The winners of the East, Central and West divisions are automatic playoff participants in the National League and the American League. Also, the teams with the best second-place records go in as wild cards.
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There are four teams from each league that make the playoffs; the three division winners anda fourthteam that hasthe best recordbut does not win their division. This fourth team is called the 'wildcard' team.In most cases, the division winner with the best overall season record plays the wildcard team and the other two division winners play each other. But, in the case where the wildcard team and thedivision winnerwith the best overall record come from the same division, thedivision winnerwith the second overall best record plays the wildcard team and thedivision winnerwith the best overall record plays the division winner with the third best overall record. Confusing? Kinda, and kinda not really fair either, but MLB does not want two teams from the same division playing each other in the first round of the playoffs.
No. Unlike other sports, MLB does not allow the wild card team to play another team in its division in the first round of the playoffs.
Using an example from the 2007 playoff picture in the American League, if the Yankees are the wild card and the Red Sox wind up with the best record of the three division winners, the Yankees would play the division winner with the second best record and the Red Sox would play the division winner with the third best record.
There are 6 Divisions, National League has 16, while the American League has 14.
Here are the Divisions:
-NL East(5 Teams)
-NL Central(6 Teams)
-NL West(5 Teams)
-AL East(5 Teams)
-AL Central(5 Teams)
-AL West(4 Teams)
Major League Baseball consists of six divisions, three in both the American and National leagues.
The team with the best won-loss record plays the wild card team, leaving the other two division winners to play each other.