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Was That Good News?

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The Yankee-hater had a real dilemma yesterday — it’s not clear whether their losing the division was actually a good thing or not. Having thought about it, the difference between the Twins and Rangers (who are almost dead even when you adjust for everything) is virtually nil. With Hamilton playing and Morneau not, I think the Rangers are a little better team, and there’s the fact that the Twins are 0-200 against the Yankees under Gardenhire, but that’s largely counterbalanced by the home field advantage. (I know it hasn’t appeared to mean much in recent playoffs, but I think it’s implausible that the home field advantage that is a durable feature of the regular season completely vanishes at playoff team.) Many people would also cite Lee, but I think Liriano is of similar quality. The Yankees should be substantial favorites against either, but…I guess we’ll get to that in the playoff previews.

Elsewhere, if for some reason you were writing a novel about a high-payroll but desultory wrapping up another mediocre season, it would definitely have to end not only with a 14 inning snoozer against an even worse team (perhaps it could be called The Food at This Place is Really Terrible, and Such Large Portions) but with the loss going to the expensive, atrocious pitcher wasting a roster spot because he won’t go to the minors and the owners don’t understand the concept of “sunk costs.”

And finally, I think Neyer is 100% right about adding a second wildcard. Assuming that wildcards are necessary (and they’re here to stay no matter what) it’s the best solution to the problem of teams not really caring if they win the division: it creates a guaranteed play-in game, gives a very substantial advantage to the team that wins the division, and doesn’t do much to dilute the quality of playoff teams. It’s an unassailably good idea, which means MLB probably won’t do it, but they should.

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