Year Two of Major League Baseball's expanded playoffs is almost here. Just a few more hours before the sport puts its mediocrity on full display for the world to absorb. Teams that weren't good enough to win their own division co-mingle with division winners whose records weren't that good—all for a chance to upset the good teams in the next round, and perhaps make it all the way to the World Series.

We saw that last year when the Dodgers and Braves got bounced early. We could see that again. .Don't be mistaken, it's not that it's not dramatic, but whether you are a broadcaster or a die-hard fan, you might want to pump the brakes a bit before saying that expanded playoffs create more drama. A couple more teams may be involved, but more is not necessarily better. Let's take a look at the so-called 'pennant races' that went right down to the regular season's final weekend...

Entering play on Saturday, there were four teams competing for two wild card spots in the National League (Philadelphia had already clinched the top wild card), and three for the final two wild card berths in the San Francisco Giants were eliminated the night before (and then promptly fired their manager). There were also three teams battling to win the American League West division title, and Baltimore had clinched the AL East in the final week. MLB people will tell you this is what they wanted when they expanded the playoffs, even though the truth is that they just want more eyeballs (and to cash that big check from ESPN) for the best-of-three wild-card round.

Hey, last year's short series gave us some great games, and some upsets, and that should be expected. It's what makes baseball, baseball. Let's just acknowledge the wild cards teams for what they are, and that's mediocre. The top two division winners don't have to participate in the mediocrity round, so while the on-the-field battles unfold, the Atlanta Braves (104-58), Los Angeles Dodgers (100-62), Baltimore Orioles (101-61), and the Houston Astros (90-72) get to wait and watch.

The Astros are a fluke that they got to move a step above mediocrity, but it's only because the Minnesota Twins won their division with a worse record. In fact, the Twins 87-75 mark is the worst in the post-season, and they are champs of the AL Central by nine games (Detroit finished second)! It's fair that they get a higher seed, though. Winning a division, in this case a bad one, is still tough. The Astros, though, won without a tiebreak, and secured the title on the last day of the season.

By the end of play Saturday, all twelve playoff teams were locked up, but the seedings were not. MLB even posted a cool chart online that showed which teams would we seeded where, depending on Sunday's eight possible outcomes. Since Houston won, Texas lost, and Toronto lost, that meant Houston won the AL West, Texas fell out of first place and into the second wild-card spot, and the Blue Jays would get the final berth. The AL wild-card matchups are Texas-Tampa Bay (the winner getting Baltimore), and Toronto-Minnesota (winner gets Houston). The Astros swept their final series at Arizona while Texas lost two of three in Seattle to win the division.

The final days in the National League look more like walls tumbling down. The Diamondbacks were swept by Houston, but still backed into the final playoff spot. That's because the Cincinnati Reds lost seven of their last ten games, and the Chicago Cubs, who with a week to play looked like they would be the five seed, dropped five of their last six. The Miami Marlins lost their final game, but still got in (and ahead of Arizona) because they won three of their last four. A monkey wrench was thrown into the works last Tuesday, when the flooding in New York suspended their game in the ninth inning against the Mets. With the Marlins leading 2-1, it was announced the game would be finished on Monday (today), if the outcome mattered. MLB later clarified that only if the game would determine if the Marlins would make the playoffs, would the game be played, not their seeding. The Mets (74-87) were already done witrh their season and fired their manager. That would have made staying an extra day to play possibly less than an inning quite interesting. So the NL matchups are Miami at Philadelphia (winner gets Atlanta), and Arizona at Milwaukee (winner faces Dodgers).

So there's your final week drama. The AL West down to the final day, five teams clinch on the next-to-last day, with seeds not determined until the very end. But let's hark back to just two years ago when ten teams got in instead of 12. With Arizona, Miami, the Cubs, and Cincinnati separated by two games, they all would have been battling for one spot instead of two (Philadelphia would the top wild card). On the AL side, Tampa Bay would be locked into the first wild card (after being eliminated in their division by Baltimore), while Toronto, Seattle, Texas, and Houston would be racing for just one spot. The AL West would still have the three team battle to the end, with perhaps more importance placed on the winner. And another note: Texas and Houston both finished 90-72. With the expanded playoffs, there's no time to play tiebreaker games. The previous system would have meant Texas at Houston today, with the winner getting the division title ( and home in the playoffs), and the loser becoming the second wild card team. That's drama which isn't mediocre.

Start times: With no west coast team hosting the wild card round, that means no late game on the schedule. ABC, ESPN, and ESPN2 will have all games in the best-of-three series. Tuesday's docket begins with Texas-Tampa Bay on ABC at noon (PT), and Toronto-Minnesota at 1:30pm on ESPN. At 4pm, it's Arizona-Milwaukee on ESPN2, and then Miami-Philadelphia at 5pm on ESPN. Tuesday's schedule is the same for the second games. On Wednesday, if somehow all four series go the distance, the games will have the same start times, otherwise MLB will announce the schedule Tuesday night.

Not so round numbers: The Dodgers won their final game in San Francisco, giving them an even 100 wins on the season. Individual milestones quite get to being divisible by ten. Freddie Freeman finished with 29 home runs and 59 doubles. Mookie Betts had to settle for 39 homers.

Imagine this scenario: Freeman was pretty fired up about the possibility of 60 doubles. It hasn't been done since 1936 (Charlie Gehringer and Joe Medwick). What if in his final at-bat, Freeman hit the ball over the wall? It would have been his 30th homer, but let's say he purposely didn't step on third base. If the Giants appealed and threw to third, Freeman would have been out, and credited with a double. If the Giants didn't appeal, it's still homer number 30. Doubtful he would do it, but it's kinda fun to think about.