October 5, 200520 yr Wild-card teams have it too easy Caple By Jim Caple ESPN.com Archive Something needs to be done about the wild card. Now. Before we have to watch yet another second-place team soak itself in champagne. Look, I'm not necessarily against the wild card, though it douses nearly as many races as it creates (imagine if the Red Sox-Yankees series last weekend had actually meant something by eliminating one of the teams, or if the White Sox had been chased by Anaheim all season long). What I am opposed to is the lack of a sufficient handicap for these also-rans. Wild-card teams represent 25 percent of the postseason entrants, yet they have won 40 percent of the World Series over the last 10 years, including the past three. Both wild-card teams reached the 2002 World Series. The Marlins have won two World Series without ever finishing in first place (Cubs and Cleveland fans can begin grinding their teeth now). Why does this happen? First, wild-card teams usually are playing as well as any in the game. Unlike first-place teams, which can build up a huge lead and then sort of coast the rest of the way, wild-card teams often enter the playoffs on a roll; the 2004 Red Sox had the best record in baseball after July. Wild-card teams may not have been capable of proving themselves over the course of a 162-game season -- and doing so is the very essence of baseball -- but they often have the momentum (also known as healthy pitchers and hitters). And as the Red Sox, Marlins and Angels proved, that can make the difference. Second, the wild-card team often is better than the other division winners. The Red Sox had six more wins than either the Angels or Twins last year. The Marlins had a better record than the Cubs in 2003. The Angels had a better record than the Twins in 2002. The Astros have a better record than the Padres this year (and with that starting rotation, Houston looks like the team to beat). Third, there just isn't that much of a disadvantage to being the wild-card team. Atlanta, for example, just won its 14th consecutive division title, yet it may only have the home-field advantage in the Division Series. If the wild-card Red Sox advance to the World Series, they'll again have home-field advantage because the AL won the All-Star Game. Fourth, sometimes things just happen. Admittedly, we wouldn't be griping about wild-card domination if Mariano Rivera and the Yankees had held a ninth-inning lead while up three games to none last October, or if Mark Prior and the Cubs had held a 3-0 lead while up three games to two in 2003. But because things like that do happen, it's all the more reason to toughen up the degree of difficulty. I'm not alone. I asked a prominent baseball executive whether baseball needs to do something to make it tougher for the wild-card teams, and he immediately replied, "Yes." He just didn't know how to do it. Well, here are two ways. 1. Wild-card sudden death: One proposal under consideration is to have two wild-card teams per league. Now, doubling the number of wild-card teams seems like an odd way to lessen their domination, but it could. Under this format, each wild-card team would meet in a one-game playoff the Monday after the season, with the winner going on and the loser going home. This would increase the odds of a wild-card team burning its ace before getting to the division series (it also would give us one more game to watch). It merits serious consideration, as long as the winners have to spray themselves with cheap 3.2 beer and hold up big puffy hands with two upraised fingers to indicate, "We're No. 2!" 2. Road kill: The current setup gives wild-card teams one fewer home game in the best-of-five Division Series -- and occasionally not even that -- which just is not that big a disadvantage. That's like trying to restrict Exxon's profits by barring it from selling beef jerky and pepperoni sticks at its gas stations. Heck, there isn't even a home-field advantage at all unless the series goes the limit. Restricting the wild-card team to just one home game -- Game 3 or 4 -- would have a bigger impact. In fact, I not only wouldn't be against keeping the wild-card team on the road for the entire Division Series, I'd make it take the bus and force it to listen to the other city's sports-talk radio station the entire ride. Think this goes too far? Tough. If wild-card teams don't like it, they should win the division. I don't understand why this is such a big topic nowadays... Wild card teams do NOT have it too easy... they have to play against the hardest league teams and never have home field advantage. If the first place division teams actually deserve to be there, than they should be able to knock off the "weaker" wild card team. That's just how it works... If they can't beat the wild card team than they obviously aren't the better team... That is the whole purpose of the playoffs... I'm tired of Yankee fans bitching because they keep getting beaten by wild card teams... here's a concept, WIN! The playoffs aren't suppose to be a place where first place teams can coast to the championship series...
