One & Done: Why We Love the new Wild-Card Format

The only thing the 2014 wild-card games shared were a winner moving on and a loser staying home.   The Royals victory over the As in extra innings was the script for an instant classic while the pitching domination of Madison Bumgarner left him in the company of Verlander and Koufax. But despite their differences, we loved both games and think the one and done format is here to stay.

Twenty years ago, a team had to beat out six other divisional rivals to make the postseason. The 1993 San Francisco Giants won 103 games and failed to make the playoffs.  League growth made it increasingly more difficult to make the playoffs. But the leagues finally moved to three divisions within each league in 1994 and had to add a fourth spot, the wild-card winner.

The problem was the wild-card team was equally positioned in the playoffs as the third place division winner. Over the 17 year format, the wild card winner moved on to the Championship Series more than half the time and won the World Series 5 times! It seemed obvious that the playoff team with the worst regular season record should not have any advantage in the postseason.

The new wild-card system cures that defect and we saw it in action this past week. The San Francisco Giants secured their wild-card birth with enough time to save ace pitcher Madison Bumgarner for the wild-card game. The Pirates, who were closely contending for the NL Central title, chose to expend their rotation in an attempt to overtake the St. Louis Cardinals and ended up using their third rotation pitcher. Now the Giants will face the Nationals and will likely only use Bumgarner for one of the 5 games.

The Royals face the same dilemma on the American League side as they used the services of James Shields in the wild-card game. They also expended their bullpen which they hope will recover in time to face the Angels in Anaheim.

SF Gate writer Scott Ostler things the wild card round is a joke (see http://www.sfgate.com/sports/ostler/article/Despite-Giants-win-wild-card-round-is-a-joke-5795503.php ) suggesting the wild-card robs baseball of its marathon nature. But it’s all perspective. We prefer to think the wild card game is simply an extension of the 162-game regular season marathon. When the Rays and Rangers tied for the wild-card slot in 2013, they played a one-game tie-breaker. Like the wild-card game, either team could have avoided the tie-breaker by simply winning one more regular season game. Their failure to do so created a game-7 atmostphere…not once, but twice as the Rays beat the Rangers and then lost in the ALDS.

Bud, we like the format! And we look forward to more one-game post-season excitement in the years to come!!!