MLB Tiebreakers: The NFL Has a Better Way
If the season ended on Wednesday, three teams would be in a dead heat in the National League Wild Card standings. Tiebreakers established by MLB would take effect to eliminate one of the three teams. Exciting and dramatic? Most definitely. But are they really be good for baseball?
Four years ago when MLB added a second Wild Card team to the playoffs, the idea was widely hailed as an inducement for expanding fan involvement and interest right down to the final week, and sometimes even the final day, of the season. It’s worked and this year it’s worked in spades as teams in both leagues battle for the last spot and the standings seem to change virtually every day.
Up to this season, a tie for the last Wild Card has occurred only once in 2013 when Tampa Bay beat the Texas Rangers 5-2 in a one-game shootout the day after the season officially ended.
MLB recently announced its tiebreaker rules that cover far ranging scenarios that extend to as many as four teams ending in a dead heat for both division and Wild Card positions. The division races are all but over, but the Wild Card races are getting wilder by the day. So, let’s use the National League as the example to demonstrate why MLB should consider a tiebreaker system that is more in line with the way the NFL does things.
The single most important difference between NFL tiebreaker rules and the kind MLB uses is that, in baseball, you play extra games to break the tie(s), while in football ties are decided by head-to-head games that have been played during the regular season.
So if we use the MLB standings as of today as an example, the Mets, Giants and Cardinals would all be tied with the exact same winning percentage, creating the need for the tiebreaker rules to kick in. Basically, each team would receive an “A”, “B” or “C” designation that would determine who would play who, where the games would be played, and how many games each team would play (one team would play two games). For entertainment, you can read how these team letter designations are arrived at, but trust me it’s a wild way to decide a Wild Card after having played 162 games.
But here’s the salient point. While the MLB system of using extra games to break ties increases the element of drama (read: TV ratings), it also waters down the quality of play that we’ll ultimately see when the playoffs begin.
Consider this as a realistic example of how that could happen. Let’s say the Mets are one of the three teams that are tied. And let’s also assume that Mets manager Terry Collins has juggled his pitching staff so he has his ace, Noah Syndergaard available to start the first of (potentially) two elimination games. And although he’d have to be a magician to do this, let’s also assume that Collins would have his second best Bartolo Colon available to pitch the next day, and that the Mets win both games moving on to the real playoffs.
More from Call to the Pen
- Philadelphia Phillies, ready for a stretch run, bomb St. Louis Cardinals
- Philadelphia Phillies: The 4 players on the franchise’s Mount Rushmore
- Boston Red Sox fans should be upset over Mookie Betts’ comment
- Analyzing the Boston Red Sox trade for Dave Henderson and Spike Owen
- 2023 MLB postseason likely to have a strange look without Yankees, Red Sox, Cardinals
Who’s next in line after that for the Mets? Maybe Steven Matz assuming he’s healthy and his arm strength has been rebuilt by then to throw 100+ pitches. But more likely it would be a untested rookie like Seth Lugo opening the first game of the playoffs. No offense, Seth, but who do you think Mets fans want to see in that first game, Syndergaard or Lugo?
And that’s not to even consider the wear and tear on the arms of these pitchers who have already been stretched out throwing stress filled innings just to get to this point. And when you combine that scenario for the Mets with the fact that the other two teams are experiencing the same thing, is that really good for baseball?
No, the NFL has a better idea in using games in head-to-head competition already played as tiebreakers. The NFL does it in many cases where only one game has been played. Why can’t baseball do it when a minimum of six games (considering intra-divisional play) have been contested and a wealth of statistical data is already in the box scores?
A one-game playoff when two teams are involved is mildly acceptable, although even that throws the pitching lineup out of whack. But when three or even more teams are involved, as in the case developing this year, a system more in line with the NFL makes more sense.
Over the winter, MLB needs to take the time to consider changing these rules for the good of the game and away from the lure of TV ratings that only succeed in watering down the quality of play on the field.