Saturday, October 6, 2012  Friday Baseball Post  Matt Jarvis
asked during question day for thoughts on this:  Keep the
expanded 2-wild-card setup The wild-card teams play a best of 3
game series, in the better-seeded teams' stadium, over 3
days...just like a regular series. Reduce season to 161 games
(helps eliminate ties) The wild card team thus has only played
163 games before the "real" playoffs (just like now), the luck
factor is reduced somewhat, and there's no more than 1 extra day
inserted into the calendar. Well, off the bat, I'm not sure why
he thinks that a 161 season eliminates ties more than 162; a
shorter season should produce more ties (not that one game would
make a difference). Plus I like ties!  But the real point of his
proposal is what we're almost certain to get eventually, which
is shifting the wild-card round from a one to a three game
series.  I hate it! Even if it's all at the higher seed's park,
there's really not much difference in randomizing between a one
and a three game series. A