September 15, 2007
Preferred Wild Card?
The Phillies hold on to defeat the Mets 5-3 today, their seventh win in a row against New York. They're now 11-6 vs. the Mets this season. They're five games over .500 against all the other teams combined.
At this point, might not the Mets want the Phillies to win the wild card? If the Mets win the East, they would play the wild card team unless it's an eastern team. Meaning they might have to play a pretty good team from the western division. But if the Phillies win the wild card, the Mets likely get the NL Central winner, and given the poor quality of those teams, it would likely give the Mets a better chance of winning the first round. That's the main defect in the current playoff system. It sometimes gives teams a reason not to win.
This problem would be easy to fix--give the team in each league with the best record the choice of which of the other three teams to face in the first round, along with home field advantage for the league playoffs. Yes, it would be a big edge, but given that it's the team with the best record that's appropriate, isn't it?
That's a good suggestion.
That's a VERY GOOD suggestion, which means it will never be implemented.