Extra wild card in 2012 seems likely
Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig gestures while speaking during a news conference last month. Credit: AP
PHOENIX -- Baseball appears on track for expanded playoffs in 2012, with an extra wild-card entry for each league and, most likely, a one-game "series" to reach the divisional round.
Commissioner Bud Selig smiled Tuesday when asked about the possibility of 10 postseason entries in 2012. "I like its chances," he said. "I like the chances."
Players Association executive director Michael Weiner said: "There is a lot of interest on behalf of the players in revising the postseason structure . . . But that has an impact on the regular-season schedule in a number of different ways.
"To say that there seems to be agreement that we should reform the playoff structure is one thing. To say that means we're going to do it is another. Until you have a soup-to-nuts schedule, from spring training to the World Series and everything in between to compare to the status quo, you're just talking."
The owners and players are negotiating a new collective-bargaining agreement, as the current CBA expires Dec. 11, 2011. The sides are hopeful of getting a deal done by late October.
There have been intra-industry discussions about whether the extra playoff round should be a one-and-done or a best two-of-three. Many like the excitement that a single, winner-take-all contest would bring.
The players favor realigning to put 15 teams in each league, Weiner said, rather than the setup of 14 American League teams and 16 in the National League. The Astros remain the most likely club to switch, a move that would even out the NL Central (currently six teams) and AL West (four) at five each. Weiner said such realignment might not be ready until 2013.
Selig appeared open to such realignment but also expressed concern that a setup would create constant interleague matchups. He prefers the schedule now in which interleague play occurs in a condensed block.
A modest expansion of instant replay will be announced shortly, Selig said, as managers would like replay for "bullets hit down the left- or rightfield line," a particularly tough call for umpires.
Reyes fields, hits
The Mets' Jose Reyes hit and took ground balls here Tuesday, and he said he plans to start running later this week in New York. He is on the disabled list with a strained left hamstring.
"For the last three or four days, it's felt pretty good," Reyes said.
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