I may be in the minority on this one, but I don't like that move. I'm still not sure how I feel about having wild cards in baseball period.
That's lame. If you win the wild card in a 162 regular season based on your record, you should not have to win a one game playoff to get to advance.
I would be somewhat supportive of this move if it was at least a best-of-three. But a one game playoff? **** that noise.
I'm with you. I understand people saying this will add meaning to winning a division, but at the same time it already meant a guaranteed playoff spot, while the wild card has come down to the last game more often than not. Imagine if this had been in place last year, where would the excitement of the Braves/Red Sox collapses been? Instead it would have been just wasting time while the division leaders had run away with their divisions and we knew which 2 WC teams would be facing each other in a one game playoff. Might as well have cancelled the final week of the regular season.
Stupid move. I thought the playoff structure was perfect as is. It's a definite reward to make the playoffs after a long, grinding season. Don't dilute that.
I think that division has as much to do with the change as anything. Don't forget the Blue Jays in that mix. They have finished under .500 only once in the last six seasons and they haven't so much as sniffed the postseason.
Extra playoff spots is probably as close to revenue sharing as baseball will ever get; but don't be suprised if the unions protest that as well at some point.
I've hated what the current playoff system robbed us of. There has been no premium on winning a division, effectively robbing great playoff chases from us, particularly between the Yanks and Sox. This new system is all about putting a premium on winning a division...and minimizing the impact of winning a wild card spot. I'm fine with that. In a perfect world, I'd call the wild card stuff entirely...but that's not going to happen...so I'm happy there's at least some distinction between a division winner and a wild card winner.
I used to hate the wild card just because it existed. Then I came to like it in theory but hated it because it devalued winning the division. Now I like it but hate it because it involves a 1 game playoff which is stupid.