Insider | Love Letters
The Los Angeles Angels and Cleveland Indians each could clinch division titles as early as Friday, but that won't be the end of their September incentives.
Not only does the race for best record in the American League and home-field advantage throughout the postseason remain wide open, there is an extra perk for the AL team that finishes with the best record this year.
|
|
| Vladimir Guerrero and the Angels wouldn't mind calling the shots. (Getty Images) |
The other AL playoff series begins Thursday, Oct. 4, and the five games -- if it lasts that long -- would be played out over seven days.
The team finishing with the best record gets to choose which day it wants to open. The choice must be made within one hour of the final game that locks in the AL matchups -- whether it's on the final day of the season or, as things are shaping up now, perhaps a few days before that.
The extra day off in one of those series will affect not only how a team like Cleveland sets up its rotation -- perhaps using studs C.C. Sabathia and Fausto Carmona twice each on regular rest in the eight-day format -- but it also could handicap the Indians' opponent.
Say the Indians finish with the best record and draw the New York Yankees. If Cleveland opts for the eight-day format that begins Wednesday, Games 1, 2 and 3 are scheduled for Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.
Advantage to the Indians, who would be able to use Sabathia and Carmona four times in five games on regular rest. Right?
Not so fast. The early every-other-day format perhaps would allow the Yankees to use stellar set-up man Joba Chamberlain in exactly the manner they've promised to hold fast to, one day on and one day off -- unless they throw the Joba Rules completely out the window and begin using the kid on back-to-back days more frequently. And even then, might such a departure from the norm have an adverse effect on him?
Say the Indians draw Boston. With Daisuke Matsuzaka struggling and knuckleballer Tim Wakefield fighting a sore back for much of the second half, the Red Sox rotation is far more wobbly than they prefer following ace Josh Beckett and Curt Schilling. If the Indians were to choose the eight-day format, it might help Cleveland, but it also might allow Boston a chance to get up off the mat and pitch Beckett in Games 1 and 4 on regular rest.
General managers have talked for years about ways to possibly handicap the wild-card team by perhaps taking away a home game, allowing the team with the league's best record to play four home games in the first round instead of a three-and-two format.
Allowing the team with the best record to choose which day to open the playoffs isn't nearly as dramatic as that. But it's an interesting tweak to the system. And why shouldn't the team with the best record get a little something extra besides home-field advantage throughout the playoffs?
