With the unbalanced scheduling, should Wild Card be the team closest to the front runner in their division?

Question

instead of the best overall record? The tie breaker could still be win/loss %. With the unbalanced schedule, teams play the most games against their own division and if one team runs away with a substantial lead then the second place team in that division is not likely to beat them in the playoffs. If in another division a team only wins by 1 game then there is more likely to be an upset (it isn't really even an upset if it was a one game lead). If one division happens to have better teams overall, then their records would be tighter.

What is your opinion on the wild card and the unbalanced scheduling?

Answer 1

I think that I like the thinking behind your idea but you can not penalize a team that performed better against the schedule that they are playing. Take the NL Central the past few years, one team runs away with the division but the best record for the wild card was the second place team that was 14 games behind should they be penalized because the NL West all sucks and has a team finish one game behind the winner of the division who was at .500? I would say that you have to go off the record no matter who the opponent is, they all play 162 games it may not be the same schedule for everyone but they still to win the games in front of them.

Answer 2

No way! With 3 divisions it is possible for a team with a losing record to win their division. That is bad enough. If their had been playoffs in 1994, the Texas Rangers would have won the West with a 52-62 record. The A's were a game behind at 51-63. The Indians were the wildcard at 66-47 and were also one game back, but if they were 65-48 instead, should they have stayed home in favor of a wild card that was 14 games worse than them!!! No way! Every other team in the East and the Central had better records than the second place team in the West that year which actually had the 12th best record out of 14 American League teams.

Answer 3

The implementation of divisional play is to create rivalries within driving distance for fans. So if your a Yankee fan seeing them play in Boston, Baltimore and Toronto is still a big possibility of having it really being an intense series no matter what time of the year it is. Same goes for the NL Central you have 6 teams not far in distance and when you play that many times the intensity grows. I love the developing and intensifying rivalries it's great for baseball.

As far as the Wild Card it should definitely be based on best record because the Wild Card team can actually have a better record than a division winner. For example, this year in the NL Central there can be a team with a .500 record or very near .500 while the Wild Card team will most likely have 90+ wins. It's hard to say a team with 90+ wins doesn't deserve to be in the playoffs because another team was closer to their division title.

Baserunner: you seem like you want to eliminate the Wild Card so you can avoid losing to the Yankees in LCS AGAIN!!!! To say baseball should do away with the Wild Card is just ignorant. Your probably also a fair-weather fan.

Answer 4

It sounds good to have the team closest to the division leader be the wild card, but you could end up having a team below .500 make the playoffs, while another team could win 95 games and not make it.

IE...I'll use the National League. The Mets win 98 games, the Phillies 92, they are 6 back.

In the Central the Cubs win 83 and the Brewers finish 5 back with 78 wins.

In the West the Padres win 85 and the second place team wins 79, which is 6....so under your scenario the Brewers with a record of 78-84 make the playoffs while the 92-70 Phillies would miss them.....

It just wouldn't work.

Answer 5

I see what you're getting at, and while the scenario of team winning the WC by playing in an inferior division is possible, your proposed solution creates another even more problematic scenario, because the WC winner would be determined to a large degree by who plays in the division with the weakest division winner.

Right now, the Brewers are only half a game back from the Cubs, and in your system, would win the NL wild card. The problem is, the only reason they're so close is that the 1st place Cubs aren't a particularly good team themselves . If your goal is to get the best teams into the playoffs, you wouldn't want EITHER of these teams to make it, let alone both of them.

Answer 6

Nice question because it shows me that you are thinking. However, I would say no because the unbalanced scheduling is part of the season. Would you really want to see a weak second place team in the NL central go in ahead of a stronger NL east team like the Phillies or a strong west team like the Diamondbacks, should the Padres win, just because they were closer to the division winner? Actually, the winner of the NL central might be the only team with a winning record in the division. Remember, the wild card goes to the playoffs representing the league and not the division, and it is the league that wants to put the team with the best second place record in the playoffs.

Answer 7

Fine the way it is. With the way the unbalanced schedule works your team has ample opportunity to win the division because you play divisional teams so often during the year. The Wild card is a more overall kind of thing. It deserves to go to the team with the best record who didnt win the division

Answer 8

Good question, made me think and read, two things i don't like to do.

I agree with most of the responses, we don't need a team in the post season with a sub par record going against the best teams in baseball.

I dont remember who said it but, IT WAS NOT A CURSE, A CURSE NEVER ENDS. It was just a matter of the Red Sox suucking for a long time.

Answer 9

there shouldn't be a wild card team at all. I love the red sox and God knows how it helped us beat the curse but the fact is we'd have had it locked this year and the yankees would have been illiminated by now. 04, 86, 78 and 67 are all proof we can do it without it, especially if the sox get a clue and start investing in basestealing! GO ELLSBURY!!!:-)

Answer 10

exciting concept. it extremely is form of complicated for implementation, and has a deadly flaw, even with the shown fact that. The group with the final checklist outdoors their branch could desire to nonetheless be an undesirable group with the present unbalanced time table. In concept a set could desire to be 10 video games decrease than .500 and nonetheless make the wildcard in the event that they exceeded off to polish in non-divisional video games. it extremely is much greater unfair than the present equipment. mutually because it does seem somewhat unfair to wildcard contenters, those issues stability out over the years, with divisions swapping roles as doormats (different than, of direction the AL East). a much better answer could be to function a wildcard group to the combination. that could desire to generate greater pastime throughout the time of baseball and supply a shot to the subsequent ultimate group at making the playoffs. the two WC communities could desire to play one yet another in a three pastime playoff to work out who performs the #a million seed interior the divisional race.