrong.
The addition of a second wild card team has put even more emphasis on winning the division.
How so?
Let’s call this new single elimination “Wild Card Showdown” what it really is…a PLAY-IN game.
If a team fails to win its division, but still has the best record amongst non-division winners, instead of automatically qualifying for baseball’s coveted postseason, that team will have to battle it out with the team that has the second best record of non-division winners.
This newly formed play-in game makes it so a team doesn’t want to settle on winning the wild card race, because it will put them at a huge competitive disadvantage, even for the team that wins the play-in game.
When a 162 game season is coming to a close, starting pitchers are at a premium for those teams in playoff mode. The extra game for wild card teams means that both teams’ aces might have to start in the single elimination contest. This suggests that a team’s ace could miss the entire best 3 out of 5 Division Series, not to mention the ware of a play-in game on a team’s bullpen.
Managers may perhaps manage to avoid this, but with tight finishes on the horizon in both leagues, that scenario is unlikely.
All we can do now is sit back and enjoy Major League Baseball’s second half. With the importance put back on winning the division, it will surely afford fans with even more excitement by the time September rolls around.
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