Saturday, September 22, 2012

Does Division tie game count toward wild card?

My friend Eric asked this question the other day and I'll try to create a scenario to demonstrate.

In the Major Baseball League (MBL) American Conference, let's pretend that the Central division contenders get hot and Chicago wins the division with 93 wins and 69 losses.  I don't know who plays whom so let's pretend.  Detroit secures the top wild card with 92-70.

Baltimore and the Yankees tie in the East division at 91-71 and that Oakland (91-71) is second to top seed Texas in the West division.

Baltimore and the Yankees must play an extra regular season game to determine the division winner.  The loser would then be 91-72, half a game worse that Oakland and not even eligible to play a tie breaker against Oakland for the second wild card spot.

In other words Baltimore or the Yankees would be penalized for tieing for the division lead.  They would not only need to play the extra tie breaker game to determine the division winner but because of that, lose an opportunity to be a wild card team.  They would be much better off if the division winner were determined by their records, such as head to head, and not in an elimination game.

Did MBL consider this?

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