Lincecum & Teixeira Dislike Selig's Playoff Expansion Proposal
By Tim Ryan
"“It doesn’t seem very fair, and personally I don’t know where his head is at,” Lincecum said Friday of commissioner Bud Selig. “It doesn’t seem right to me. Players like it the way it is. It’s dog-eat-dog. People know they need to win 11 games to win the World Series.”"
Well to be completely fair, I’m sure the players will figure out how many wins it will take to win a World Series once the new format goes into effect, but Timmy’s point is taken, particularly the one about Bird’s head, and he’s not finished yet:
"“Nobody wants to have to worry, ‘Oh [expletive], now I’ve got another [expletive] team in the [expletive] mix. Now we have to worry about what that takes and what they’re going to do.’ What if the [second] wild-card team is not deserving of getting in?”"
This is a perfectly reasonable point. The addition of the Wildcard in 1995 has proved to be a wonderful idea, but anything beyond what exists at the moment will ruin the format and simply make rich old white people, richer.
Teixeira is strongly opposed to the idea because of the five or six day layoff for the six division winners, which is time off that they never see during the course of the 14-month season.
Now keep in mind none of this is written in stone just yet. Any changes to the current postseason format will be part of the new collective bargaining agreement. The current agreement expires on December 11, so another money-related tickle fight is right around the corner.