New Nats first baseman Joey Meneses, who’d been working hard to get to the major leagues for 10 years as a pro, has hit 4 home runs in his first 6 big-league games with us. Player of the Week candidate?
Meneses became the first player to hit 4 home runs in his first seven games in a Washington Nationals uniform, and in this case, he did it in his first 6.
The Detroit Tigers have fired their vice president and general manager, Al Aliva, ending his term of more than 20 years with the organization in some form. He had been the GM for the last seven years, and in four of those years, going on five, they’ve finished last in their division. He was the GM responsible for trading away Justin Verlander and J.D. Martinez.
Tampa Bay lost, and the Orioles got postponed for rain, so they are now tied for the last wild card slot. Crazy. And they play Toronto so many more times as mentioned upthread, the O’s fate is entirely in their own hands.
Too bad Santiago Espinal didn’t play every game. Wouldn’t give a horton’s who what position he played.
Not MLB, but a Cardinals minor-league player hit for the home-run cycle last night: solo homer, two-run home, three-run homer, and grand slam. He did it in his last 4 ABs in a 21-4 victory by Springfield over Amarillo.
This is (according to the linked article and to the Cardinals announcers who discussed it last night) only the second time this has ever happened in U.S. professional baseball. The first time was also a Cardinals-affiliated AA team.
With the Mariners playing decently, for the first time in 21 years I have a post-season question.
Does it make a difference if a team is the #1 wild care team or the other wild card spots?
The division winners are seeded 1-3, and the wild card teams are seeded 4-6, then #6 plays #3 in a 3-game series, and #4 and #5 play each other. There is no re-seeding between rounds. #1 then hosts the winner of the 4/5 series, and #2 hosts the winner of the 6/3 series.
It makes one hell of a difference. The #3 division winner and the top wild card team host ALL the first-round games. So if you’re team #5 or team #6, you have no home games in that first-round best of 3.
These games will all be played in a three-game series’ hosted by the team with the better record.
That keeps it interesting. Mariners are currently #5, but within range of #4.
Yeah, I would classify being a half-game back as ‘within range’!
Julio Rodriguez should be back in a matter of days which should help the Mariners a bit as they try to close that gap.
Yep. They’re fun to watch. And winning both series against the Yankees this season has to help their confidence. (if only they could beat the Astros more)
With the late swoon by the Yanks (2-8 in their last 10), the Astros have now tied them for the best record in the AL. Both teams are 71-41.
Blue Jays and Mariners have the two next best records, followed by Cleveland and Tampa Bay.
It’s possible that the third wild-card team will have a better record than the AL Central winner. If the article that I linked above is true, then that third wild-card team would host the AL Central winner. I don’t know that for sure, however.
No; the third best division winner is the third seed no matter what and always hosts the wild card round. If the season ended today, the AL would see Cleveland host Tampa Bay (Tampa Bay is ahead of Baltimore in the tiebreaker rule) even though they have the same record, and Toronto host Seattle. In the NL, the Cardinals are the third best division leader so they host the Phillies, and the Braves host the Padres.
Personally, my preference would be to see them go back to two divisions and have four wild cards. Why have three divisions if you just force the third best winner to play an extra round anyway?
I thought this was interesting
maybe it wont be that bad eh ?
That’s what I assumed, but I couldn’t find it etched in stone anywhere. The Sporting News article said the team with the best record would host. Obviously, that may not always be the case.
I’m wondering if I’m the only baseball fan that doesn’t like Field of Dreams and is thoroughly sick of hearing promos for tonight’s game.
I think that the MLB web site itself is probably a better source, here is what they say:
- The two division winners with the best records (currently the Yankees and the Angels in the AL, and the Dodgers and Mets in the NL; here’s to NYC and Southern California!) receive byes into the Division Series.
- The other two division winners get the No. 3 seeds.
- The three teams in each league with the best records after that take the Nos. 4-6 seeds. The No. 3 seed will host the No. 6 seed in all played games of a best-of-three series, and the No. 4 seed will do the same with the No. 5 seed.
Ignore the actual team names listed above, this was written 3 months ago and standings have changed since then. But the format is clear. The No. 3 seed hosts the No. 6 seed. No mention of which team has the best record.
This happens frequently in the NFL, where you have a particularly weak division (like the NFC East) that has a division champion with a mediocre, maybe even losing record, but they still play host even though the wild card team has a better record. It’s a way to make the divisions matter and helps ensure division rivalry. For example, the Mariners have a vested interest in beating the Astros because being a division winner is much better than being a wild card. If the seeds were based solely on records, it wouldn’t matter nearly as much. With this seeding structure, they basically force each division to focus on the other teams in their division and manufacture rivalries that way. (Although it’s easy for anyone to want to beat the Astros.)