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2012 MLB Catch All thread


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Selig hasn't yet figured out how to make the extra wild card schedule work.

multiple sources continue to tell ESPN.com that it's not yet safe to say that adding two wild-card teams for 2012 is "pretty definite," as Selig suggested to USA Today this week.

 

Here are the major complications:

 

• The regular season is scheduled to end on a Wednesday (Oct. 3), and the World Series will start exactly 21 days later, on Oct. 24. It isn't feasible at this point to change either of those dates.

 

• The Division Series are now tentatively scheduled to begin Saturday, Oct. 6. So the schedule-makers have to figure out a way to jam two one-game wild-card showdowns, plus potential tiebreaker games and/or rainout makeup games, into the two days in between.

 

Keep in mind that it's now far more likely that there would need to be at least one tiebreaker game under this system. Because the difference between finishing first and being a wild-card team will now be so great, the two sides have agreed that it isn't fair to break those ties any way other than on the field.

 

• Sources say there have been extensive discussions about eliminating a travel day during the Division Series to create more room for the wild-card round. But in return, the union has told management it would want concessions on start times for games that would be played on back-to-back days in different time zones.

 

That could mean, for instance, that the New York Yankees or Boston Red Sox wouldn't be able to play in prime time on the East Coast two games in a row -- a possibility that would likely result in strenuous objections from management and baseball's TV partners.

 

• Start times for the final day of the regular season also could be affected. If it's decided that one or both wild-card games would be scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 4 (the day after the season ends), the union would prefer to have Wednesday games involving the affected teams moved to the afternoon, sources said.

 

At this point, it hasn't been decided whether the two wild-card games would be played on the same day or whether one league would tentatively play Thursday and the other would play Friday.

 

• However, moving a number of night games to Wednesday afternoon on the final day of the regular season would make it more difficult to duplicate the excitement of the last day of the 2011 season -- yet one more potential obstacle to scheduling one or both wild-card showdowns for Thursday.

 

• Another option is to allow for last-minute flexibility in scheduling days and times for all of these games, to help deal with travel and other challenges that can't be anticipated in advance. But that creates complications for fans and broadcast partners that all concerned would like to avoid.

 

Many of these concerns would disappear in 2013, because the regular-season schedule would be constructed to account for the addition of the new wild-card round. But because the 2012 schedule already had been announced before talks about this postseason began, there are no easy solutions to these issues if Selig is "adamant," as one source described him, about expanding the postseason field for this year.

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QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Feb 1, 2012 -> 05:09 PM)
Two wildcards is one of the dumber ideas in modern baseball history. I pray it doesn't happen.

 

Too late for that, since it's already going to happen for sure in 2013.

 

Over the long run, it's not going to matter. The second wildcard is going to have a better record than the worse division winner many times, and this new format will put a huge premium on winning your division. Two teams from the same division in the mid-to-high 90's wins can't just coast in September knowing they have one of the four playoff spots either way.

 

There are things about it that I don't like. It sets up a lot of unfairness when it comes to seeding, but I think overall it's going to work in the favor of MLB. It's 33% of the teams that have a chance, and will the loser of the Wildcard Game actually be considered a playoff team? Not really. It's win your division, and a few days later, it's the same format we have now anyway.

 

I do wish they would hold off until 2013, when it's a flat 5 of 15 in each league.

 

 

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QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Feb 2, 2012 -> 02:32 PM)
Why/how did Jackson have to settle for that deal. Great deal for Nats terrible for Jackson.

 

Are other teams, except the Tigers, tiring on the Boras stuff?

 

It is typical Borass. Either he wants to get the big long term deal, or a one year deal to try again next year. It sounds like Jackson had multi-year offers, but I am guessing either the dollars or the years weren't big enough.

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