San Francisco Giants: What If There Was a Second Wild Card Spot?

The president of the San Francisco Giants, Larry Baer, came on KNBR 680 AM the other day and joked about how he hopes MLB Commissioner Bud Selig would create a second wild card spot before the current season ends.

First of all, it was weird to hear the president of a ball club pretty much publicly state that his team has close to zero chance of making the playoffs with a few weeks left.  However, that is the kind of honest upper management the Giants have, and i would not have it any other way.  Tell it to me straight.

What Baer was referring to was Selig's stance on adding another wild card spot to the playoffs.  He is all for it and has been hard at work trying to get others to jump on his side, as well.

The reasons for this proposed change in the structure of baseball is the fact that, aside from the Tampa Bay Rays suddenly breathing down the necks of the Boston Red Sox in the AL Wild Card, the division races are all but locked.

Selig wants competitive division races and he feels a second wild card berth for each league would achieve that.

He has a point.

In the AL, the Rays would be only a few games up on the Los Angeles Angels for the second wild card spot.  In the NL, the Cardinals would be up on the Giants by only two games.

Selig seems pretty determined to have this new change in structure completed by next season, although he has told numerous publications that there are a slew of things standing in his way.

From the Giants' perspective, the feeling of defeat from watching the Arizona Diamondbacks play the role of the 2010 Giants and steal the division despite everyone writing them off has to disgust them.

Due to injuries and a sudden and lengthy lapse in hitting, San Francisco sits too far out of the NL West division lead, which is the only reason we are talking about a possible second wild card spot in San Francisco. 

We can talk about the new playoff structure or future moves that might be needed.  Either way, we are talking about next season for the San Francisco Giants.

They will be back better than ever though, as they will have their big hitters back from injury mixed with a few roster losses and gains yet to be determined.  But if Selig creates this second wild card spot, we can just about pencil in the Giants for a playoff appearance, right?

We'll make that decision down the road.

Selig's playoff expansion idea will be better for the entire sport, and more notably for the Giants.