Another Controversy Over PS Method as MLB 100 Win Team is Elimin
Another Controversy Over PS Method as MLB 100 Win Team is Eliminated... Is there really a Right Answer?
MLB fall baseball, expanded from 2 teams from 1903 to 1968 → 4 teams from 1969 to 1993 → 8 teams from 1994 to 2011 → 10 teams from 2012 to 2022 → 12 teams from 2022 to 2022.
As a large number of strong teams were eliminated from the Major League Baseball (MLB) postseason, controversy is rising again about the format of fall baseball.
In this year"s Major League Baseball fall season, the Atlanta Braves (104-58), Baltimore Orioles (101-61), and Los Angeles Dodgers (100-62), who won more than 100 games in the regular season, were all eliminated in the division series.
Instead, the Arizona Diamondbacks and Texas Rangers, who advanced as wild cards, caused a stir by winning both league championship titles and advancing to the World Series.
Although there are fans who enjoy the underdog rebellion, there are also claims that the postseason format is unreasonable due to the large number of top-ranked teams in the district being eliminated.
Recently, Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said, “We can discuss and evaluate postseason methods as much as we want,” but emphasized, “The current method, in which game results cannot be easily predicted, adds to the fun of fall baseball.”
However, Tony Clark, secretary general of the players" union, shook his head and said it was difficult to be sure whether the current postseason format was the best.
The reason why there is controversy over the fall baseball format is because there is no advantage for the team with the highest regular league winning percentage even though the number of participating teams has increased significantly.
In Major League Baseball, from 1903 to 1968, the top teams from both leagues faced each other in the World Series.
Then, in 1969, each league was divided into Eastern and Western divisions and the Championship Series was created, increasing the number of teams advancing to the postseason to four.
In 1994, each league was divided into East, Central, and West, and even a wild card team was created.
Although fall baseball was not held that year due to the players" union strike, eligibility for the postseason was expanded to eight teams.
In 2012, the teams with the highest winning percentages, excluding the top team in each district, played a wild card match, resulting in a total of 10 teams advancing to the postseason.
And last year, the Major League increased the number of wild cards in each league to three, increasing the total number of teams advancing to fall baseball to 12.
As the number of teams advancing to the postseason increased, the number of surprises also increased.
In Major League Baseball, wild card teams won the World Series seven times over the 28 years from 1995, when the wild card system was established, to last year.
The Florida Marlins (predecessor of the Miami Marlins) in 1997 and 2003, the Anaheim Angels (predecessor of the Los Angeles Angels) in 2002, the Boston Red Sox in 2004, the St. Louis Cardinals in 2011, the San Francisco Giants in 2014, and the Washington Nationals in 2019 were wild card tickets. won.
The wild card team is guaranteed to win this year as well.
During the same period, the team with the highest overall winning percentage has reached the top of the World Series only seven times, including the New York Yankees in 1998 and 2009, the Boston Red Sox in 2007, 2013, and 2018, the Chicago Cubs in 2016, and the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2020.
This situation is causing some fans to become increasingly dissatisfied with the fall baseball format.
On the other hand, unlike the United States, the KBO League, which is conducted as a single league, has a tiered postseason.
In this method, the top team has an absolute advantage.
Since 1989, except for 1999 and 2000, when the two major leagues were played, the team ranked first in the regular season won the Korean Series 27 times out of 32 times.
A team that did well in the regular season had a whopping 84.4% chance of winning in the fall.
For this reason, there are many opinions that the major league should give more distinct advantages to top teams like the KBO league.
However, it is not an easy method in the major league, which is operated by two major leagues.
Additionally, there will be no method without controversy unless the winning team is determined only through the regular season, like in professional soccer, or the top teams in each league face each other in the World Series, like in the major leagues before 1968.
The postseason format can change at any time depending on the situation, but it must be acknowledged that the team that wins in a given format is ultimately the strongest team.