# Expand the baseball playoffs? NO! **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [April 22, 2011, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expand-the-baseball-playoffs-no/579403 "2011-04-22T20:50:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2011, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expand-the-baseball-playoffs-no/579403/41 "2011-04-26T01:44:29Z")
> [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](#): > > How am I NOT advantaging the strongest, most deserving team under ths system? > … > WTF? Which team in my scenario above is this “team that has proven itself in a tough division over the course of 162 games–a team that _might_ in fact be the best of its league”? In your hypothetical, the Indians have won their division but are the fourth seed and have to play an extra series, right? If the Indians have won that division _despite_ strong competition from good Twins, Tigers and White Sox teams, they _might_ be the best team in the league. > [@etv78](#): > > What other way COULD he mean _best_? :rolleyes: If a team REALLY is the best team, wouldn’t make sense that they have the best record? No, not with unbalanced schedules. If you have three strong teams in one division, they all have to play each other 18 times over the season, and will presumably each lose a bunch of these games even though they’re playing relatively well. A less-strong team on its own in a weak division only plays those good teams six times each, while they get 18 against each of several bad teams, and the opportunity to run up their record. Look, I’m not saying that teams with better records across divisions don’t _tend_ to be better. I’m saying that a difference of a few games one way or the other between teams that haven’t played the same schedule isn’t proof, and shouldn’t be the basis for such a huge structural difference as having to play an additional series to advance or not. A three-game margin within a division is more telling than a six-game margin in different divisions. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2011, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expand-the-baseball-playoffs-no/579403/42 "2011-04-26T01:47:12Z")
If the team from the weak the division is so bad, BEAT THEM! ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2011, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expand-the-baseball-playoffs-no/579403/43 "2011-04-26T03:54:48Z")
Actually, looking back at that hypothetical, I see that **ruber** ’s got three AL East teams qualifying _and_ they have the three best records. For that to happen probably would require that those teams really massacred their out-of-division opponents other than the other winners, and thus would preclude the Indians having competed in a strong division. So the idea of the best overall team playing the extra series probably wouldn’t apply in that particular hypothetical. But the point remains that the _structure_ **ruber** advocates makes that _possible_. Seeding all winners above all non-winners avoids it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expand-the-baseball-playoffs-no/579403.md?page=2)