I think the playoffs are fine in the format they currently have. Unlike Hockey and Basketball that have pretty much turned the regular season into a mockery because of so many teams qualifying for the playoffs, Major League Baseball puts a lot of importance on the regular season. The race for first place in each division is interesting to watch and the fact that only one non-division winner qualifies makes it even better. If by some chance they moved to four division leagues that would also be interesting, but maybe not as fair to some of the teams. Too often there is a weak division where you find sometimes as many as three teams from another division with better records that fail to qualify. In that case it is unfair to their fans, but to correct the problem, Baseball would then have to increase the number of teams qualifying resulting in a glut of playoff games. Then in many of the years, there would be teams that should not have been in the playoffs appearing in the post season. So, we have kind of a catch-22. In my opinion the format is fine as it is and should remain the way it is.

Yeah it is indeed tough to have schedule during the cold weather and delays are imminent.
The current format is indeed a brilliant move handed out by the MLB. This assures that the elite team or the cream of the crop advances into the playoffs.
With outright berths given to all of the six divisions of the NLCS and ALCS and the wild card given to a non-winner of a division with the best record given format was a fitting to the teams that gave their best in the grueling regular season which is just and right.
This makes the league more competitive as teams will do their best in each of the regular season game they will play. Now the teams cannot afford to play complacent just like in other leagues where a team can advance even if you haven’t dish out a lofty overall performance in the playoffs.
The price of winning the elusive World Series crown would be very memorable and sweet.
Now I am beginning to think and feel that the playoffs of other sport’s leagues are not pleasing and not well designed.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nico_/3189834934/

I actually really don’t like the format the playoffs are currently in. I consider myself a bit of a traditionalist and I used to like when the American League and the National League were both divided into just two divisions a piece and there was no interleague play as well.

When a team I am rooting for makes the wild card spot, of course I like the fact that there is such a position a little more, but I just feel like having that extra playoff spot means making the playoffs is a little cheapened. Of course if they did ever get rid of the wild card, they would also have to get rid of inter-league, and make sure every NL, or AL team played the same number of games against every opponent, it would be only fair, and it is why I never had a problem with it when they did it that way. A worse record was a worse record for a reason, it wasn’t because the Cubs have to play the Whitesox while the Cardinals get to play the Royals.