This Ought to be Unpopular: The Wild Card vs Division Winners

Just kidding. But seriously, an interesting read, but I disagree that a change needs to be made. The wild card earns a spot in the playoffs by being the 4th best team…they still got to earn it.
To turn your notion of fairness on its head, look to the ZOMG AL East. Year in and year out, both the Sox and Yankees have what it takes to win any division in the AL, but only one can win the AL East…is it fair for the odd man out to not see the playoffs just cause its in a division with the latter? With no wild card, I’d try to change divisions…cause that way you’ve got a statistically better shot of getting in.
But what do I know, right?

then it’s pretty much up to the hottest team at the moment. But winning the division carries a lot more weight than slipping in as a wild card and I feel like the Rockies are overdue for their first. In 2010 all I want is the west.

I find it completely ridiculous that a team can prove themselves to be the best in their division for 162 games and yet a Wild Card team can just erase that by beating them in a short series were they weren’t at a disadvantage at all.

Best in their division perhaps, but some teams have won some weeeeaaaak divisions. Some wild cards are better than division winners. Let’s take a look at the records and how many wild card winners had the 4th best record.
1995: New York – 3rd (considering Mariners play-in game), Colorado – 4th
1996: Baltimore – 4th, Los Angeles – 2nd
1997: New York – 2nd, Florida – 2nd
1998: Boston – 2nd, Chicago – 4th
1999: Boston – 4th, New York – 3rd (considering Astros play-in game)
2000: Seattle – 3rd, New York – 4th
2001: Oakland – 2nd, St. Louis – 2nd
2002: Anaheim – 3rd, San Francisco – 4th
2003: Boston – 3rd, Florida – 3rd
2004: Boston – 2nd, Houston – 4th
2005: Boston – 3 way tie for 2nd, Houston – 3rd
2006: Detroit – 3rd, Los Angeles – 3rd
2007: New York – Tied for 3rd, Colorado – Tied for 2nd
2008: Boston – 3rd, Milwaukee – 3rd
2009: Boston – 3rd, Colorado – 3rd

So, seven times out of thirty teams, that team has actually been the “worst” team to make the playoffs. The only ones to win the series were the 2000 Yankees. The 2002 Giants are the only other 4th place wild card team to make the series.
I’m curious to expand this to rank all of the teams 1st-4th according to regular season record, then see how those 4th best teams shake out.
In any case, I’d say the problem is not with wild cards winning in the playoffs, the problem is with weak division winners.

most teams are in a division based on their geography.
The simple solution is 15 teams in the AL. and 15 in the NL. Balanced schedule with interleague play.
The top four teams in each league go to the play offs . 1 seed plays 4 seed and 2 plays 3.

that can become apparent late in the season. More often than not, division winners have their title wrapped up weeks before the end of the season. To win the Wild Card, however, you usually have to stay competitive right up until game #162. This isn’t always the case, but I do believe there is something to be said for the team that is carrying momentum into the playoffs. Baseball is a game about streaks and momentum, and to have just come off of a weekend fighting for your playoff lives will give you an edge over an opponent who is coming off of essentially two weeks vacation.

1) just let the Yanks contest the WS and have the other 29 teams battle out the other spot

2) let’s say Jeter and Rodriguez smash into each other fielding a popup fly and Sabathia is also injured in the melee. The Yanks only manage 88 wins and are pipped by the Sox to the AL East, having to settle for the wild card. The poorly triumvirate all recover for the playoffs and, with their awesome team intact, they win the world series. The best team wins, right? So you’re happy?

  I am old enough to remember before division play. Yes there were a lot of years when the pennant was decided a month in advance. The best teams went to the dance.

  For all the excitement provided by that swashbuckling move at the close; I’d still rather see some one who Won something. I’d rather have sixteen teams in each league and four divisions. Make one the small market division to make it fair. That way you don’t have the Yanks & Boso(x) all the time. One or the other.

I tend to think most players don’t care how they make the playoffs, as long as they do. If you win the division, you get homefield advantage and you get the benefit of extra days of rest. Does the rest help or hurt…hard to say.

If the concern is that the WC gets hot at the right time, like the Rox in 07 and they took advantage of it through a short division series, then lengthen the division series to 7 games and remove the number of days off so everything is done by the end October to eliminate most weather issues and the seeming problem of rust, etc.