The long baseball season is nearing its end. The summer is coming to an end and the Fall season is about to start. With it will come the Major League Baseball Playoffs. The first games of the playoffs start next weekend. So let’s take a look at what teams are approaching the playoffs in this final week of the season.
The American League
The interesting note of the week is that no A.L. teams have clinched a playoff spot yet. It has been a tight race for all of the divisional spots and especially for the two Wild Card spots.
East
In the East there is great competition between the division leading New York Yankees and the Baltimore Orioles. The Yankees only lead that division by one game with the Rays in third place by only 5 games.
Central
The Central division has seen the Chicago White Sox fall quite a bit in the past week. The White Sox are trailing the Detroit Tigers in the division by one game. The third place team in the division is held by the Kansas City Royals who are fourteen games behind and have no hope for the playoffs.
West
The Western division has just as tight of a race as the Eastern division. The Texas Rangers hold the top position with a record of 92-65. The Oakland A’s have been surging ahead in the final month of the season and are only three games behind the Rangers. In third place five games behind the Rangers are the Anaheim Angels. The Angels got off to a bad start at the beginning of the season but were able to turn their season around in the summer months.
Wild Card
Only six games separate the top five teams in the Wild Card race. The Baltimore Orioles and the Oakland A’s are in the top spots. The Angels are two games back. The Rays are three games back, while the White Sox are six games back and will likely only be able to enter the playoffs with winning the Central division.
The National League
The almost half of the playoff spots in the N.L. have been claimed. All but one of the divisions have champions already, which takes some of the excitement away.
East
This is the only division where a champion has not yet been crowned. With the third place team the Phillies seventeen games back, its between only the Braves and the Nationals for the crown. The Nationals have shocked the baseball world with an incredible season and they currently hold the top spot. The braves are trailing by four games and still have a chance at winning the division. Both the Nationals and Braves have clinched playoff spots. The only question is which one will be the division champion and which one will be in the wild card position.
Central
The Cincinnati Reds won the division this past week. They appear to be a team that could contend for the World Series Title in October.
West
The San Fransisco Giants won the division championship just a few days ago. This team has been a great team built for the playoffs for a few years now. The Giants won the World Series in 2010 and are looking to win their second in three years.
Wild Card
With the Braves having clinched a playoff birth there is only one wild card spot remaining. The St Louis Cardinals hold the remaining spot at the moment. The Dodgers and the Brewers are the only two teams that still have a chance for the remaining wild card. The Dodgers are three games back while the Brewers are five back. The Dodgers have been turning downward as September rolls along. The Brewers have to win their remaining five games to have a chance. The Cardinals will likely hold their position and go into a wild card playoff game with the Braves.
Like this:
Like Loading...
Leave a comment | tags: 2012, american league, birth, braves, brewers, can win, central, champions, classic, east, fall, giants, long, make it, MLB, national league, nationals, october, orioles, phillies, play, playoff, playoffs, rays, reds, season, september, west, what teams, white sox, who is in, who is left, who will, wild card, world series, yankees | posted in MLB, sports
This past off season Major League baseball did something they had not done since 1994. It changed it’s playoff structure by adding a new element.
Prior to 1995 there were just four teams involved in the post season. There was an Eastern and Western Champion in Both leagues who would play each other for the League Championship. Those two winners would go into the World Series and face off against the opposing leagues Champion. This had been the case since 1969.
The new system was enacted in 1994 but due to the strike shortened season it debuted in 1995. The system worked with each league having three divisions. Each division winner would go to the playoffs and the team with the best record that did not win a division would also go to the post season. There have been five wild card teams that have won a World Series since MLB instituted the wild card.
In November the commissioner of MLB, Bud Selig announced that their would be a second wild card team for each league. The two wild card teams would play each other in a one game playoff. The winner will advance to the divisional round of the playoffs and face one of the divisional champions. All that was added was basically one more game to each leagues playoff. We will see the first wild card playoff game in less than two weeks from now.
