Why the Twins Might Be Better Off in the Third Wild Card Spot Than Aiming for the Second

If they don't get their sh*t together real fast, it's gonna be a moot point. 

It doesn't matter. There are no expectations that this team will win even one playoff game. They're the underdog and that should reduce the pressure and allow them to just play baseball.

Have been saying that for weeks.  No way do they want to play the Yankees, or Birds.

Now they just got to win a few games and get into October ball.  That is looking more uncertain every game.

What if there wasn't a wildcard  position , we'd  be just playing out the season   ...

Aspirations in the spring Are to win the division and not settle for a wildcard and get lucky , second best is not my goal and it shouldn't be for the team either  ...

Remember there never used to be a wildcard  and teams had to fight alot harder to get to the playoffs and win a division  , the focus was much stronger when there wasn't a wildcard  , the game isn't played today with the same luster of yesteryears  ...

The way the Twins have been playing recently, they are 5-16 in last 21 games, they don't deserve getting in.  They would only get embarrassed. 

I hate when we get to the point we’re wishing for a certain matchup by finishing poorly…just not so poorly as to miss the playoffs completely. Finish as strong and healthy as possible and push for the division. We have to beat them all eventually so get in to the dance and get after it! 

Need to get out of this April offense. They made adjustments back then and they need to do the same thing again. They had the best record in the AL when they were averaging over 5 runs/game. April and the last 20 they are back down to just over 3 runs/game. That won’t get them very far in the playoffs.

Let’s get there first.

Any of these teams are going to be a daunting task. Astros, Yankees and Orioles have crushed us this year. If I had to pick a team to face, it'd be the one with no left handed starting pitching. When we face lefties there will be no Wallner or Larnach. Miranda doesn't hit them as well. Both Castro and Santana suck hitting RH. Plus, we'd probably see a lineup with Farmer, Vasquez and Martin. That's not an intimidating lineup to a good team. I'm not expecting anything in the wild card round other than a quick sweep, but of course, if a team gets hot at the right moment, anything can happen. Keep hope alive! Gotta get there first of course ...

This doesn't work in professional sports, especially baseball.

Just get in and try to play your A game

There is another point on this topic (maybe even a separate thread, but I'm going to piggyback on this instead).

In almost all sports at all times, playing 1 versus 16 (NCAA); 1 versus 8 (NBA, NHL) makes perfect sense.  In baseball, however, we always give the #3 ranking to the division winner with the lowest win percentage.  I'm not going to back this up with a bunch of stats, but it does strike me that this creates an unfair imbalance, and is at the heart of the OP's point:  As the #1 seed, you will play the winner of 4 versus 5, which are the two best wild-card teams (and you will often find that the #4 seed and the #1 seed can easily - though not mandatory - come from the same division).

On the other side of the bracket, the worst division winner plays against the worst wild-card team, with the winner now playing the 2nd-worst division winner (also 2nd-best, I get that).

My point is simply that in my opinion, given the more-balanced schedules, the #4 seed is often better than the #3 seed in the current system.  This year, that just means is Baltimore/New York better than Houston?  In most years, is the #1 wild card team better than the division winner with the worst record?

Not sure there's a fix for this - it wouldn't be fair just to base it on W-L percentage with no accord for division, because some divisions are going to beat up on each other and other divisions will have two strong teams and 3 weak ones, and it wouldn't be fair for them to be ranked higher for playoff seeding.

But what about the 1 seed getting to choose which 3-6, 4-5 winner to play?  Either to avoid a team in your own division who knows you too well, or to take advantage of the fact that the #6 seed upset the #3?  Or because one first-round series went 3 games instead of 2, and they want to play the team who has burned 3 starters.  Seems in a weird way that being the #2 seed is an advantage over being #1 under the current system, and no one would say that if #1 got to choose....thoughts?