MLB Question

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I had questions about MLB. So the NY Yankees are AL East Champ. The AL and NL do have 2 wild cards. Is this all the time? So that means that the wild card teams play against each other? So if Baltimore beats Texas, then Baltimore plays the NY Yankees? If Yankees win, then they play against whoever wins Detroit/Oakland? THEN if Yankees beat Detroit or Oakland then they are AL Champ? Why do the wild card champ have to go against Yankees and Nationals? Is it because Yankees and Nationals are the best in the AL and NL? Cincinnati for instance won many games, only one less than the Nationals. How come the wild cards don't play against Cincinnati too? Also how come some teams don't have wild cards?

This is all brand new--last year there was only one wild card team.

They made the change to put more importance on winning the Division--previously, the wild card would have nearly a good a chance of making it to the world series as the Division champ--now their chances are cut in half via the one game playoff.

The team with the best record gets to play the wild card winner--the weakest team--since it had to just had use its best pitchers to win the one game playoff. Most pitchers throw so hard that they need to rest between starts--or risk career ending injury--something you don't want to do when you still have to pay these guys $10 million a year, even if they are injured.

Since there are three division winners, we are left with other division winners who get to play each other.

The winners of both series get to play for the AL or NL League championship and the right to play in the World Series

The MLB noticed that in the NFL and NBA, it seems like close to half the teams are in the playoffs, and rake in a lot of money. Baseball only had a handful. So they added two wildcards, to squeeze just a little more blood (money) out of the turnip (postseason television deals). If you haven't kept up, MLB just extended its contract with FOX and Turner for postseason games. Whoever is having an economic crisis at the moment, it isn't pro sports!

Despite all this, the Angles couldn't figure out how to turn one of the highest payrolls in MLB into either wildcard spot. Oops. They went all-out spending on free agents, but their bullpen fell apart.

Trencher93, it might help to look at a bracket to see how the postseason is set up. Hopefully, this link will not take too long to load:

MLB postseason bracket

If you have any other questions, I'd be happy to try to answer them. I used to be totally mystified by how sports leagues are organized, but it has since become an obsessive interest for me. : )

The MLB is composed of two leagues that merged together a long time ago. There is the National League and the American League.

Each league has 3 divisions. East, Central and West.

The best team in each division of each league wins the division and gets a playoff slot. The two best teams in each league that did not win the division get a wild card slot. Before this year there was only 1 wild card, so the wild card was pretty much equal to winning the division.

Positions are determined by team record.

Now you have to play a 1 game playoff to get into the divisional round. There is a lot of controversy. MLB has always been about playing a series of games to see who is best, vs the NFL who operates under the "any given Sunday" idea that anything can happen because your only playing one game.

There are 4 stages to the Post Season:

Wild Card Round: 1 game

Divisional Round: Best 3 of 5

Championship Round: Best 4 of 7

World Series. Best 4 of 7.


In all of the above except the World Series, the American League teams play each other and the National League teams play each other.

The best AL and best NL team play in the World Series.