Sunday Audibles: Our take

Question: Do you like Major League Baseball's two-wild-card playoff system?

Yes

By Rachel Crader

One of my favorite things about Major League Baseball is the exclusivity of the playoffs, so when the number of baseball playoff teams expanded from eight to 10 a couple years ago with the addition of an extra wild card team in each league my knee-jerk reaction was a negative one.

But my knee-jerk reaction was wrong for a couple reasons.

First, the MLB playoffs still are the most exclusive among the four major team sports. Just 10 of 30 MLB teams make the playoffs while the NFL allows 12 of its 32 teams into postseason play and 16 of 30 NBA and NHL teams qualify.

This is important because it makes the regular season more important. Teams, even great teams, can't just coast through the regular season and sneak into the playoffs as a dangerous low seed.

The baseball regular season is long enough to give teams the change to recover from bad stretches and injuries, but ultimately only best make it into the playoffs.

The second and most important thing about the extra wild card spot is that it offers a true reward to the teams that win division titles.

Wild card teams may often enter the postseason with extra momentum from tight playoff races down the stretch while some division winners clinch long before the end of the season, but they must expend their No. 1 pitcher in the wild card game. (Or risk their season ending without their No. 1 on the mound if they somehow choose to save him, I suppose.)

The baseball playoffs are unpredictable and the best teams from the regular season often are defeated. I'm sure that will continue in two-wild-card system, and that's fine. But I think it is an overall improvement to baseball already magical postseason setup.

No

By Scott Roscovius

After a grueling 162-game season, some team's dream is going to go up in a puff of smoke.

A one-game puff.

This isn't football, where a 16-game season spawns 12 playoff spots. A six-month grind shouldn't come down to a single game to determine the No. 4 post-season position.

Those who argue for down-to-the-wire races couldn't have come up with a better scenario than this year, with Cincinnati and Pittsburgh battling for the NL wild card and three teams duking it out in the AL for the post-season berth.

In other years, that would make for some pretty interesting weekend baseball. This year, the Reds and Pirates were battling for homefield advantage for Tuesday's game. Yawn.

A three-team race between Tampa Bay, Cleveland and Texas in the AL could come down to a two-day playoff with the Rays playing at Cleveland on Monday, and the loser visiting Texas on Tuesday. The winners of both those games would play Wednesday for the right to play in the division series.

Are you dizzy yet?

Two of those teams battling down to the wire will see a season of hope dashed by a one-game playoff while the others advance to a fairer best-of-five divisional series.

In a sport where 162 games decide a playoff field, a one-and-done for two teams is a pitiful consolation prize.