While watching the MLB playoffs, it’s become apparent commissioner Bud Selig and company did a terrible job making the first round schedule. In the division series, the team with the better record (club A) has started playing 2 road games at their opponent’s ballpark (club B). In the best three-out-of-five playoff. After those contests, there is a day off for travel to the other team’s city. Following the one-day break, the lower-seeded team (club B) plays at the higher-seeded team for the final 3 games.
Essentially, club A is penalized for winning more games than club B and could lose 2 games before playing at home. It’s idiotic. No other major pro sports league rewards the lower-seeded team in a playoff series. The higher seeds with the better regular season records start and end a series at home. Many people refer to this year’s division series schedule as a 2-3 format.
According to Fox Sports baseball writer Ken Rosenthal, this year is an anomaly. Through Twitter, Rosenthal explained, “For those asking: For this year only, lower seeded teams opening at home. Idea is remove one of two off-days in DS to compress schedule”.
MLB wanted to cut days because they could have at most 20 Division Series (4 best-of-five), 14 League Championship Series (2 best of seven), and 7 World Series games if every series goes the full distance. Unfortunately, the new American League and National League wild-card playoff games added an extra day of play. In addition, the wild-card winners received a day of rest between the wild-card and division series rounds. Their opponents, the division champions with the best record, had to travel to the winner’s ballpark.
Using this year as an example, The St. Louis Cardinals were at the Atlanta Braves for the N.L. Wild Card playoff. The Washington Nationals, Eastern Division champions and best overall record, would play games 1 and 2 at St. Louis or Atlanta. The Cardinals won so they hosted Washington. The Nationals took game 1 while the Cardinals were victorious in game 2. St. Louis has the same chance as Washington of winning 2 of the final 3 games to advance to the League Championship series.
As far as the American League Wild Card, The Baltimore Orioles visited the Texas Rangers. The New York Yankees, A.L. East winners and most wins in American League, were forced to watch TV to find out who they would be playing and most importantly, where they would travel. The Orioles beat Texas and obtained the right to host New York for games 1-2. The Yankees had to score five runs in the 9th inning to even get the first contest. The Orioles responded with a one-run victory in the second ballgame. Again, Baltimore as a wild-card only needs to win 2 of 3 in New York to advance.
These are the Wild-Card series (1 seed vs. 4 seed), there are two other matchups involving only “division winners” (2 seed vs. 3 seed). In the National League, the Cincinnati Reds won 97 games during the regular season as Central Division champs. Conversely, the San Francisco Giants had won 94 games as best in the West. Cincinnati had to fly out to northern California for the first two games against San Francisco. The Reds could have used it as an excuse and not try to win. Instead, they dominated the Giants in San Francisco winning 5-2 in game 1 and 9-0 in game 2. The Reds have three chances to beat the Giants once and beat the system.
Unfortunately, the American League’s 2nd seeded Oakland Athletics are in deep trouble. The Western winners lost the first 2 games of their series in Detroit to the Central champion Tigers. That isn’t the worst part for Oakland. The Athletics came from 13 games back on June 30th to take 1st place when they defeated the Texas Rangers on the last day of the season. Oakland used up all their effort to capture their division with 94 wins while Detroit stumbled to a 88-74 record. The Athletics won six more games than the Tigers and were forced to go to Detroit. They probably would’ve been better off losing the division to Texas so they could open at home as a Wild-Card team.
If that looked confusing to read and understand, it was! Detroit played in the worst division in MLB this year. The second place Chicago White Sox had 85 victories, three less than the Tigers. Third-place Kansas City picked up 72 wins. By comparison, Oakland’s division (A.L. West) finished with the A’s at 94, Texas at 93, and L.A. Angels at 89 (one more than Detroit). The New York Yankees’ division (A.L. East) concluded with the Yankees first at 95 wins, Baltimore at 93, and Tampa Bay at 90 (two more than Detroit).
It was bad enough Detroit qualified for the playoffs over Tampa Bay and/or the L.A. Angels but to give them 2 home games before Oakland gets one is dumb. Major League Baseball didn’t mean to hurt Oakland or help Detroit but they didn’t think a situation like this could happen. MLB saw the casual fan interest increase after Tampa Bay and St. Louis came from behind to take the single Wild-Card spots in each league on the last day of the 2011 regular season. The Cardinals helped the Wild-Card playoff more by winning the 2011 World Series. Baseball’s decision makers saw what one team did last year but didn’t take into account the effect of all playoff teams for this year.
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