Today, Joe Posnanski (who you might suspect I have a lot of respect for, at least when it comes to baseball reporting, and you would be correct) wrote about what seems like an inevitable shift towards more teams in the playoffs. It’s a horn that’s been tooted a lot recently, mostly on ESPN, where Jason Stark and Steve Berthiaume in particular have taken to the idea as if it has no possible downsides. But it has died down recently, as reports surface that there will definitely not be an extra team this year and possibly won’t be next year either. So while the subject was perhaps the main one that I began this blog wanting to cover, it has slipped from my mind of late.[1]
In any case, Posnanski concluded that it probably isn’t as much of a boon as everyone makes it out to be, but that we’ll get used to it. I’d go farther on that first point—probably a lot farther—but Posnanski’s stance seems like the sole voice of reason so far, the one person who questions whether gunning the engine while approaching a curve is really the right course of action (ok… so that analogy was a stretch). In fairness, Jonah Keri at Grantland has expressed reservations in the past (I believe it was in a podcast with Simmons), and GM’s and players—at least according to what Stark reports—are not necessarily as on board than commentators seem to be.
