With the new playoff format going into affect this upcoming season, is there any way the St. Louis Cardinals do not make the playoffs in 2012?
Buster Olney is now saying that the new collective bargaining agreement between the players and their teams allows for ten teams to be admitted into the 2012 postseason this year, though playoff expansion was originally thought to take place in 2013 when the Houston Astros moved to the American League.
The Cardinals do have inter-division competition with the Milwaukee Brewers, who are their equals in almost every way, and the Cincinnati Reds, who surely won’t be as bad as they were last year after taking the Central in 2010.
But since Ryan Braun will likely be out for Milwaukee for a third of the season on drug suspension and it’s hard to know how well Cincinnati can recover from a 79-83 season, it’s very apparent that the defending champs will be the favorites again in the National League Central division this year.
But since Ryan Braun will likely be out for Milwaukee for a third of the season on drug suspension and it’s hard to know how well Cincinnati can recover from a 79-83 season, it’s very apparent that the defending champs will be the favorites again in the National League Central division this year.
But now, they may be getting an even bigger bull’s eye. If they somehow didn’t have the best record in the division, the Cardinals would still have a shot at two wild cards; which would only require them to have around 85 wins all year.
Sounds good if you’re a Cards fan, but this is one of the problems with expanding the playoffs: The excitement is taken out of it, at least to some degree. There is far less pressure on teams to out-perform the rest when, going into the season, they know there is almost no way that they will not make the postseason anyway.
Sources:
Aaron J. covers the St. Louis Cardinals for STL Sports Minute. You can check out more from him over at El Maquino or follow him on Twitter.
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