AL Playoff Thread 2013

[grandy]

Updated

Oakland takes over the AL West lead.

 

[grandy]

Updated

Oakland takes over Detroit's spot in the overall AL standings. Toronto is eliminated from the AL East. The WC is up for grabs again...with Tampa's loss, Cleveland and Baltimore are now just 1 game back.

 

[kalinecountry]

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20130904&content_id=59527184&vkey=news_mlb&c_id=mlb
How to determine playoff tiebreakers.
from mlb.com

 

[grandy]

Updated

Since all the AL games are finished already. Oakland is now a game up on Detroit for the 2nd spot. Texas and Tampa increase their AL WC leads with Cleveland and Baltimore losing today. Chicago is eliminated from playoff contention.

 

[grandy]

Updated

Not much changed, several teams had off-days yesterday.

A few notable series that started yesterday or will start today
NY Yankees @ Baltimore - 4
KC @ Cleveland - 3
Boston @ Tampa - 3

 

[grandy]

Updated

No changes in regards to playoff position. Minnesota and Seattle are eliminated from their respective divisions.

 

[kalinecountry]

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/in-the-wild-card-race-schedule-matters/
Wild Card Race and schedule to the end of season matters.
fangraphs

 

[grandy]

Thanks KC

I've been meaning to add schedules at some point, but Fangraphs went ahead and did it.

 

[kalinecountry]

Thanks KC

I've been meaning to add schedules at some point, but Fangraphs went ahead and did it.

Adam, you are doing yeoman work with this, this is difficult to maintain with everything else you have going on in real life. Just glad to be of some small assistance.

 

[grandy]

Updated

Boston has opened up a 9.5 game lead on the AL East, just three weeks ago, Boston and Tampa were tied for the lead. New York is now the wild card chasing front runner, they are just a game back of Tampa and half a game ahead of Baltimore and Cleveland.

Big weekend for the AL Playoff race
KC @ Detroit - 3
NY Yankees @ Boston - 3
Oakland @ Texas - 3

 

[grandy]

Updated

No changes to note. Boston and Baltimore lost, Tampa, Oakland, New York, and Cleveland all won.

 

[twentythree]

I have sort of a theoretical question.

What if three teams tie for a division lead? What if the three NL Central teams are exactly tied at the end of the year? Who goes to the playoffs as the division winner? You can't have just one game 163, because three teams can't play in one game.

- same question, but for the wild card. What if three AL teams tie for the two wild card spots? What if two AL teams tie for a wild card spot? Do they have a game 163 if there is a two-way tie? Do they draw straws for a three-way tie?

 

[grandy]

I have sort of a theoretical question.

What if three teams tie for a division lead? What if the three NL Central teams are exactly tied at the end of the year? Who goes to the playoffs as the division winner? You can't have just one game 163, because three teams can't play in one game.

- same question, but for the wild card. What if three AL teams tie for the two wild card spots? What if two AL teams tie for a wild card spot? Do they have a game 163 if there is a two-way tie? Do they draw straws for a three-way tie?

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120907&content_id=38029316&vkey=news_mlb_nd&c_id=mlb

I could copy and paste, but I'll do my best to explain.


Three-way ties for playoff spots involve two extra games. The teams involved are designated A, B, and C. A hosts B in game 1, the winner hosts C in game 2, the winner of game 2 wins the division.

Assume the season ended today, Detroit, KC, Cleveland all finish with the same record (for this purpose, let's keep the head-to-head and division records as they are now).

Head-to-head determination is not applicable in this situation, Cleveland wins over KC, KC wins over Detroit, Detroit wins over Cleveland. Since none of the three have a better record over the other two, the tiebreak goes to overall record between the three.

Detroit is 22-13 against KC and Cleveland
KC is 16-16 against Detroit and Cleveland
Cleveland is 13-22 against Detroit and KC

Therefore, Detroit gets to pick which team designation they want. KC gets to pick between the two leftover designations. Cleveland gets the leftover one.

Assume Detroit picks A, KC picks C, Cleveland picks B.

Detroit hosts Cleveland, the winner then hosts KC.

Detroit beats Cleveland, Detroit beats KC. Detroit is in the playoffs, KC and Cleveland are out (unless they are involved in the WC)


I'm not entirely sure on the WC situation.

[strike]I assume that the A, B, and C designations would be handed out, the three teams would fight for the top spot. The winner would host the wild card game and the remaining two would play a playoff game to get the last wild card spot (with the loser being out).[/strike]

Edit: My assumptions are wrong for the wild card three-way tie. Team A hosts team B, the winner hosts the wild card game, Team C hosts the loser of Team A vs Team B, the winner of that game gets the last wild card spot and the loser goes home.


I don't know if that cleared up anything or not.

There are so many hypotheticals and assumptions one would have to make before working through the tie-break system in a pretend scenario. I can only imagine what a four-way tie is like.

 

[kalinecountry]

http://beck.mlblogs.com/2013/09/13/division-series-tickets-on-sale-tuesday-at-noon/
Division Series tickets on sale Tuesday at noon.
from JasonBeck'sTigersblog

 

[manchild98]

15 games left and the Magic number is now 10. We still have a 6 game lead over the Indians. The A's are about to beat Texas tonight. It looks very much like we will be playing the A's in the 1st round.

 

[grandy]

Updated

No positional changes in the playoff standings. Minnesota is eliminated from playoff contention.

Magic Numbers to clinch the divisions
Boston - 7
Detroit - 10
Oakland - 12

Magic Numbers to clinch a playoff spot
Boston - 5
Detroit - 10
Oakland - 9
Texas - 14
Tampa - 15

 

[manchild98]

Oakland and Boston won again today. Anything can happen since we haven't clinched shit yet, but it seems the only question left is will we start the Oakland series on the road or at home?

 

[lonesometiger]

Balimore has 6 games left with Boston and they are still are in the wild card hunt at 2.5 back. So I would not count them out and that would open the door for the best record in the AL them, should the OREO's make run of it.Yep they would have to take a few from the Sox.

 

[grandy]

Oakland and Boston won again today. Anything can happen since we haven't clinched shit yet, but it seems the only question left is will we start the Oakland series on the road or at home?

Unfortunately for Detroit, they're effectively a full game behind what they actually are behind Oakland since Oakland has the head-to-head advantage. Detroit has to finish with the better overall record if they want HFA.

As for the remaining division leader schedules (after this weekend)

Boston
vs Baltimore -3
vs Toronto - 3
@ Colorado - 2
@ Baltimore - 3

Detroit
vs Seattle - 4
vs White Sox - 3
@ Minnesota - 3
@ Miami - 3

Oakland
vs LA Angels - 3
vs Minnesota - 4
@ LA Angels - 4
@ Seattle - 3

 

[grandy]

Balimore has 6 games left with Boston and they are still are in the wild card hunt at 2.5 back. So I would not count them out and that would open the door for the best record in the AL them, should the OREO's make run of it.Yep they would have to take a few from the Sox.

Baltimore actually has the head-to-head advantage over Boston so far this year, hopefully they can continue that.