So if you haven’t heard yet Major League Baseball is considering some major changes. First is the leagues, the A.L. has 14 teams and the N.L. has 16, so they want to even that up. Most likely candidate to be shipped to the A.L. is Houston. Now with everything equal they want to take out all the divisions in both leagues. Now I’m sure you’re asking how the playoffs will work with no divisions, well the higher ups figured that out as well.  3 best records in each league are in, and then teams 4 and 5 will battle it out in what is basically a play-in game for the official last spot.

This plan has its ups and downs. I have no problem with evening up the leagues, I love adding the extra playoff team, but absolutely hate no divisions. Without the divisions we don’t have those great races for the post season. Sure we will still have a post season battle, but instead of four different races, now it will just be a battle to be one of the best 3 or a top 5 team. Think of this scenario; in the A.L. West right now Seattle Trails Texas by 2 games and Texas has the 5^th best record in the league. Let’s say it’s the last week of the season and Seattle and Texas have a three game series, and Seattle gets the 3 game sweep. If that went down this year Seattle wins the Division, makes the playoffs and we talk about what an exciting finish it was. If this scenario goes down with the new playoff proposal, Seattle could miss the playoffs completely because even with the sweep they may only finish in 6^th place.

Sure you could make the case that the five best teams should make the playoffs, but the baseball season is so long that we don’t see bad teams winning the divisions like we do in the NFL. Right now none of the division leaders are sub .500 unlike last year in the NFL where two 7-9 teams battled it out for the NFC West title and a playoff spot while two 10 win teams sat home in January. I really hope this change doesn’t happen but if it does we could see the change as early as next season.