September 29, 2016

Disruption

One reason I like massive ties is that they have the ability to disrupt the playoffs. That was more true before the second wild card was introduced. With the extra days before the LDS starts, even a two day playoff to settle a three-way tie doesn’t really delay the LDS. The potential wild card teams just don’t get any days off.

The Tigers and Indians were rained out Thursday afternoon, however, and that provides a chance for disruption. For example, imagine Toronto wins the first wild card, while Baltimore and Seattle are tied for but Detroit is either 1/2 game up or out. Detroit would need to play Cleveland on Monday to decide if there is going to be a three-way, two-way, or no playoff for the wild card.

Seattle has the best head-to-head record among the three teams, so they would likely want to wait to play for the second game of a three-game playoff, so they only need to win one. So if the Tigers wound up tied after Monday, then they would play at Baltimore on Tuesday, then the winner of that game hosts the Mariners on Wednesday. The actual wild card game would be on Thursday, the day the ALDS was supposed to open.

So right now, I’m really rooting for a three-way tie between those teams.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *