pilgrimshoes
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| Quote : | "In 1995, Major League Baseball went to a playoff system that includes the use of a Wildcard team. This meant that for the first time, a team would make the playoffs without winning its division. While purists bemoaned this step as yet another in the downhill slide of baseball (which also includes the Designated Hitter and Astroturf), the fact is that because of the wildcard, teams that ordinarily would have been playing out the string were still trying hard in August and September. The purpose of this page is not to argue whether or not there should be a Wildcard in baseball. The purpose is to explain who gets to be the Wildcard and figure out who they will play in the playoffs.
In 1998, Major League Baseball made two very important changes to the way the playoffs are run:
They gave home field advantage to the division winners with the best records, instead of rotating it among the divisions. The wild-card team plays the division winner with the best record, unless those two teams are in the same division.
They changed the Division Championship Series from a 2-3 format to a 2-2-1 format, giving the team with a better record true home-field advantage.
After three years of doing the playoffs wrong, they finally got it right.
In 2003, Major League Baseball made a few more changes to the way the playoffs are determined. To read more about playoff tiebreakers than you probably ever wanted to know, check out my article entitled Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Playoff Tiebreakers but Were Afraid to Ask on Baseball Prospectus and read more about tiebreakers on my tiebreaker page.
But back to the wildcard. Let's look at an example. We'll take 1998, since that's when I originally wrote this page and I don't feel like re-writing it every year.
In the American League, the division winners stacked up like this, ranked by winning percentage:
New York
Cleveland
Texas
The wildcard team was Boston. Ordinarily, the wildcard would play the division winner with the best record, but since the Red Sox and Yankees are in the same division, the Red Sox would instead play Cleveland while the Yankees and Rangers play, with home field advantage going to the Yankees. The same would happen if Toronto won, but if the Rangers won, they would play the Yankees and the Angels would play Cleveland.
In the National League the teams stacked up this way:
Atlanta
Houston
San Diego
The wildcard was the Cubs (!!), who travelled to Atlanta while San Diego and Houston battled each other with Houston getting home field advantage. If the Mets had won the wildcard, they would not have played Atlanta, since they're in the same division. Instead, they would have travelled to Houston while the Padres played in Atlanta.
Major League Baseball has made provisions for ties, and they can get pretty convoluted. Basically, if two teams finish tied for the wildcard spot, they play each other in a one-game playoff. If more than two teams finish tied for the wildcard spot (which might happen this year, with the Cubs, Mets, and Giants), then the three teams get seeded and there's a two-game playoff thing. Check out the playoff tie-breaker page to see the whole breakdown.
So what happens in the second round, the League Championship Series? What if the Wildcard upsets one of the division winners? Could they then have the home field advantage? Thankfully, the answer is no. In a rare flash of common sense, Major League Baseball has decreed that the Wildcard cannot have home field advantage. Home field advantage goes to whichever remaining non-wildcard team had the best regular season record.
[this part is old]
In the World Series, by the way, the American League has home field advantage. This used to alternate every year, but in 2003 Bud Selig had the brainstorm to give home field advantage in the World Series to the league that won the All-Star Game, which was the AL this year (thank you, Eric Gagne). Not the smartest decision ever -- I think the team with the best record should have home-field advantage -- but at least it's better than just alternating it. World Series games taking place in the AL park will use the designated hitter; games taking place in the NL park will not.
So does all this suck? Not nearly as bad as it did before they changed the home field advantage rules. Some traditionalists are still upset that a team can make the playoffs without winning a division, and will point to 1997's championship win by the wildcard Marlins as proof that the best team diesn't always win under this system. But, all things considered, it's not such a bad deal, and the 2002 World Series, which featured two wildcard teams, was plenty exciting, wasn't it?
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http://www.all-baseball.com/ref/wildcard.html 7/21/2006 10:20:58 AM
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