…starts on the road against the #1 seed…no matter if it’s from the same division, right?

Obviously, the MLB was thinking of past games like Twins-Tigers, Padres-Rockies, and Rays-Red Sox, and ratings and money above all else. If it was a three game series, I wouldn’t have a problem with it…

If you had to play a one and done game, you are going to throw your ace out there, if you can, to keep you in it. That would lead to the wild card team going into the divisional series at a severe disadvantage when the other team has had 2 or 3 days off to line up their ace against potentially a #2 or #3 starter.

Seems so much has been made of what will likely change so little!

Number of Marlins division titles – 0

Number of Marlins World Series championships – 2

Simple math, folks. The truth cannot be fractioned.

The Cubs win 102 games but finish 2nd in the Central to a Cardinals team that happened to win more than102 games in the same season. The Cubs face a team that won 84 games in the new “one-and-done” one game playoff. The Cubs are winning, but a B.S. call by an umpire happens because there’s still no replay on safe/out calls and completely changes the momentum in the other teams favor. The other team comes back to win, and the Cubs lose. The team that finished the regular season 18 games behind the Cubs advance to the Division Series, and a 102-win Cubs team that would have made a Division Series berth in the former 8-team playoff format misses the Division Series in the new 10-team playoff format… because of one freaking game.

Even though this scenario is highly unlikely, who’s to say it won’t happen? And if it did happen, would those Cubs fans who are in favor for this addition now, still be in favor for this addition then? I’m pretty sure the fans of the “84-wins” team who isn’t in favor of the addition before this scenario would be in HUGE favor of this addition after this hypothetical scenario.

It looks like this has become a good thing for baseball, but as a Cubs fan, I always hope the best, and fear for expect the worst.

when the Cubs make the playoffs again. Wild Card, Division winner I don’t care, get in and win a freaking playoff game.

Is there some guideline in journalism that it draws in the reader to put ‘you’ in the title or something? It’s not just you, Al, I see it a lot in blogging and sportswriting.

The thing is, you don’t know what I think, and taking this approach inevitably leads to the writer saying I’m wrong about something before I’ve even had a chance to comment. This kind of discourse doesn’t work at all in real life. “Hey, you think you know what I’m going to order, but you don’t. So listen up, waiter.” or “I know you came to class today believing that something can exceed the speed of light. Here’s why you’re wrong.” It’s confrontational, and sets a horrible tone for a blog.

Again, I don’t just see it here, and it’s not just in front page posts. But why does anyone write this way?