The Implications of the Second Wild Card

Before this season began, Major League Baseball announced that there would be another Wild Card playoff team in each league. The decision was made primarily for money's sake. With another wild card team, more teams will be in the race longer, which means more ticket sales and higher TV ratings, amongst other things. While it may have been a good financial decision for the game, it has certainly changed a lot of things this year.

Over the last several weeks, the Pirates have been playing poorly. They were in the race for the National League Central division crown through July, but that possibility has since been erased as the team is 13.5 games back from the Reds. So where would be if there was no second wild card spot?

The Atlanta Braves have the first Wild Card spot pretty well secured. They are 7.5 games up on the second team, the Cardinals. They've been playing very well in the second half and look like a very strong playoff team. So if it weren't for the second Wild Card spot, the Pirates would not have much hope right now. In fact, they wouldn't have had much hope for quite some time. You can say the same for the Cardinals, Dodgers, Brewers, Phillies, and Diamondbacks.

Would that make the Pirates collapse hurt less? Yes, almost certainly. Now you can't take that fact and say that the additional playoff spot was bad for the Pirates, because it really wasn't. That allowed us to stay in the race longer, and it's still not impossible that this team could finish strong and have a chance at the playoffs. It's just interesting to think about how much differently this season would feel if they wouldn't have changed the rules.

Personally I think that second Wild Card spot was a really bad idea for the game. We could seriously see a team with 20 less regular season wins knock out the Braves in the one game series. Does that seem fair at all? It sure doesn't. However, you can't change anything, and for right now the decision was good for Pirate fans. They never had a chance at outplaying the Braves for a full year, but thanks to the new rule we have more hope than just looking for a winning season.

Whatever happens, this season is going to be interesting down to the final game, which I suppose is a good thing.