The Reds could be a playoff team or in last place by day’s end. That’s a problem.

The expanded baseball playoffs are a joke, even if it means I could actually watch the Reds play in them for once.

Two things are decidedly true on this, the morning of June 16th, 2004.

The Cincinnati Reds, mediocre as they’ve been this year, sit just 0.5 games out of a Wild Card spot in the National League standings right now.

The Cincinnati Reds, mediocre as they’ve been, could find themselves once again tied for last place in the National League Central at day’s end.

Rob Manfred and his continued expansion of the Major League Baseball playoffs have effectively ruined the need to play good baseball for the duration of the regular season, a regular season that [/checks notes] effectively requires teams to play baseball every single day for six full months.

Kneecapping the importance of playing well everyday while still trying to promote a product that is on TV everyday sure is something. I digress.

The Cincinnati Reds will play the Milwaukee Brewers today at 2:10 PM ET, with a chance to win a road series against the division leaders on the line. Or, they could be in last place once again.

In other words, I echo every bit of what CBS Sports’ Kate Feldman had to say on Twitter yesterday.