MLB expands playoff format from 8 teams to 10

[alnorth]

Originally Posted by Valiant

So if understand it.

3 division winners.
Wc has to play another team in a 1game playoff, winner gets to advance?
What if the wc has 10+ more wins? That is dumb.

Fine before.

No, it wasn't fine before. The Wild Card was pretty much on equal footing with the division winners. One extra home game doesn't make much of a difference.

A couple years ago, the Yankees actually admitted that during their race with the Rays, near the end of the season they decided to rest some players and basically concede the AL East to the Rays. As the GM said, winning the division would have been just another hat and a T-shirt. That is damning more than anything else.

The wild card with more wins gets to host the knockout game, and the 3 division winners now get a real, huge reward over the Wild Cards. (The Wild Cards will likely have to use their best pitcher, and by doing so they probably wont be able to set things up to pitch him twice in the divisional round. So, a Wild Card team will be less able to ride on the back of one elite pitcher to glory)

Don't like it? Win your damned division.