Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
September 15, 2006
Massive Tie Review

It wasn't a bad day for the massive tie sceanario, but not a great day either. The NL West tie became a little more likely, but Philadelphia losing hurt the interdivisional aspect. With the Dodgers losing, the Padres are now even in the loss column, 1/2 game out. The Giants are now three games out. Since the Giants play a three game series with the Dodgers the last weekend of the season, these two teams need to be separated by 1 or 3 games going into that series to get the tie.

Still, it's not looking that good as San Diego has opened some space on the pack. They're 2 1/2 games up with a four game weekend series against the Dodgers. A split of that would help things, if the other five teams can win over the weekend. Of course, Philadelphia is playing Houston, so not every one can win.


Posted by David Pinto at 08:03 AM | Division Races | TrackBack (0)
Comments

I can't find this information. Does anyone know what the tie-breaking procedure is if all 3 teams in the AL Central tie? It seems to me that one team would then make the playoffs automatically (either on the basis of its record against the other teams or a coin flip), while the other two play it off for the wild card. Any solid info?

Posted by: Tor at September 15, 2006 09:29 AM

I've posted a link somewhere else, but in a three way tie, the team with the best record in head to head play decides if it wants to play the first game at home or take a bye and play the second game on the road. The winner of the first game then hosts the second game.

That settles the division. What I'm not sure is if there's a wild card game in this case. I believe the two losers play for the wild card, but I'm not 100% sure.

Posted by: David Pinto at September 15, 2006 10:13 AM

What if the winner of the first game loses the second game? Wouldn't that team be the wild card?

If that's true then it raises an interesting question. The winner of the first game clinches a playoff spot. How hard does that team try to win the second game? Will the best pitcher start to try to win the division or be saved for game 1 of the Division Series?

Posted by: tiebroker at September 15, 2006 10:55 AM

That's the dilemma. You can have a two-tiered playoff, but the first game essentially settles the issue. Once you've eliminated one team, the tie-breaker would seem to be head to head competition anyway. So the team that gets the bye (no matter how it is determined), essentially wins a playoff spot without having to do anything.

Posted by: Tor at September 15, 2006 11:43 AM
Post a comment









Remember personal info?