World Series Tie-Breaker?

[Deleted]

I guess I would say what's wrong with Season Win% as a tie break? It's not like one of our Leagues is inherently better than the other, is it? I've seen single divisions in a League be better than the other divisions (AL Central was insane in 2015), but unless you can tell me that our NL is statistically worse than our AL, then I can't see the problem. And even if it were, I don't see the problem. We have 15 teams in each league, but I'm pretty sure we played more than 15 weeks, so some teams played some other teams more than once and we have no way of ensuring that this is perfectly equal. We don't question that. The rule as it now stands says, "Highest Winning Percentage" wins a tied matchup. I see no reason to depart from that, especially when all of a sudden we have the admittedly unusual occurrence of a tied matchup.

If we must have a different rule (read: something completely arbitrary that will give a resolution where we insist on one) for next year, the General Rule on ESPN is that the "Home Team", defined as the team with the best record in the Regular Season, wins a tie match. In MLB, the League that wins the All Star game gets home field advantage in the WS. If we don't use, you know, Winning Percentage, then that's as good a way as I can think of.

[Deleted]

Win % (or overall record) inherently implies that the teams being compared played against the same pool of teams. This isn't the case the way we're set up, and is why you don't see seeding across different leagues in pro-sports.

Looking at a teams performance (from category perspective) is something that can directly translate between leagues. It's what the team did as opposed to what the team did + what unrelated other teams did against them. Essentially you're isolating the scope of the tiebreaker to the two teams involved and reducing noise caused by differences in leagues.

[St. Louis Cardinals (Andrew)]

I totally disagree with the overall numbers. I understand your point but those looking to make playoffs play the whole season with one focus, win as many categories as you can. I know my goal each year is to get the best record I can so that I can get the best position in playoffs (ideally top 2 to have the first round bye).

It's not mathematically possible to have a perfect schedule where each team plays each team (NL & AL) once. Using this year as an example, we all played four teams twice. Depending on who you played twice your playoffs chances are impacted by that. Also, there were four teams in each league that had two byes, using your system, there's 8 teams that don't accumulate stats for two weeks where the other 22 teams only have one bye.

Just like you did in the last day of the WS John, I think every top team in each league regularly sits players most weeks to maximise winning categories. To then have that strategy penalise you in the WS tie breaker seems insane to me.

Not just because it favoured me this year, I still think the best way is the overall record. Each team strives to get the best record it can during the regular season. I assume each team plays to get the highest winning percentage it can during the regular season (especially those looking to participate in playoffs).

I agree that the two leagues are not even. They never will be. Each year the strengths of each league will change. Using the NL as an example (only because I know the top competition quite well), Marlins has improved dramatically from where he was two years ago, Pirates is going to get real strong real quick, Dan has gone from the league joke to a competitor, Rox team is very strong and last year was one of the bottom sides, Phils went from average to really strong this year. Every year the strengths and weaknesses of each league will change. Some years the AL will be stronger, some years the NL will be stronger.

The overall record is not perfect but unless we all can get into one league and everyone plays the other 29 teams once each, there will be no perfect solution.

I think the current system fits perfectly with what each playoff team's strategy should be the whole regular season - achieve the best winning % you possibly can.

I don't mind the idea of playoff record but we need to consider the fact that the 1 & 2 seeds each season will have that first week off so won't accumulate any stats for that week. Its hardly fair to penalise the teams that have worked hardest and performed best during the regular season.

I am in another league that uses Fantrax. Has anyone else used that ? I know this other league has the full 30 MLB teams (plus MILB players) in one league. It is not a free service like ESPN but I believe the league only costs about $300 for the season. Would our owners consider moving to Fantrax if it meant a cost of $10 per year per owner ? I'm not sure this solves the problem though as we wouldn't have AL v NL during the season anyway (unless we wanted to make the 18 rounds 14 v other teams in your league and 4 v other teams in the other league - still not perfect though as you could get the 4 strongest in the other league).

[St. Louis Cardinals (Andrew)]

I didn't mean to kill the conversation.

Can we get some more ideas on the best way to handle World Series ties and then we can put it to a vote and have a solution locked in well before 2017 season starts.

[Deleted]

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