Felger & Mazz: MLB's New Wildcard System
Felger and Massaroti discussed Major League Baseball's new wild card rules. Both are happy with the new system, but Marc Bertrand disagrees with making the wildcard winners survive a one game playoff, saying that they should play a three-game series instead. He wonders whether a desire to punish wild card winners comes from Red Sox fans' current anger at the team. Felger responds that the new rules are excellent because "it just gives meaning to the regular season."
Felger and Mazz also discussed whether the new system is fair, or just entertaining. Felger said, "I don't care about fairness...baseball needs more entertainment." Mazz added that baseball should see a surge in late-season interest as a result of the new rules, saying "There should be a big ripple effect from it...the games in September in a lot of places will now become more meaningful, so in theory you should be getting more people attending and more people watching in the month of September."
The guys wondered about further MLB schedule changes in the future. Might the one-game playoff become a three-game series in the future? Would the regular season have to shrink to make room? Might more double-headers be the solution in the coming years?
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