It was announced just before the 2020 regular started that the postseason will be expanded increasing the odds of Atlanta Braves making the playoffs.
Now, there was a good chance the Atlanta Braves were going to make the postseason in 2020 regardless. In fact, teams like the Braves who were favored to make the postseason may not be happy with expanded postseason as it makes their path to a World Series even hard with an additional round.
As it’s outlined, eight teams from each league will now make the postseason. The top three seeds will go to each division winner, the next three seeds go to the second-place teams in each division, and then there will be two additional wild card teams.
Those eight teams will matchup for a three-game series before advancing to the division series round. And the top seed in each matchup will have home-field advantage for the entire three-game series.
I always felt like this was going to happen, but I thought they’d get a done a little sooner and not wait until the last minute.
First, this is a great way for teams and players to try and recoup some of the revenue that will be lost in 2020 with a shortened season and no fans in the stands.
But most importantly for me as fan, there was just too much randomness in a 60-game season. Baseball is meant to be played as a marathon and not a sprint. Sixty games is just too short of a schedule to determine the best teams in baseball.
And even more than that, the schedules are completely unfair.
It’s not fair to a team like the Tampa Bay Rays that they now not only have to compete with the New York Yankees in the NL East, but they have to matchup with perhaps the deepest division in baseball in the NL East.
How as it going to be fair if they end up competing for a wild card spot with a team in the AL Central that gets to face the Tigers, Royals, and Pirates for a good part of their schedule?
It just made too much sense to expand the postseason for 2020.
However, I think it’s only needed for the 2020 season. As I said, baseball is built to be a marathon and it’s that journey of 162 games that makes baseball so fun and unique for me.
If they expand the postseason like this in the future then it essentially makes the regular season pointless. So while I love it for 2020, I’d hate it in a normal year. Let’s hope this is just temporary, but let us know your thoughts in the comments below.