End of Season Pitching Rotation Glitch

[Schaefling]

I just finished my season in MLB Equalized with Atlanta. I ended up tied with Florida but was awarded the wild card spot.

To begin with I don't know why one-game playoff games are no longer played to determine 1st Place winners in divisons when two teams tie since the Baseball Mogul Online game awards less points to wild card teams than to 1st place teams.

So could you please explain the criteria which determines which team gets 1st place and which team 2nd place or better yet go back to the one game playoff format which I thought was a great part of Baseball Mogul Online.

More importantly to me I was three games ahead of Florida with three games to play and lost all three games to Florida. He started pitchers from his regular rotation and I started three crummy pitchers from my minor league rosters.

This is totally unfair and, in my opinion, must be changed. I should have been starting my best pitchers until I clinched my division. It was really bothersome to see my minor league scrubs starting against the likesof C.C. Sabathia.

Now I am in the playoffs against a very tough San Francisco team and Atlanta has a much easier ( at least on paper) opponent. I have also lost the home field advantage.

So please make this problem go away. It would be very much appreciated.

P.S. I thought several players complained about this very problem weeks if not months ago and that this problem was fixed. Did you guys just not fix the problem or has a bug/glitch crept back into the end of the season pitching rotation formula?

[James Grove]

Clay took a poll of users to see what they thought about the minor league pitchers -- should they start pitching when the team clinched the division, or when they clinched a postseason berth?

People narrowly said they would rather have the minor leaguers pitch as soon as they clinched the postseason (wildcard or division) rather than waiting until they had the division all locked up.

So that is how Clay coded things.

He hopes to add a user option later that would allow you to set your preference.

There IS a bug, it seems, that sometimes you have relief pitchers from the minors start pitching, which is a problem. Your bullpen gets tired out since they have to keep coming in early. So we're working on that.

As to who gets 1st and who gets Wildcard, we now go by the official MLB rules to determine standing. In the event of a tie, the divisional title goes to the team that had the winning record in head-to-head competition between the two teams in question.

If that is also tied, there are additional tiebreakers that we use, which I could research if you wanted me to... They are probably posted on these boards somewhere. It goes to things like "Best record against divisional teams" etc.

The only time you have a one-game playoff is when the winner goes to the post-season and the loser does not.



Yes, it makes a difference in who you play and in Mogul Points. But that's the way they do it in the real world...

Cheers,
James

P.S. Incidentally, it's a real bummer if there is a 3-way tie between a 1st place hopeful, wildcard hopeful, and a wildcard hopeful from another division that is not the division winner. The two teams in the same division have a playoff game, the winner gets 1st, and the loser gets booted. The team from the other division get the WC slot, because they now have a .5 game advantage over the playoff game loser, who has one additional loss on their record. Remember -- we didn't write that rule!

[Schaefling]

Thanks for all that feedback. It helps to explain things and it seems like a fair way to decide things.

I would prefer the preference setting you mentioned as well wanting the bug about relievers starting getting fixed but there's no rush from my point of view as these are relatively minor problems.

Sorry, for not responding sooner but my time online has been more limited lately for a variety of reasons.

[faulk28]

did Cincinnati play NY...if i remember right Cincinnati, Houston and the Mets all had the same record and Cincinnati and NY played a one game playoff game...i could be wrong but i think that's how it was

[takaplan]

I need to check the MLB rules on this one...

Houston and Cinnci were tied for the NL Central. Houston had the better head to head record, so they won the Central. Then, since the Mets and Reds are not in the same division and were tied for the wild card, a 1 game playoff is used. The Mets won, thus winning the wild card.

I will check the rulebook to be sure, however.

Tom

[James Grove]

Here is a good link for that information:

http://www.ruz.com/baseball/tie.html

-James