October 5, 200520 yr I think this argument ends with us in '03. The Marlins had a better record than the division champion Cubs by 4 games, yet didn't get home-field due to being the wild-card. I understand the whole "they get to start their best pitcher against our best pitcher" argument, and in the first round of the playoffs, you really could say the road team is at an advantage because all they need to do is win one on the road and two at home, but the wild-card team also has to play into the last weekend and sometimes last game of the season while division winners get to rest and set up their rotation for the playoffs.
October 6, 200520 yr Does the Wild Card team really have an advantage, when the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place finishers in the Wild Card race all had a better record than the NL West champions? Also, how can you say even this season that any Wild Card team has an advantage? Boston won the AL Wild Card, and promptly got on a plane to face the #1 seed in the American League. The Astros won the NL Wild Card after a tough race, and now has to face a team with one of the toughest pitching staffs in the majors including quite possibly the greatest postseason pitcher of all time (John Smoltz). Since we don't have reseeding, the Wild Card will always have to be the road team for a Game 7 unless their league was lucky enough to win the World Series. In a league where probably the teams that would have done the most damage are at home watching others play it out for the title, I fail to see how we have too many teams in the playoffs or any one team has it easy. Baseball's playoff system is absolutely perfect and does not need to be changed in any way.
October 6, 200520 yr Making it very difficult for the wild card team to advance would also give the division leader who faced the wild card team an easy series. This would be unfair to the other two division winners, and could be unfair to the division leader with the most wins. Take this year as an example where St. Louis and Houston are in the same division. Would it be fair to either St. Louis or San Diego if Atlanta had all of it's games at home? Or it Atlanta got a quick division win because Houston had burned it's ace in a one game playoff? The current system is about as even-handed as it can be, IMO.
October 6, 200520 yr This is just another cub/yankee's sports writer complaining. It is total and complete BS. I want the two minutes of my life back that I took to read this.
October 6, 200520 yr Right, Wild Card teams have it to easy. They have to be in a race with about 10-15 teams every year where-as division leaders only race about 1 or 2 in their own division (at about mid-season, if it's close). Riiiight
October 6, 200520 yr what a joke. If I would like to punch this ahole on the face. The Wild Card is here to stay in it's current form.
October 6, 200520 yr each league needs to split up into four divisions and get rid of the wild card...example: National League: West: San Francisco San Diego Los Angeles Arizona North: St. Louis Colorado Chicago Milwaukee East: New York Philadelphia Pittsburgh Cincinnatti South: Atlanta Florida Washington Houston American League: West: Oakland Anaheim Seattle North Detroit Minnesota Chicago Kansas City East New York Boston Cleveland Toronto South Tampa Bay Baltimore Texas
October 6, 200520 yr each league needs to split up into four divisions and get rid of the wild card...example: National League: West: San Francisco San Diego Los Angeles Arizona North: St. Louis Colorado Chicago Milwaukee East: New York Philadelphia Pittsburgh Cincinnatti South: Atlanta Florida Washington Houston American League: West: Oakland Anaheim Seattle North Detroit Minnesota Chicago Kansas City East New York Boston Cleveland Toronto South Tampa Bay Baltimore Texas That makes it easier to make it out..
October 6, 200520 yr How could you possibly justify having two divisions with only three teams? If we were to expand, then perhaps that makes sense.
October 6, 200520 yr North: St. Louis Colorado Chicago Milwaukee Talk about easy.. :lol *St. Louis goes 42-120* "Cardinals win the NL North division by 42 games."
October 6, 200520 yr North: St. Louis Colorado Chicago Milwaukee Talk about easy.. :lol not necessarilly...the divisions go in cycles...three years ago the NL West was far and away the best division in the NL...in the last four years, the NL East has gone from the worst to the best to the worst to the best in the NL...the AL Central was the worst division in baseball for the last three seasons, and now it's the best in the AL
October 6, 200520 yr I'm talking about COLORADO.. Milwaukee is on the rise and the Cubs.. Let's not even get started.. Although the Cubs are our biggest rival.. they still wont be able to compete for the division title :lol So I dont understand your point Mays.. :plain And by the way I like the WC as is.. But I'd like something else done with the playoffs format for the teams with the best records.
October 6, 200520 yr leave it as is . . . . look at this year. A lot of teams were on the mix during September. Look at overall MLB attendance numbers. current setup works fine
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