THE TRUTH ABOUT MLB's WILD CARD

(SANTA BARBARA - Sept 2, 2010) - Today is the day for the LA Times and other national daily sports pages to finally report the truth about baseball's wild card. The wild card is NOT a race.  The wild card is NOT a championship.  There is NO wildcard "winner".  The only true "race" happens in the six divisions, period! 

Starting this last 30 days of the six-month season, there are only two races in the AL.  The Yankees and Rays are in a true divisional play-off race, as are the Twins and Chisox. But the AL West is over, it is NOT a race, it's done. If the Rangers simply go .500 (15-15) down the stretch, the A's must go 25-6 (.806) to win the west by one game.  THAT is not going to happen.  Texas wins the West.  

In the Central, only four games separate Minnesota and Chicago, so that'll be a true race between two teams this last month.  One team will win 92 games and with it the division race, while the other team loses the division AND will finish 11-13 games behind the wildcard team.  

Only ONE game separates NY and Tampa, and that race will end with one team winning 100 games and the other 98 - so the "loser" of the AL East race still gets into the play-offs, while the other actually "wins" the East.  The Bosox are too far back to catch either the Yankees or Rays.  So as of today, with a month to go, there is NO wildcard race in the AL.  The loser of the East race is the wildcard.

LA Times and others, PLEASE drop the separate "wild card standings" from your daily stats.  You each make it look as if there's a fourth division in each league. There is NOT. Boston, Chicago, and Toronto are NOT in a wildcard race at 7, 9, and 12 games behind Tampa which IS in a divisional race with NY.  (See prior Oakland A's analysis to easily figure out these three teams are already way out of the 2010 play-offs picture.)

Over in the NL, there are also two divisional races going.  The Giants are just 3 back of the Padres in the West, as are the Phils are just 3 back of the Braves in the East.  But, the Central is over, as the Reds will win 94 games and St. Louis will need to go 26-6 (.813) to win the division (same as the Oakland A's reality).

The two second-place teams, SF and Philly, are just a game and a half apart.  If neither catches their respective division leader, one of these two will get into the 2010 play-offs as the wildcard.  But their focus for September is NOT which one will get that consolation.  Instead they are both trying to catch their respective division-leading rival.  That's the only race!

St. Louis, Colorado, and the Dodgers are NOT in a wildcard race.  The Giants and Phils will each win 90 or more games, and neither the Cardinals, Rockies, nor Boys in Blue will win 20-22 games in September to get back into the picture.

And one related side note.  Dropping the wildcard "standings" is the first step to getting the "old" space back in the REAL standings for things like: Current Streak, Home Record, Away Record, and Division Record. These have been sliced out of the standings for far too long, as the Times and others devote so much additional space to trivial factoids about the .500-esque Angels and Dodgers.  It's time to make space for these additional stats on each team by dropping the overload analysis/commentary narratives about the two southland teams that take up those 3 columns next to the standings each day.  Both teams are OUT of any play-off picture, and the space allotted for their recent game re-caps can easily be augmented with just two columns of additional run-on FYIs next to the standings.  

So, with one month and about 30 games to go, let's focus on the four divisional races, and relegate the wildcard to what it truly is: one of the narrow losers of a division race still gets invited to the play-offs.  No wildcard standings.  No wildcard race.  No wildcard "winner".  No wildcard "champion" (as Don Baylor once called his "West-runner-up-Rockies".  Thank you in advance for figuring this out.