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MLB Announces They Will Add Two More Playoff Spots In 2012

Major League Baseball announced today that the league will in fact feature a 10-team playoff format in 2012. This will be done by adding one additional wild card to each league.

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MLB commissioner Bud Selig announced in November that the league would like to expand from two to four wild card berths. At the time, he said the changes would be instituted by 2013, but that he hoped they could be put into place by 2012.

The new system is designed to provide more opportunities to play in the post season while also penalizing the wild card teams for not winning their respective divisions. Under the previous system, the only penalty for claiming the wild card as opposed to the divisional title is that the wild card team is forced to play the opponent within their league with the best record in the opening round of the playoffs. Now they will be forced to play in an elimination game to earn a berth to the divisional series.

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