The wild card addition will take effect no later than 2013, but Selig expressed optimism the changes could be implemented for next season. The Astros will shift to the AL West as soon as 2013. With the wild card expansion, 10 of 30 teams will make the playoffs. The specifics still have to be resolved, but Selig indicated it’s likely the new wild-card round in each league will consist of a one-game playoff. “[The committee] liked the one-game,” Selig said. “And it will be dramatic.” The 2011 season ended in drama, with the Red Sox and Braves eliminated from the playoff picture on the final day — overtaken by the Rays and Cardinals, respectively http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/more_sports/two_wild_changes_for_mlb_Ugng7E1C6N27Owoq77wnqN#ixzz1e3xswkjg
So despite my general antipathy toward America’s pastime, I’ve been looking into baseball a lot lately. I’m working on a three part series that will “take on” Pythagorean Expectation. But considering the sanctity of that metric, I’m taking my time to get it right. For now, the big news is that Major League Baseball is finally going to have realignment, which will most likely lead to an extra playoff team, and a one game Wild Card series between the non–division winners. I’m not normally one who tries to comment on current events in sports (though, out of pure frustration, I almost fired up WordPress today just to take shots at Tim Tebow—even with nothing original to say), but this issue has sort of a counter-intuitive angle to it that motivated me to dig a bit deeper. http://skepticalsports.com/?p=2595
Another recent brainstorm from MLB is to move the Houston Astros from the National League Central to the American League West. While the initial premise is a good one — evening the teams at 15 in each league — it means there will be an interleague series every day of the regular season, including the last one. As Phillies manager Charlie Manuel mentioned this year, the allure of interleague play has come and gone. But now, instead of being a three-week nuisance in the middle of the summer, there will be interleague play all the time because of the odd number of teams in each league. Hopefully, the next shoe to drop isn’t that MLB decides that so much interleague play means the leagues must compete under the same set of rules. Because as much as interleague play would be tolerable if the strategy-killing designated hitter was mercifully eliminated, the opposite would be more likely. http://www.nj.com/gloucester-sports/index.ssf/2011/11/major_league_baseball_making_b.html
The Associated Press reports that MLB’s minimum salary will increase from $414,000 to $480,000 under the league’s new CBA set to go into effect next week. It is expected to continue to increase over the duration of the deal and could soon top $500,000. http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/11/19/minimum-salary-to-rise-to-480000-in-new-labor-deal
Major League Baseball recently revealed that of the 500 prospects a year it investigates; more than a third are rejected because of inconsistencies about who they are or when they were born. I am convinced more and more that a substantial amount of the identity questions are not because of deliberate attempts to mislead, but part of a cultural anomaly. But it is virtually impossible to separate the intentional from the unintentional, further exacerbating the dilemma. Baseball has taken to labeling such cases as “inconclusive,” but still locks questionable prospects out of the game. http://baseballreflections.com/2011/11/19/drsea-informer-volume-iv-issue-8
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