Tuesday, April 26, 2011

The problem with another Wild Card team

So it seems a certainty that MLB is going to add an additional Wild Card team in each league for 2012.  I don't like it, but not for the reasons everybody is talking about.  I don't care if they're just doing it for more TV money.  I don't care if it makes the season last longer.  I don't care if it means the Red Sox and Yankees both make the playoffs every year from now till eternity.  I don't like it because they're saying the Wild Card round will be either 2 out of 3, or just 1 game.  My biggest issue with the current playoff system is that the 3 out of 5 first round is too short.  It's just way too small a sample.  Anything can happen in 3 baseball games.  And it's not representative of the whole team when you only have to use 3 of your 5 starting pitchers.  Now imagine ONE game.  It has nothing to do with the teams, just whichever ace is better that day. 

How about this for a comparison: One baseball game is the mathematical equivalent to half a basketball game.  If the first round of the NBA Playoffs was half a game long, the Bulls, Celtics, Magic, Spurs, Lakers, and Thunder all would have been upset last week. 

Or even crazier, one baseball game is the same percentage of a season as 6 minutes of an NFL game.


1 comment:

  1. Then win the division and it won't be your teams problem.

    ReplyDelete

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