How does Major League Baseball decide who plays whom in the first round of the playoffs? Is it the best record in the league against the playoff team with the worst record?

i dont know either.. but the yankees are doing fairly well last i checked 9 games ahead of boston

It is whoever wins each of the three divisions in both American and National leagues plus whoever has the best record of the three divisions wins the wild card. This puts four teams in the playoffs.

Usually the team with the best record plays the team with the worst record and 2nd best plays 3rd best.

Keep in mind that the playoffs are not as real world as the regular season because it is only 5 or 7 games, so many upsets have occured in the past.

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Doug

1987 300TD x 3
2005 E320CDI

That was the other question I had, whether the first round was still only 5 games. If so, then you don't want your team playing Minnesota in the first round. They've got some scary pitchers.

Pitching wins championships. If you can get quality starts from 3 pitchers you have a good chance of winning a series.

The wild card team never plays a team in its own division in the first round.

So even if the Yankees were to have the best record in the AL, they would not play the Red Sox if they were the wild card team. Not that this is a likely scenario this year.

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Ralph

1985 300D Turbo, CA model
248,650 miles and counting...

So if the season ended today, the Yankees would play the Twins in the first round. That's not much of a reward for having the best record.

I almost forgot - GO PHILLIES!!!!

I think Ryan Howard may be the best player to ever put on a Phillies uniform. It also looks like he may be the first player to break Maris' record who's not on steroids. Yeah, I know, there's no way to know for sure, but he looks like a more realistic human being and at least they test for some things now.

He's not getting a whole lot of publicity about it, but if it happens it will be quite an accomplishment.

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Ralph

1985 300D Turbo, CA model
248,650 miles and counting...

The nicest surprise this year; GO DETROIT TIGERS!!!

I just want beloved Yankees in there again.....

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"It's normal for these things to empty your wallet and break your heart in the process."
2012 SLK 350
1987 420 SEL

10.5

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Audi TT

Yankees will win it all....I must have gone to about 20 games this year.
None of you guys have seen baseball until you have gone to a Yankee playoff game. Us Jersey and New Yorker people are ****ing nuts!!! I've even seen a Boston fan get attacked with a 2 by 4...not a pretty thing and even I ran for my life since the attacker didn't seem stable at all.

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Audi TT

Yankess fans are quite civilized compared to Boston and Philly fans. As far as baseball's concerned I think the Boston fans are the worst, the D batteries that rained down on J.D. Drew notwithstanding.

The Yanks look good now...but I think their playoff magic disappeared a couple years ago when the Sox thumped 'em.

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Ralph

1985 300D Turbo, CA model
248,650 miles and counting...

The Yankees just swept the Sox in a 5 game series...about 2 weeks ago

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Audi TT

I can vouch for the nuttiness of people in New Jersey. Way back, many, many years ago, about 6 of us rented a camper to go the Summernational drag races in Englishtown, NJ. The racing was frequently interrupted by rain and things were getting restless in the campground. Things got really wild when a bunch of guys built a bonfire in the middle of the road that ran along the side of the campground. The cops tried to stop them, but the crowd started throwing stuff, so the cops pulled back a few hundred feet in each direction and let the fire burn. The campground had plywood port-a-johns which became the primary fuel for the fire. Whenever the fire started burning down, my friend and I yelled, "Burn another "sh**ter"! That's all it took to get the crowd fired up. These guys rolled these wooden port-a-johns end-over-end out into the middle of the road. It was unbelievable. The amazing part was these bikers were camping right on the ground, some without tents, right where the port-a-johns had been rolled. I'm guessing they had to hose off before their families would let them in the house at the end of the weekend. We were glad to have our Winnebago.

That was a memorable weekend.

New Jersey is definitely one of my favorite places.