Go Cubs!!! Two of Three Best Teams in MLB Play Wild Card Tonight

[Golfingdad]

I can see both sides.  I like the current system because it rewards those that win their division which is where the majority of their games are played.   The Mets team the Cubs played against and beat during the regular season does not even closely resemble the Mets team in the playoffs.

I wouldn't be against a re-seeding in terms of home field advantage but I believe division winners should be provided priority over wild card teams.  I also wouldn't be against a 3 game wild card series versus a one game playoff.

IMO If you want to minimize the weight of division winners you have to;

1. Reduce the number of inter-divisional games
2. Eliminate inter-league play

You mean to reduce the number if inTRA-divisional games, right?  Otherwise I pretty much agree with all of what you said. :)

On this topic, I found an example of the problem that would arise if they reseeded without evening up the schedules.  In 2013, the Pirates finished the regular season 2 games better than the Dodgers, so if reseeding occurred, they'd have hosted the winner of the Dodgers-Reds "wild card" game/series in the divisional playoffs.  However, when you look at the season splits, you see that the Pirates won a large portion of their games within their division (45-31) and struggled against the west (14-18).  The Dodgers, OTOH, dominated the east and central (22-11 and 21-12, respectively) and finished 37-39 in a more evenly matched division.  (Not that its relevant, but FYI, the Dodgers were 4-2 against the Pirates head-to-head)

So the argument that the Pirates played in a stronger division doesn't really hold water in this case (like it can be used this season) ... and I would find this scenario to be drastically more unfair than what we currently have, so again, I say that I don't think it's at all plausible to talk about reseeding unless you're also going to do a significant rebuild of the scheduling system.

[newtogolf]

This happens more in football where they play a LOT fewer games. And sometimes it matters, too.

I think re-seeding should happen in the NFL, too. One year (they lost) the 12-4 Steelers had to travel to play the 8-8 Tebow-led Broncos… who played in a shitty division. But because "any given Sunday" and whatnot…

Unlike in the NFL, in MLB, there are over 10x as many games so the season records pretty well shake themselves out to fairly accurately represent the ability of the team(s).

I agree it's a bigger problem in football due to the limited number of games, but if baseball did go to a single division playoff system I'd like to see the schedules normalized to make it fair for all teams. 

[Gator Hazard]

[newtogolf]