COLUMN: Baseball playoff winners
Everyone is speculating about who is going to win the World Series. Sports analysts and fans masquerading as sports analysts are running rampant with predictions, yet many teams haven’t even played a game.
That’s how it is in the sports world.
The whirlwind begins with each new season, but this year’s Major League Baseball season is different. There’s a giant loop thrown into the predictions. For the first time, two wild card teams from each division will advance to the playoffs.
This adds a new dimension to the race. It gives small-market teams a chance to prove themselves.
The team that will benefit most from the addition is the Toronto Blue Jays. Struggling for air against the two biggest markets in professional baseball, the Jays are usually knocked out of the running. But teams like the Chicago Cubs and Atlanta Braves both have reasons to smile.
In both the American League and National League there are some serious contenders who will benefit from the change.
As a division, the AL East is stacked with talent. On the final game day of the 2011 season, the Boston Red Sox missed out on a play-off spot. Had there been a second Wild Card, the Sox would have made the playoffs. Instead they missed out.
This year the AL East should again be a three-team race between the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays. The addition of a second Wild Card team gives Baltimore and Toronto a fighting chance against the big money available to New York and Boston.
In the National League, the Cincinnati Reds and Atlanta Braves should be excited about the change.
For the Braves, the pain of letting a playoff berth slip away is all too recent. Last season they finished 5-13 and handed the Wild Card spot to the St. Louis Cardinals. We all know how that story turned.
If the second Wild Card spot had been implemented then, the Braves would have had it in their grasp. This season they are returning all of their big impact players, but so are the Cardinals. They will have to beat out a long list of possible Wild Card contender but an extra spot will definitely help their odds.
Teams like the Miami Marlins and Washington Nationals have their odds greatly improved.
The Nationals are sitting on one of the best farm systems in the Majors. While it remains to be seen how the players will transfer over to the pros, the young team now has a very realistic possibility of making the playoffs for the first time in club history.
Washington has an upgraded starting lineup and could possibly up 85 wins this season. If they can manage that, they will challenge the Marlins for third spot in the NL East. Either the Phillies or Braves will win the division crown and the other will take the first Wild Card spot.
We all know how important a Wild Card spot can be. The Cardinals ended the season with a Wild Card spot and went on to win the World Series.
– Meredith Kinney is a junior majoring in broadcast journalism and an avid hockey fan. She hopes one day to be a big-shot sideline reporter working for ESPN. You can also contact her at meredith.kinney@aggiemail.usu.edu