Wednesday July.18/2012

The Pirates started today one game behind the Reds and are the leader of the 1st Wild Card Spot in the NL. Officially, they are 3 games up on the Dodgers for the playoff bar. With the 2nd Wild Card Team added to each League, this gives Pittburgh their best chance to make the postseason in 20 years.

Chuck Booth (Lead Baseball Writer and @chuckbooth3024 on twitter)- With 2 weeks before the non-waiver trade deadline, there are 21 teams within 6 games or less for the ten playoff positions.  Parity has officially hit the MLB like we have never seen before.  The Yankees are leading the AL East Division by 9.5 games, so the other 4 teams in the AL East enter action knowing they still have a chance.  Mr Selig’s idea for the 2nd wild card has definitely kept playoff dreams alive for teams that would have been otherwise doused  in the races.  Baseball purists seem to hate the notion that more playoff teams breaks the tradition of yesteryear.  I think that ten teams of 30 is still a great ratio (33.33%) compared to the three other Major Sports for percentage of teams making the playoffs.  The NFL has 12 teams out of 32 make the playoffs (37.5%) and are the highest revenue generated sport.  Both of the NBA and NHL have 16 out of 30 teams make  the playoffs-which is 53.33%. 

What I also like is that the new format penalizes the Wild Card teams and puts more of an emphasis on winning the divisions.  Gone will be the days (like last year) where the Yankees mailed it in being happy to just lock down a playoff position and rest their veterans instead of going for the pennant.  The one game playoff for those two Wild Card teams will have the teams playing for the division till the end.  Having said this, I just reminded myself of that big lead for the Yankees, so they will probably have a chance to rest their guys this year anyways.  The Rangers and Angels are a better example.  I believe that Los Angeles will make a charge at the Texas club.  None of these two teams wants to see their lives come down to a one game playoff, so if they remain close, this could be a great divisional race. Read the rest of this entry →