The Playoffs That Wouldn't Die!

[Carlton_Willey]

Round Four and counting:



Vast improvement over the 'drop the alphabetically third team' days of yore.

[RamMan12]

What were the final records and what are the teams' records in the playoffs? I haven't seen anything like this!

[TribeFanInNC]

I guess. At least the screwing the third team method came to a conclusion.

Wait. This is totally unrealistic...the Reds would never make the playoffs

[kq76]

I'm afraid I don't quite get what is going on here. So STL, CIN, MIL and PIT have all tied for the wild card and/or NL central and somehow it needs to be decided who gets to go on, but each round two teams win when you can only have one go on or something? Is whatever is going on supposed to?

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by kq76

I'm afraid I don't quite get what is going on here. So STL, CIN, MIL and PIT have all tied for the wild card and/or NL central and somehow it needs to be decided who gets to go on, but each round two teams win when you can only have one go on or something? Is whatever is going on supposed to?

We need to see the final regular season standings (that is, before the tiebreaking playoffs started) of the league first in order to figure out what should have happened based on MLB rules.

I can tell you that OOTP chokes on three-way ties. It does not handle them accurately at all, and I've been pointing that out for a couple of years now (as have others).

[Carlton_Willey]

Sorry about the confusion, I posted and went to bed

Anyway, Cincy, Mil and StLouis tied at 83-79. The Pitt games are simply the end of the regular season. The above shows the first three rounds going 1-1 for everyone.

The fourth round was also 1-1 before Cincy took the fifth round.

[Carlton_Willey]

The teams played 172 games.

[Carlton_Willey]

This was the most interesting season I've played in quite some time. Cincy fell to the Mets in the regular first round, and the Mets went on to beat Cleveland in the WS.

For the Reds, Aaron Harang beat the Cardinals three times in the pre-playoffs to finish 21-10 for the season. With his MLB best VORP of 88.6 he looks a lock for the Cy. Next best is 79. He went 13-1 to finish the season, also.

When I checked each players projected totals, they were below actual counting stats due to the ten extra games.

The regular season ended Nov 15, aided by the Mets sweeping the Indians four straight. I was tempted to create a save and force interminable rounds of the playoffs just to see what would happen if the season didn't end until January or even mid-April of the following year, but enough is enough.

Chris Dickerson of the Reds played 166 games, no one on StL or MIL did better. Injuries kept players like Pujols from taking advantage of the extra 10 games, so no records fell.

Anyway, much better than the old way, and if extending the season is truly only a cyber solution--well I enjoyed it and its a good one, Markus.

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by Carlton_Willey

Anyway, Cincy, Mil and StLouis tied at 83-79. The Pitt games are simply the end of the regular season.

*sigh* As I expected, it was a three-way tie (for the division title in this case).

What should happen is this:

The three teams are designated A, B, and C based on their relative head-to-head records. Two games are then played to break the deadlock.

Day 1: B at A
Day 2: C at A/B

The winner on Day 2 is the winner of the tiebreaker.

MLB has been using this form of three-way tiebreaker ever since the leagues split into divisions in 1969 (though the manner of designating the teams has varied somewhat).

OOTP is using some sort of round-robin system, the problem with it being it has no defined end and thus can go on and on and on.


Back before 1969, a round-robin type of three-way tiebreaker was used by MLB, but it had a defined end, and involved either four or five games in total, depending on the outcomes. A team was eliminated from the tiebreaker once it had lost two games. The exact method varied slightly between the leagues. In both systems, the teams were designated as A, B, and C by the drawing of lots. The first three games played were:

Day 1: B at A
Day 2: C at B
Day 3: A at C

At this point, if one of the clubs had lost twice, it was eliminated from the tiebreaker.

In the NL, the remaining two clubs would draw lots again, with the winner hosting the game on Day 4. If neither club still had two losses, then they would play once more on Day 5, with the visiting team from Day 4 hosting the game. The winner of that game wins the tiebreaker (as after that game one of the two clubs would definitely have lost twice).

In the AL, the remaining two clubs would play again on Day 4, with the home team being the club that had been the visitors the first time the two had played. The winner of this game won the tiebreaker (this is according to a newspaper article I found. But I question it, since it's possible the loser of the Day 4 game may have only lost once, and the supposed point of the round-robin system is to eliminate a team only after it had lost twice).


If instead after Day 3 each of the clubs had won once and lost once, then the process followed the steps below.

In the NL, the process basically starts over. The teams draw lots once again in order to be designated as either A, B, or C. The games played are:

Day 4: B at A
Day 5: A/B vs C (the home team for the matchup is determined by lot)

The winner of the Day 5 game wins the tiebreaker.


In the AL, the matchups are pre-determined. They are:

Day 4: A at B
Day 5: A/B at C

The winner of the Day 5 game wins the tiebreaker.


In either system, the entire three-way tiebreaker takes either four or five days, and either four or five games to resolve.

[Carlton_Willey]

Thanks for explaining all that. When an event has never happened in real baseball, there's a lot of page flipping to find out what to do next.

The real system makes sense and is necessary.

However, the OOTP system is a lot of fun, even with the unending loop possibility flaw. Without fans and networks yammering away, there is a 'drag your butt out there one more time' type of appeal to this. As long as it is in the game, I'm going to enjoy it.

My understanding of World Soccer is that Cup finals and such used to require complete replays until one team one out right. No penalty kick shoot outs or 'Most corner kicks wins' type of rules.