[fearless]

I don't know if this happens in baseball but in the NBA something called "playoff positioning" goes on where teams occasional tank some games in order to play against a certain team in the first round of the playoffs (Hubie Brown admitted this on the air once).

The way things are shaping up, the Yankees could end up winning their division and still playing the Angels which they probably don't want. But, the Yankees pretty much control their fate right now and they have the luxury of basically choosing whether they play Cleveland or LA...

Could the Yankees tank to avoid the Angels?

[AC1318]

maybe boston has been tanking

where is the offense ???

[EJandV]

I think the Yanks could care less which team they play .
They will probably lose some but not because they want to play Clevland and I cant imagine them wanting to play Boston .
The Tigers getting swept by the Royals IN DET the last 3 games last year looked fixed , lines were only -230 , -235 and -260 those games . lmao .
They ended up playing the Yanks and the Twins won the division out of nowhere took the AL central .
They then scraped the Yanks like the Yanks with the supposed greatest lineup in history like they were nothing .
Whatever it was it woked for the Tigers losing to the Royals like that giving the division to the Twins .
Had no answers for the surprise Cards though , was total bs to any fav lover having the Tigers in the WS . Choke !!!!
I would want to play the Angels if I had a say so .
Funny thing is we dont even know who is in for sure yet .

[LT Profits]

Well it is impossible to tank for positioning right now because the Angels and Indians have the same record. To answer your question though, should it become apparent which team will have the better record between LA and Cleveland with a few games left, I seriously doubt the Yankees particularly care who they face. Aside from their arrogance under any circumstance, the Yankees feel they can beat anyone right now, and who can blame them?

[Willie Bee]

Having just found this out in the last week myself, the format for the AL Playoffs this year is 'experimental.' I'd like to warn everyone that the DH was just an experiment, too

The team with the best record in the AL will get to decide their own playoff schedule, at least with regards to the opening round LINK to USA Today article. I'm not sure I like this, but then old farts like me are always at least slightly resistant to change. Still, I can't see that there's any advantage to 'tanking' at all right now, especially since any one of four teams can claim that best record perk as things stand this morning.