St. Louis Cardinals: Bloggers sound off over new MLB Rules

Expanded Postseason

Daniel Shoptaw: The expanded postseason, for any year that is not 2020, really runs the risk of watering down the regular season. It was a known fact the NBA started at Halloween but nobody really watched until Christmas and nobody got invested until the playoffs. If we are spending every day with a team for six months, the games should matter.

I was glad to hear the commissioner was talking more about 14 teams than 16, though still too many. Of, course I’m a guy that never cared for the Wild Card and really still don’t, even though it has been beneficial for the Cardinals at times. If they expanded baseball by two teams, made four four-team divisions in each league, and took the winners of those divisions, that would be ideal for me because it would allow for more pennant races while still forcing you to win a division.

That’s not going to happen, and if they go to 14, I hope it is at least four of those teams are in a winner take all type of Wild Card game, so that it basically would be 12 teams in the postseason. 12 out of 32 would be palatable.

Ron Nuttall: I honestly don’t know how I feel about it yet. We haven’t seen how it will play out with this new format.  My knee jerk reaction was it will just water down the playoffs. But, you now have six more teams in it that you wouldn’t normally see in it, and I can see how excites more markets. Do you get the chance to generate more interest and fans whose teams normally don’t get to sniff the playoffs? Nevertheless, I would dread to see a sub .500 team in it. I see the good and bad in it, and whether it’s here to stay, we’ll have to see how the year plays out with it.

Jason Hill: Right now, I’m indifferent to it. Ask me again in a few weeks if the Cardinals sneak in and then, by some miracle win the World Series. I think the argument that it will lead to less aggressive player acquisition and spending is unfounded. It’s revenue not record that has the greatest impact on a team’s budget. Expanded postseason means more revenue, which will translate to more spending. Competitively, I see no difference. The first round intrigues me about as much as a late-season in-division rivalry. I won’t take things seriously until the Divisional round.

Russ Robinson: Once again, I’ve always considered myself a baseball traditionalist. I was originally against expanding the postseason to include a Wild Card team. I believed it would devalue division championships, and award lesser teams a chance to win the World Series. But the Wild Card grew on me and even when they expanded it to two Wild Card teams, I soon began to appreciate the whole Wild Card concept.

However, 10 of 30 teams in the postseason is enough. I understand, for revenue purposes, why they needed to expand the postseason for 2020, but to carry this forward into 2021 and beyond would devalue the regular season. Keep it at 10 teams for 2021.