hopin' for a multi-team tie in the AL wildcard race

New York Yankees 57 49 +2
Kansas City Royals 55 51 -
Tampa Bay Rays 56 53 0.5
Seattle Mariners 55 54 1.5
Baltimore Orioles 53 54 2.5
Los Angeles Angels 53 55 3
Minnesota Twins 51 54 3.5
Texas Rangers 51 56 4.5
Toronto Blue Jays 51 57 5

so, let's figure they can all reach 86 wins.

NYY 29-27
KCR 31-25
TBR 30-23
SEA 31-22
BAL 33-22
LAA 33-21
MIN 35-22
TEX 35-20
TOR 35-19

I'm thinking the top 4 *could* happen. The rest rather unlikely.

tex isn't going +15 the rest of the way

otherwise, eh. maybe! what are the tiebreak procedures?

Four-Club Tie for Division Championship & Two Wild Card Spots:

After Clubs have been assigned their A, B, C and D designations, Club A would host Club B and Club C would host Club D.

1. The winners of each of those games would then meet, hosted by the winner of the game between Club A and Club B, to determine the Division Champion. The loser of the game would be declared the Wild Card Club.
2. The losers of the original two games would meet, hosted by the loser of the game between Club A and Club B, to determine the other Wild Card Club.

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/59527184/playoff-tiebreaker-rules/

KC, SEA and TB all tied for WC#2

BAL & MIN 1.5 out

LAA 2 out

I think I'll root for this scenario too because there's so much mediocrity in the AL this year, i.e. this year we really do deserve the four or five way tie clusterfuck.

Brisbee: most crowded palyoff hunt ever

https://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2017/8/10/16126620/2017-mlb-postseason-bracket-wild-card-ties-chaos

#fbf

https://www.si.com/mlb/2015/09/01/team-entropy-mass-tie-playoffs-postseason-odds

Twins, winners of 6 straight, now in sole possession of WC2.

The Angels are back in this thing somehow, just a half game back, tied with two other teams!

..and now *they* lead WC2 by 1/2 game

Mariners are falling apart, Servais seems to be really bad at bullpen management.

Buxton has a 122wrc+ and .833 ops over his last 10 games. I believe.

this morning's AL WC standings had a mathematical beauty in the GB column

New York Yankees +3
Los Angeles Angels -
Kansas City Royals 0.5
Minnesota Twins 1
Seattle Mariners 1.5
Texas Rangers 2
Tampa Bay Rays 2.5
Baltimore Orioles 3

Shaemus:
The twins might make the playoffs, despite selling at the deadline. How crazy is this?

Jeff Sullivan:
7/10 crazy. It would be crazier if a team had to be actually good to claim the second wild-card position. This year it doesn’t seem like that’s going to be true
The Angels are our current favorites to win ALWC2, and their projected record is 82-80

Not as crazy as the Rangers making the playoffs after trading arguably their best pitcher.

tex isn't going +15 the rest of the way

Still unlikely, but they're 10-5 since I started the thread.

To revise my initial post, let's give NYY the WC1 (groan) and look at all the other teams getting to *82* wins.

MIN 20-21
LAA 19-20
SEA 19-19
KCR 21-19
TEX 21-19
BAL 22-17
TBR 22-15
TOR 23-16

current end-of-year win projections

BP:

MIN 83
LAA 82
SEA 81
KCR 81
TEX 80
TBR 79
BAL 77
TOR 77

Fangraphs:

LAA 83
MIN 82
KCR 81
SEA 81
TEX 80
TBR 80
BAL 79
TOR 78

angels pulled off a big comeback, if they hadn't i was gonna make a whole post about how every team in the race lost except the O's

feels like we're right back in it though

Yankees 70-62
Twins 69-63
Angels 69-65
O's 68-65
Rangers 66-66
Rays 67-68
M's 66-68
Royals 65-67

In other words, a complete freaking mess.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) August 31, 2017

byootiful

LAA _
MIN .5
BAL 1
TEX 2
TB 2.5
SEA 3
KC 3

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/252671498/explaining-possible-mlb-postseason-tiebreakers

Twins now 3 ahead of Angels... my dream is dissolving