It puts a lot more value on winning your division which should be a huge advantage. The Wild Card should be a harder path to winning a World Series and in the past it wasn't, now it is. This is one of the better changes they have made. Also teams play different schedules, being better by a game or two over 162 really means nothing at all. If there is a 20 game gap between teams I get your point but most of the time it is 2 or 3 games and that is nothing. If you want the highest chance to win in the playoffs win your division, every team has plenty of time to accomplish that. No, I disagree, I think it was one of the worst changes they have made. 4 playoff teams made a lot of sense and they really watered things down further, and reducing a 162 game season to 1 game makes no sense to me. The format punishes teams without a true ace (us) and rewards teams that might be lesser overall but have one or two TOR starters. At this point they might as well go to the NFL 6 team format and just give byes to the top 2 division winners and have the other 4 teams play a best of 3 in the WC round. You say division winners should receive a huge advantage -- why? Why should they have a 50% better chance? In what other professional sports league are division winners afforded that much of an advantage? The NFL has 2 bye teams. Other than that, your advantage is homecourt. In every professional sport. The Indians have won 8 and 9 less games than the A's and Yankees, respectively. And it's not enough for them to be in the playoffs, you think they should be entitled to a huge advantage? Based on what, exactly?