Posted by asher413 on 7/19/2010 1:09:00 PM (view original):

Posted by MikeT23 on 7/19/2010 11:42:00 AM (view original):
That doesn't seem like fun. 

You're right.  And winning a playoff spot as the 11th best team in the league isn't fun either.  My point is it's a problem that needs to be resolved, as divisions are just bulky window dressing- so either make the schedule division based, or don't allow teams to get playoff bids because they are the only .500 team in their division.

I don't know.  I'm pretty happy when I win my division.   Never done it with the 11th best record but I'd take it.  Is it possible for a MLB team to win their division with a sub .500 record?

I'd think not, but the Padres cam pretty close in '05 when they won the NL West with only 82 wins.

Well, it is possible.   I don't think it's happened yet but it's possible.

Posted by jcahill on 7/21/2010 10:28:00 AM (view original):
I'd think not, but the Padres cam pretty close in '05 when they won the NL West with only 82 wins.

This is the closest anyone has come since the move to 3 divisions.

Others close were the Cardinals (83) in 2006, the Dodgers (84) in 2008, the Astros (84) in 1997, and the Cubs (85) in 2007.

I think there has been only one team to ever make the MLB playoffs with a losing record that season, and that was the 1981 KC Royals (50-53), who only made it because of the strike season and an unusual (for the time) series of playoffs.

Any changes to the schedule are extremely complicated. I wouldn't expect this to happen any time soon, if at all.

Posted by zbrent716 on 7/21/2010 2:29:00 PM (view original):

Posted by jcahill on 7/21/2010 10:28:00 AM (view original):
I'd think not, but the Padres cam pretty close in '05 when they won the NL West with only 82 wins.

This is the closest anyone has come since the move to 3 divisions.

Others close were the Cardinals (83) in 2006, the Dodgers (84) in 2008, the Astros (84) in 1997, and the Cubs (85) in 2007.

I think there has been only one team to ever make the MLB playoffs with a losing record that season, and that was the 1981 KC Royals (50-53), who only made it because of the strike season and an unusual (for the time) series of playoffs.

Speaking of strikes, Texas was leading the AL West at 52-62 in '94 when the strike hit.

I set up a 12 team, 2 division, 16 game league softball schedule while driving to a tourney and drinking beer.  Took about an hour.  To be fair, I had someone writing it down for me.  But he was a stoner so much of his contribution was "Dude, who do the Lizard Kings play in week 3 again?"   Creating a schedule isn't hard.   Maybe incorporating it into the HBD system is difficult but I bet I could crank one out in couple of hours. 

You could probably even use some other games and programs to redo a schedule.  Is the complication in creating the new schedule, or programming it into the system?

It has to be programming it in.   With my suggestion, you simply change the 12 interleague games to 12 games against your division.    You can have 3 sets of 2 home/2 away games without a whole lot of trouble. 

I like Divisions. Especially competing for the division title with the same 3 owners season after season.

Interleague is interesting in MLB.  Not so much in HBD.  I'm fine with doing away with it.