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Related: About this forumExtra wild cards coming to MLB playoffs this year
"We'll have an answer in the next couple of days,'' Michael Weiner, executive director of the Major League Players Association, told USA TODAY on Wednesday.
The expanded format was approved for 2013 in November, but Commissioner Bud Selig strongly pushed for the extra wild-card round to begin this year. The difficulty was trying to squeeze in the one-game, wild-card round playoff game, with the regular-season and World Series schedules already finalized.
(snip)
The new postseason format will eliminate the rule that teams from the same division can no longer face one another in the first round. In fact, three teams could quality for the playoffs from the same division.
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/dailypitch/post/2012/02/mlb-baseball-playoffs-wild-card-2012/1
Squeezing money out of one lousy extra game.
madinmaryland
(64,933 posts)will be an asterisk attached to it.
Yeah, because Barry Bonds was the 2012 hitting instructor for the Pirates!!
El Supremo
(20,365 posts)hughee99
(16,113 posts)madinmaryland
(64,933 posts)El Supremo
(20,365 posts)Yankees and Red Sox finish tied for first and have the best regular season records in baseball. The Rays are far back but have a better record than any other potential wild cards but worse than the other division champs.
Even though the Yankees won the head-to-head with the Red Sox they have to play one game with them to determine East champion. They lose. They then play the one game play-in with the Rays and lose. The Rays then beat the Red Sox in the 5 game first round and go on to beat the the next two teams to win the World Series. Thus a third place team wins it all.
Sumpin' ain't right here.
madinmaryland
(64,933 posts)Just replace the Rays with the Orioles!!
hughee99
(16,113 posts)I don't think they play a head-to-head to determine the division winner, it goes on season head to head, and then maybe coin flip. They only have to play the 1 game playoff if it's the difference between getting into the playoffs and not getting in.
El Supremo
(20,365 posts)I said that a month or so ago. The loser of a tie breaker can't be made to play a one game wild card play-in. Before, they went to a five game series just like all the teams.
hughee99
(16,113 posts)Under the old system, the 1 game playoff is only done if one of the two teams isn't going to make the playoffs. Otherwise you'd end up with a one game playoff in which neither team might be interested in screwing up their pitching before a guaranteed playoff series. A few years ago the Sox went into the final week of the season with a chance to win the division, and since both teams were already in the playoffs, the sox needed to win outright or the Yankees would win the tiebreaker. Under no circumstance would a 1 game playoff be played.
Does this change under the new system?
El Supremo
(20,365 posts)I'll find a link tomorrow.
The new system changes it, because a wild card birth doesn't mean as much.
hughee99
(16,113 posts)I thought it was the same rule as the old system, but I guess if the WC isn't just another playoff spot and is instead a 1 and done, it makes sense.
El Supremo
(20,365 posts)http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=AiKqAlZeYu6ZW1DO1ogeM3wRvLYF?slug=ap-expandedplayoffs
Auggie
(31,207 posts)They could have eliminated the same division rule and kept the playoff schedule as is (except add more DAY GAMES).
I hate this.
Kingofalldems
(38,496 posts)El Supremo
(20,365 posts)were all playing for a wild card birth on the last day of the season? A day some call the best in recent history?
Won't happen now. They all would be wild cards.