Warming up to the idea of expanded playoffs

MLB did what they promised on Friday, expanding the playoffs beginning this fall so five teams from each league make it.

But we lost something in this mix, too. If this had been in play last year, the Braves and Red Sox would have made the playoffs. It would have made that fantastic last day of the season meaningless. So many of the biggest pennant-race collapses wouldn't have happened.

But... the two wild-card teams will play a one-game playoff to meet the top-seeded team in each league. So we're now guaranteed to have two very meaningful winner-take-all games.

So really, it's not that much of an expansion. And since those wild-card teams will have to throw their aces (if he wasn't used on the last couple days of the season already), the top seed will have the advantage of a more stable pitching rotation along with the home-field advantage. It does make the division title worth something, so in that aspect, it's welcomed. Yet another wild-card team won the World Series last year -- that road was just made harder.

The bottom-line money folks love it. But even a player who would have made the postseason last year doesn't like it.

"I know the almighty buck triggers everything, but when is enough enough?" Chipper Jones said to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "It makes no sense to me whatsoever. None whatsoever."

But most are liking the move, even though it smacks the "purists" in the face.

"We conceded the division two years ago because of the previous setup," Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said to MLB.com. "I'm not taking away from Tampa Bay's Eastern Division title, but we didn't try to win the division. We tried to line ourselves up for the playoffs and that worked. We wound up sweeping Minnesota and going to play the Texas Rangers two years ago because we got our guys healthy and ready to go. The division title, the way that wild-card situation was sitting, was rendered meaningless the way the setup was."

It's great for fans of teams like the Rays and Blue Jays -- three teams from the AL East can now make the playoffs. In fact, this will be the best chance mathematically for any American League team to make the playoffs: 5 of 14. When the Astros come over in 2013, it will be 5 of 15. This year in the NL, it's 5 of 16.

You make the call: Baseball's playoffs expansion

"I know the almighty buck triggers everything, but when is enough enough?" he told the Journal-Constitution. "It makes no sense to me whatsoever. None whatsoever."