https://www.baseball-reference.com/ Oct. 1, 2018 before noon:
Today NL Central and West divisions leaders will break their respective ties by playing an extra regular season game. The loser in each will then play the next day against each other in the NL wild card game.
That 163rd game is a burden that hurts even the winning team as it must devote pitching resources to avoid the single elimination wild card game. There does not seem to be a good reason to play an extra game to break a division lead tie. The tie breaker should be head to head games between the two tied teams. Since they play 19 games in division, there cannot be a tie between two division teams.
Chicago Cubs beat Milwaukee Brewers 11-8
LA Dodgers beat Colorado Rockies 12-7
See, that was easy ... and logical. Instead, both pairs will play today.
The more fundamental problem is that teams do not play the same schedule. This is largely caused by divisions having only five teams and playing 162 regular season games. That's ridiculous and it's exacerbated by having special rivalry games between say Chicago teams and between New York teams.
It would be simpler if there were 32 teams and not 30 but here's what makes obvious sense and has been advocated in this blog for years.
Split each "league", really conference, into 7-8 team east/west divisions. Yes, like it was from 1969-1993. Not because it's old but because it makes geographic sense. The teams should play much more against teams in their own division, preferably at least twice as many games as they play against teams in the other division in their "league".
If they were truly leagues, they would not play regular season games against another "league". If it is essential to play teams in the other "league", each team in a division should play the same other "league" teams.
If traditional and geographic rivalries are deemed really important, then realign and forget the current "league" members. Put the two Chicago teams in the same division. Put the two New York teams in the same division. Put the two Ohio teams in the same division. Put the California teams in the same division. You get the idea. Common sense stuff.
Then seed teams within a division according to record. Break ties using head to head record. That would eliminate the nonsense shown above with low win Atlanta being the only one of five NL teams in the tournament that does not have to play a 163rd game. Atlanta would be the low seed and that would be fair if they all played the same schedule.
Currently five teams in each "league" qualify for the tournament. My scenario could have three teams qualify in each of the two divisions in a "league". Then the 2 seed could play the 3 seed in the wild card game. The winner then plays the division 1 seed in a best of five as now. That winner then emerges to play the other division tournament winner in the best of seven "league" championship series. Then on to the finals, aka, "World Series".
This would make the wild card game between seeds 2-3 more logical and more fair. In 2018 in the AL 100 win Yankees must play the wild card game against 97 win Oakland, while 91 win Cleveland gets a bye. That's ridiculous.
1 comment:
Agree with you on breaking ties. But I would reformat the playoffs and WS.
1) Have a best 2 of 3 series between the two wild card teams, but all the games are played in the top-seeded team’s park. First game played the day after the last game of the season, no break. And a split double header played the next day. Series over in two days.
2) Then, play the best of five - again, TEAMS WITH BEST RECORD PLAY ALL THE GAMES IN THEIR HOME PARK. True home field advantage, no days off, five days in a row, if necessary, not travel required. Meanwhile, the top seeded team gets the added advantage that they get to play the wild card winner, who just had to use their two Aces to win the first series. Let’s see how many second place teams make it past this...
3) Now, we are in the AL and NL championship series. This will be a traditional best of seven: first two games in the top seed’s park, day off, next three games in the other ball park, day off, followed by two more games at top seed’s park, if necessary.
4) Now the most radical idea - the new World Series format: seven games in a row, and at a neutral ball park. Why? Because if Boston and Houston play to game seven, and Los Angeles and Milwaukee play to game seven, then two days before the start of the World Series, no on has ANY IDEA where the games will be played. Football chooses a neutral field; World Cup soccer has neutral fields; Olympics have neutral fields...these events can be planned long in advance. Any fan can begin planning to attend, long before the events begin, because the whole world knows where and when it will take place, they just don’t know what teams and\or what specific athletes will be there. By planning a whole week in October for the WS in a neutral park, the baseball WS week will be the greatest, largest, most popular sporting event in the world. And no more November baseball....and no more winning with one or two Aces, you play the WS like you play the season: seven games in a row.
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