Transcript and recording here.
This was based on a much longer conversation. I’ll just add that yes, not only do wild card teams not always get blown out, they sometimes win! The larger point stands, though — if the pennant winners are drawn somewhat uniformly from the best four teams in the league, you’re more likely to have a mismatched World Series than you were in olden times, when the pennant winner was usually the best team in its league.
Here’s my old Slate piece on why the World Series should be stopped when one team goes up 3-0, but should go to best of 9 if the first six games split 3-3.
If you like Mike Pesca’s voice and you like smart sports talk, I highly recommend Slate’s Hang Up and Listen podcast.
Quomodocumque 
I think they did the World Series right in 1884. It was a best of three series, and after the Providence Grays defeated the New York Metropolitans in the first two games, they decided to play the third game anyway. The losing pitcher from the first two games umpired, and the game was called off after six innings on account of cold weather.
There’s something funny about arguing that the wildcard weakens the baseball playoffs by letting in weak teams, all the while referencing an article written in response to the 2004 blowout of the division-winning St. Louis Cardinals by the wildcard Boston Red Sox.
Maybe the thesis includes a fluidity of baseball ownership, where if there were no wildcard then rich owners would invest in small-market teams?