MLB National League Wild Card race

[Kapanda]

So, on mlb.com, two teams have a dash on the Wild Card Games Behind column: the Braves and the Pirates. But they have two different records.

How is that possible? Is it a website glitch or something?

[jamo]

So, on mlb.com, two teams have a dash on the Wild Card Games Behind column: the Braves and the Pirates. But they have two different records.  How is that possible? Is it a website glitch or something?

Two teams earn a while card berth from each league this year, and they playoff for the 4th spot in the respective LDSes.

[Pudderdubber]

The Pirates have a better record and should have the lead for the wild card.

[Kapanda]

Originally Posted by jamo

Two teams earn a while card berth from each league this year, and they playoff for the 4th spot in the respective LDSes.

For some reason I was under the impression that MLB only had one wild card spot per league... thanks!

[Mr3Wiggle]

The annual Pirate clownstomping is about to begin.  That team isn't very good.  Heck, the friggin O's hammered em.

[jamo]

For some reason I was under the impression that MLB only had one wild card spot per league... thanks!

They just added the second one this year. Kind of quietly too, so a lot of people are making that mistake.

[Golfingdad]

And the crazy part is that there first round playoff series is going to be ONE game!

[Golfingdad]

Originally Posted by Golfingdad

And the crazy part is that there first round playoff series is going to be ONE game!

Dumbass.

[jamo]

And the crazy part is that there first round playoff series is going to be ONE game!

It's not really a playoff series , per se, it's a play-in game. They're not giving it a name like the "American League Wild Card Series" or anything. The top two teams in the Wild Card standings will have a one-game play-in to determine who gets to face the team with the best record in the league in the LDS. So "crazy" in the sense that it's going to be like last year's game 162, where several berths were up for grabs, but IMO not "crazy" as in "Bud Selig's really lost his mind on this one!" (Because that happened a long time ago.)

[Golfingdad]

Originally Posted by jamo

It's not really a playoff series, per se, it's a play-in game. They're not giving it a name like the "American League Wild Card Series" or anything.

The top two teams in the Wild Card standings will have a one-game play-in to determine who gets to face the team with the best record in the league in the LDS.

So "crazy" in the sense that it's going to be like last year's game 162, where several berths were up for grabs, but IMO not "crazy" as in "Bud Selig's really lost his mind on this one!" (Because that happened a long time ago.)

Oh, absolutely crazy in the good, exciting sense.  Maybe not if you are a fan of one of the 2 teams.  Like how I am still not over the fact that the Padres "lost" to the Rockies in the one-game tie-breaker to decide the wild card in 2007.  As far as I am concerned, that game is yet to be finished since Matt Holliday still hasn't touched home plate.

Anyways, since I'm not going to have any personal investment in the crazy one game playoffs, I will be very excited for them.

In all seriousness, I think they got this one absolutely right because there should be some kind of reward for actually winning the division.

[Pudderdubber]

Originally Posted by Mr3Wiggle

The annual Pirate clownstomping is about to begin.  That team isn't very good.  Heck, the friggin O's hammered em.

Hey at least the O's are having a decent year this season.

[Kapanda]

Sounds like a bad idea in baseball terms. Even the Yanks get beat by the Pirates. One game can hardly determine the better team.

[Pudderdubber]

You are right. That is why they play the game. :)

[jamo]

Sounds like a bad idea in baseball terms. Even the Yanks get beat by the Pirates. One game can hardly determine the better team.

Statistically and anecdotally, neither does the current setup. If we wanted to determine the absolute best team we'd just give the trophy to whoever had the best record in the 162-game regular season. I like it, if only because the Wild Card teams don't "deserve" it anyway. Want to guarantee yourself a good chance? Win your division. Win the most games, and get to play the Wild Card winner.

[Pudderdubber]

The thing with the playoffs and these short series is if a team has a few good starting pitchers they can win those short series.

[Kapanda]

Don't think I expressed myself properly. Let me try again.

In football, for example, the Pats were a better team than the Giants last year, but the Giants beat the Pats. Fair enough. The way that game is set up, a lot of it is up to the players. But in baseball, seems like only by the law of averages can we really get a fair assessment of how one team stacks up against another - hence the seven game series. Like, just how the ball makes contact with the bat... no doubt those guys have crazy amounts of skill, but isn't there a luck factor between the ball just about flying over the short stop and the short stop making a leaping catch?

That's kind of how it seems to me. And if you have one game, there's quite a good chance the better team was just unlucky in that one game...

[jamo]

That's kind of how it seems to me. And if you have one game, there's quite a good chance the better team was just unlucky in that one game...

Better chance, yes. But worse teams win 5- and 7-game series all the time. It just comes down to the fact that MLB feels the excitement produced by the 1-game playoff outweighs that. I'm inclined to agree. I also like how it will force the managers to make really, really tough pitching decisions down the stretch as they try to balance setting their best pitcher up for a potential play-in game while also making sure they make it to the play-in game. Basically, shit happens, and I don't mind it happening to two teams that already, as I said, didn't "deserve" to make the playoffs anyway. Like in said in my last post, if you want to take all of that luck out of it, win your division. (FWIW, I've read that, SABRmetrically speaking, you'd need over 150 head-to-head games to actually produce a statistically significant result between two baseball teams, mostly due to the innate quirkiness of the game.)

[Cherizo]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the NL wildcard team will come from the NL Central. The division has been historically mediocre, but I think this is the year. Admission: I'm a huge Reds fan. BUT I think they will win the division with the Pirates taking a wild card spot.