Frank Coppola
Sports editor, Portsmouth Herald
Yes, but let’s not go crazy and have half the teams in the league make the playoffs like the NHL and NBA do. Only eight of the 30 MLB teams qualify for the postseason, so there’s certainly room to add a couple more. Maybe a best-of-three series to decide which team gets the wild card? The biggest reason to do this is that it would level the playing field a bit for some of the small-market teams. Let’s face it, the big-market teams (Yankees, Red Sox, etc.) have a huge advantage in baseball because there’s no salary cap. Unless your franchise is a complete mess (hello, Mets), you should be an annual playoff contender if you have a big payroll. The same handful of teams tend to make the baseball playoffs every year, so getting some new blood in the postseason would be a nice change of pace.
Sports editor, Portsmouth Herald
Yes, but let’s not go crazy and have half the teams in the league make the playoffs like the NHL and NBA do. Only eight of the 30 MLB teams qualify for the postseason, so there’s certainly room to add a couple more. Maybe a best-of-three series to decide which team gets the wild card? The biggest reason to do this is that it would level the playing field a bit for some of the small-market teams. Let’s face it, the big-market teams (Yankees, Red Sox, etc.) have a huge advantage in baseball because there’s no salary cap. Unless your franchise is a complete mess (hello, Mets), you should be an annual playoff contender if you have a big payroll. The same handful of teams tend to make the baseball playoffs every year, so getting some new blood in the postseason would be a nice change of pace.
Jay Pinsonnault
Sports editor, SMG weeklies
Yes. Of the four major sports, Major League Baseball has the fewest teams in the playoffs. Both the NBA and NHL have 16 teams in the playoffs, while the NFL has 12 and MLB just eight. Many sports purists believe the regular seasons in the NBA and NHL are watered down as more than half the teams earn a trip to postseason play, while 12 is a great number for the NFL. I think raising the number of playoff teams in MLB from eight to 10 would be a sound idea by adding a second wild-card team from each league. The two wild cards from each league could square off in a best-of-three series. The winner would play the division winner with the best record and the other two division winners from each league would square off in a best-of-seven Division Series. Under this scenario for this season, the Red Sox would have faced the New York Yankees in the American League, and the San Diego Padres would have played the Atlanta Braves in the National League.
Sports editor, SMG weeklies
Yes. Of the four major sports, Major League Baseball has the fewest teams in the playoffs. Both the NBA and NHL have 16 teams in the playoffs, while the NFL has 12 and MLB just eight. Many sports purists believe the regular seasons in the NBA and NHL are watered down as more than half the teams earn a trip to postseason play, while 12 is a great number for the NFL. I think raising the number of playoff teams in MLB from eight to 10 would be a sound idea by adding a second wild-card team from each league. The two wild cards from each league could square off in a best-of-three series. The winner would play the division winner with the best record and the other two division winners from each league would square off in a best-of-seven Division Series. Under this scenario for this season, the Red Sox would have faced the New York Yankees in the American League, and the San Diego Padres would have played the Atlanta Braves in the National League.
Mike Zhe
Sports reporter
Yes, with two caveats. Giving the AL and NL an extra wild-card bid and a total of five playoff teams apiece is a good idea. Each division champion would benefit from a few extra days of rest to set up their pitching rotations, and having 33 percent of the teams in the playoffs stands up fine when compared against the model NFL system and the ridiculous NHL and NBA formats. Two problems need fixing – 1) teams must play a balanced schedule, which should be implemented anyway. Do Red Sox fans really need to watch 36 games against the Orioles and Blue Jays (actually, they’d probably say yes); and 2) the 162-game season should be shortened by one week to 154 or 156 games. We don’t need a World Series Game 7 on the week before Thanksgiving.
Sports reporter
Yes, with two caveats. Giving the AL and NL an extra wild-card bid and a total of five playoff teams apiece is a good idea. Each division champion would benefit from a few extra days of rest to set up their pitching rotations, and having 33 percent of the teams in the playoffs stands up fine when compared against the model NFL system and the ridiculous NHL and NBA formats. Two problems need fixing – 1) teams must play a balanced schedule, which should be implemented anyway. Do Red Sox fans really need to watch 36 games against the Orioles and Blue Jays (actually, they’d probably say yes); and 2) the 162-game season should be shortened by one week to 154 or 156 games. We don’t need a World Series Game 7 on the week before Thanksgiving.
Mike Sullivan
Columnist
Please, no. With the NFL considering the idea of torturing its players with an 18-game schedule, change is in the air and MLB commissioner Bud Selig is inhaling it. I’m starting to have this fear that just before Selig retires and disappears into the Milwaukee underground, he’s going to reinstate Pete Rose and name him his successor, allow obnoxious corporate advertising on uniforms so the players look like NASCAR drivers, and expand the league to 44 teams so every kid who dreams of playing Major League Baseball actually gets the chance to do so. Look at how watered down the NBA and NHL playoffs are, and look at how long they drag on. Frankly, playoffs shouldn’t last as long as a pregnancy. The current MLB format works just fine, and really, it’s too cold for baseball once we move further into November.
Columnist
Please, no. With the NFL considering the idea of torturing its players with an 18-game schedule, change is in the air and MLB commissioner Bud Selig is inhaling it. I’m starting to have this fear that just before Selig retires and disappears into the Milwaukee underground, he’s going to reinstate Pete Rose and name him his successor, allow obnoxious corporate advertising on uniforms so the players look like NASCAR drivers, and expand the league to 44 teams so every kid who dreams of playing Major League Baseball actually gets the chance to do so. Look at how watered down the NBA and NHL playoffs are, and look at how long they drag on. Frankly, playoffs shouldn’t last as long as a pregnancy. The current MLB format works just fine, and really, it’s too cold for baseball once we move further into November.
Biz Jacobs
Sports copy editor
Undeniably no. The way the system is right now, the teams in every division have to really bust their butts to try and make it either to the top of their division or the wild card, and we as fans get to enjoy every game and battle, nervously biting our nails to see where our team will finish. Pitchers are pushing themselves harder, hitters are lighting the skies with adrenaline-induced rockets and there is a sense of urgency in every game that’s played, right up to the very end. By adding additional playoff spots, it will water down the aggressive nature and desperation for every team — those first in the division or the teams battling for a spot in the wild card — going into the postseason.
Sports copy editor
Undeniably no. The way the system is right now, the teams in every division have to really bust their butts to try and make it either to the top of their division or the wild card, and we as fans get to enjoy every game and battle, nervously biting our nails to see where our team will finish. Pitchers are pushing themselves harder, hitters are lighting the skies with adrenaline-induced rockets and there is a sense of urgency in every game that’s played, right up to the very end. By adding additional playoff spots, it will water down the aggressive nature and desperation for every team — those first in the division or the teams battling for a spot in the wild card — going into the postseason.
All smiles ...............
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