The new system obviously adds something to the final month of the season. More teams will be in the hunt for the post season with the additional wild card. Those teams games will also be more exciting down the stretch when MLB can be boring at times. It will also create a new buzz in the playoffs. However there is a draw back.
The two wild card teams might actually be pretty far apart records wise. The second wild card team will be given an opportunity for the playoffs they may not deserve. As of right now you have two teams at the top of the National League wild card race. The Atlanta Braves and the St. Louis Cardinals. The braves lead the Cardinals by 6 games. If the playoffs were to start today the Cardinals would get a one game playoff opportunity with the Braves they should not have.
This new system seems nice right now but over time it will dilute the MLB post season. One wild card team per league is just enough. If you have too many non playoff worthy teams getting a shot in the playoffs it will spell disaster for MLB. This is just another scheme by Selig to make more money off of the last month of the season and add more money to the post season television deals. MLB should go back to the four team per league system before the post season become watered down. As the old adage goes if it is not broke don’t fix it.
Like this:
Like Loading...
2 comments | tags: 1969, 1994, 1995, 2012, 6, american league, apart, atlanta, bad, braves, bud selig, buzz, cardinals, champion, chase, chmpions, commisioner, controversy, diluted, division, divisions, don't change, game, games, generate, go back, history, hunt, just enough, league champions, loss, MLB, money, money hungry, national league, new, old system, opinion, opportunity, per, players, playoff, playoffs, post season, race, record, season, september, shortened, st louis, strike, sudden death, system, television, too many teams, wild card, win, winner, world series, worthy | posted in MLB, sports
One of the biggest sports stories of the year and possibly the last decade happened today. The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) Presidential Oversight Comity signed the documents the will remove the BCS System and put a 4 team tournament in its place. It was the most hotly debated and demanded topic in the history of college football. Even the President of the United States weighed in with his opinion on the subject.
The BCS is soon to be gone, good riddance.
(Photo by: Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
The BCS lasted for 14 years and was created to settle the controversy created by the bowl system that was formerly in place. The previous system would have team play their final games of the season in bowl games that a lot of the times did not help their case for being #1 and National Champions. The BCS was supposed to bring order by having the top 2 ranked teams battle it out to crown a National Champion. It however created a lot of controversy instead. There have been many teams over the years that have gone undefeated and still were out of the championship game. There was also a lot of corruption with the BCS Executives taking advantage of the system and wrongly using money to fund parties and put in their wallets. So the BCS can die a horrible death and rot as far as most football fans are concerned.
Up until now football was the only NCAA sport that did not have a tournament to crown it champion. In fact the NCAA has not endorsed one single BCS champion as being their champion.
The 4 team tournament system will start in 2014. That means that we will have two more BCS years but essentially the BCS is dead after that. The fans of college football all breathed a sigh of relief today knowing that the end of a horrible system is soon to be gone.
The new tournament will be a breath of fresh air for college football. I do however feel that the tournament should expand to at least 8 teams but hey you have to crawl before you walk. At least they are giving it a go. The tournament will mean more excitement and drama not only during the final games but during the season when teams will be fighting to get in. Sure, there will still be some controversy about some teams not getting in but at least you will have a semifinal and a final to let the teams battle it out. The way college football is set up with so many teams and many great ones will mean that only the best teams will play for the National Championship.
For decades the college football scene has needed a tournament and the fans have been demanding it. For a very long time it appeared that we would never see a tournament in college football. Now everyone can sleep easy knowing that the light is at the end of the tunnel.
Like this:
Like Loading...
2 comments | tags: 14 years, 1998, 2013, 2014, 4 team, 4 team tournament, 4 teams, alabama, bcs, bcs championchip, big ten, bowl games, college football, dead, death, Florida, football, FSU, lsu, national champion, NCAA, oragne bowl, Oregon, pac 10, playoff, playoff system, sec, texas, trophy, USC | posted in NCAA
