No Expansion: MLB Should Keep Playoffs As Is

I really like Peter Gammons. I respect him, and I think that he is one of the more knowledgeable baseball guys out there.

Sure, he has his biases (he seems to occasionally favor two little baseball towns in the Northeast...places called New York and Boston. Ever heard of them?), but on the whole, I believe that he is one of the more insightful baseball minds in today's media.

I regularly read his stuff on ESPN, and for the most part, I tend to agree with him. However, when I read about how Gammons would like to see the MLB expand its playoff format to include two wild card teams from each league, I couldn't help but immediately disagree.

I am a football guy through and through, but I love the MLB playoffs. The intensity of a seven-game series between two rivals cannot be matched, even by the most enthralling NFL playoff game or NCAA football bowl game. It's not watered down, and it seems like you can get into it even if your team isn't in the mix.

However, if MLB was to add two additional teams to the playoff picture, the product that is currently so great would begin to be watered down, like the NBA or the NHL.

In the NBA and NHL, half the teams make the playoffs. The first and second round matchups are generally yawners. Yes, there are exceptions, such as this past season's Celtics-Bulls first round thriller. But for the most part, the excitement in the NBA and NHL playoffs doesn't really kick in until they are almost halfway through.

The NFL also has more teams in their playoff system than MLB. However, unlike the NBA and the NHL, this does not water down the product.

There are a couple reasons for this. One, there are two more teams in the NFL than these other leagues. Secondly, whether you like to admit it or not, America is a nation that lives off of football. Baseball is our pastime and has oodles more history than the NFL, but it simply cannot stand up to the NFL machine.

Because there are more teams and, as of right now, this country is more of a football nation than a baseball one, the NFL can have multiple wild card teams and still maintain the country's interest throughout the entire playoffs.

Gammons' argument for the expanded playoff format revolves around the seemingly dipping interest in the MLB. He references a six percent dip in attendance around the league and that the MLB seems to be devoid of storylines, other than those of Derek Jeter, Albert Pujols, and Joe Mauer.

Gammons argues that by adding additional playoff teams, the MLB will create more intensity in September, a time when interest in baseball seems to dip as the NFL and college football seasons begin to come into focus. 

While the focus on MLB certainly drops some when football season rolls around, the best way to fix this does not mean adding playoff teams to water down an already great format.

So, you must be asking, what would Tim do to address the problem?

For starters, MLB may want to look into starting the season a bit earlier. That way, the end of the regular season won't be totally overshadowed by the monolithic NFL. I'm not saying start in early March, but maybe bump the start up a week.

What else would I do? I would bring competitive balance back to baseball.

Why do these races seem to die out with two or three weeks remaining in the season? Because the same teams seem to make the playoffs every season, and the rest of the league cannot compete with the giants year in and year out.

It's always New York, Boston, Los Angeles (both teams), Philadelphia, or some other major power. Sure, like last season, a team like the Rays may be able to jump into the fray and beat the system. But that's rare.

Currently, with an uncapped league, the Yankees, Red Sox, Mets, and the other major market teams can hog all of the players, thus eliminating any threat from the smaller market teams that can't afford them.

As long as MLB permits this, I see no problem with these teams attempting to scoop up every major free agent they can get their hands on. It would be wrong not to.

However, if MLB were to institute a cap, allowing every team to have a fair shot at the big name free agents, we wouldn't need to worry about 22 of the 30 teams dropping out of the picture by early September.

For example, Red Sox left fielder Jason Bay will be on the market this offseason following a career year, where he'll likely hit close to 40 home runs and drive in close to 125 RBI. He'll demand five years and something in the $70-80 million range.

Is there any doubt where he will go? He'll be back in Boston, wearing pinstripes, or possibly playing in Queens or somewhere in LA. Why? Because these are the only teams that can afford to bid up his price to a range that is acceptable to him.

Now I know that it will be almost impossible to get a salary cap passed in baseball. No player in his right mind would want a salary cap. All it does is limit the amount of money that they have the potential to receive every time they hit the open market.

However, it would be one—if not the most effective—way to even out the competitive disparities that currently exist in the MLB.

Baseball becomes less interesting come September because it seems like the sport runs out of storylines and that all of the playoff races (with possibly one exception) have already been decided by late August or early September.

Is it a problem? Yes, absolutely.

However, the answer is not to dilute and water down the MLB playoffs, which arguably are the most exciting playoffs out of all the major sports due to their selectivity and exciting seven-game series (the NFL is the only other sport that can compete with MLB when it comes to excitement in the playoffs).

The answer is to remove the competitive imbalance that is such a major part of baseball these days.

Whether that means finding some way to institute a salary cap or finding some other means of evening the playing field between the Bostons, New Yorks, and LAs, it would be the most effective way to help keep interest in MLB going strong through the summer and into September, before the playoffs start.

While I love Peter Gammons and think he's generally right on the money, I have to disagree with him this time. Expanding the playoff format is simply not the answer MLB needs.