The Value of the Wild Card and Other September Notes

While watching a game earlier this week, I heard the validity of the Wild Card questioned by one color commentator for a not to be named Midwestern team. In doing so, John Q. Dinosaur brought up what I thought was a dead issue. The Wild Card is great for baseball, and it only takes a passing interest in some of the series and games being played this past week to see why.


What separates baseball from other North American sports is how difficult it is to reach the playoffs. The NFL has two Wild Card teams in each Conference (10 playoff teams), and if the NBA let anymore teams (16) qualify, it would have to start taking WNBA teams. Less than twenty years ago, baseball was only giving FOUR teams a shot at the big dance. The Wild Card era realignment and playoff expansion has ensured that highly competitive teams are not left out of the playoff picture. In 2001 while the Seattle Mariners (on their way to 119 wins), had locked up the AL West in early May, the Oakland A’s, (on their way to a 96 win season), were able to remain in contention and eventually reach the playoffs. This year the Giants, Phillies, Padres, Braves and Rockies are competing for three playoff spots instead of only two. All of these teams should finish win at least 90 wins, and a winning percentage higher than over half the teams reaching the playoffs in the NHL or NBA this year.


The most common argument against the Wild Card is that it makes winning the division meaningless. Anyone who watched the Rays and Yankees series over the past two weeks can attest that this is not the case. The divisional title is still something worth playing for, especially given that it can translate into home field advantage (the Yankees home winning percentage is nearly 100 points higher). In the Rays/Yankees matchups of the past two weeks, knowing that both teams were headed to the post season no matter what the result (as was probably the case with the Braves and Phillies series) did not detract from some of the most entertaining baseball played this month.

The playoffs and stretch drive (minus sports bag giveaway day) are the most exciting time of the year for baseball and baseball fans and the Wild Card only adds to this excitement.

The Phillies Rotation
This week’s series against the Braves has proven the Phillies made the right call pulling the trigger on the Roy Oswalt trade. Not only will the Hamels/Halladay/Oswalt tandem ensure the Phillies are able to fend off Atlanta for the NL East crown, Philadelphia looks to own the best rotation of any contending team. Behind Sabathia, the Yankees are unsure what they will get from Andy Pettite (due to his injured groin) or A.J. Burnett (because he is A.J Burnett). In Tampa, the Rays rotation behind David Price is also faltering (Matt Garza and Jeff Niemans have struggled of late). The AL doesn’t get scared of its senior circuit opponents very often, but this time it has reason to be.

Felix’s Cy Young Bid
If Felix Hernandez is discounted from CY Young contention it shouldn’t be because he has pitched in fewer meaningful games or in a less competitive division – if this is really a criteria that should be taken seriously than all the awards in both leagues should be given to players on the Yankees, Red Sox and Rays.

The Debut Of Young Pitching
With Kyle Drabek’s Major League debut I want to issue a caution to fans: do not to get too high or too low on young pitching. No one should have to be reminded of this, as every baseball fan can tell you about a young pitcher that broke their heart. Whether it was someone who blew out their arm pitching for Dusty Baker (Mark Prior) or someone who just didn’t pan out (Todd Van Poppel), young pitching is one of the most unpredictable commodities in the sport. The news isn’t all bad – for every Todd Van Poppel, there is a pitcher who surprises us and puts together a nice career despite rising through the minors completely unnoticed (Jamie Moyer). In any case pitchers take time (to develop or flame out) and we need to be sensitive to this learning curve, even though it’s often longer than we’d like it to be.

Josh Johnson Is Shut Down
When your home starts consist of pitching in front of 2,000 Miami Dolphin season ticket holders and the cast of Jersey Shore, you’re probably not going to garner much attention. But to give you an idea of how good Josh Johnson is, before he was shut down last week, he had been pitching with significant shoulder problems throughout the second half. During that time, he was in so much pain, his ERA ballooned to 3.50 (he still finished the year with an ERA under 3.00). AL centric fans like myself should remember that Johnson is one of the best pitchers in baseball and his accomplishments should be celebrated even before he gets traded to the Yankees or Red Sox.