Set League Game 163 Plans Far in Advance

OK, I lied. Last week was not my final column of the season, after all, but I guess I could say it was, since the 2018 regular season is officially over.

Anyway, the reason I am back so soon is due to the final weekend-plus of the 2018 Major League Baseball season. As everyone reading this surely already knows, not one, but two of the three National League Division races resulted in ties after Game 162.

In the real world, that meant Milwaukee traveled to Chicago and Colorado headed went to Los Angeles for a pair of Game 163s, extending the season one day, to Monday. Neither were elimination games as the winners, the Brewers and Dodgers, moved into the Division Series, while the Monday losers claimed the two Wild Cards.

In many corners of the fantasy world, however, matters were not nearly as clear. Did the Monday games, which are considered by MLB to be a continuation of the regular season, count in our leagues?

I can assure you that that some people feel very strongly about this, in opposite directions.

For example, in my local league, I picked up a half-point on Sunday to move into first place. Precariously holding on by a tie in wins, I had Walker Buehler set to go on Monday, so I felt as good as could be expected. It turns out that it did not matter, though, as the league ended at Game 162. There was no mention in the constitution, but the decision was made via the default settings of the league stats provider.

While I benefited personally with a title, that is a terrible way to make a decision, in my opinion. I am sure that stats provider (or any other competent one) would have allowed Game 163 to count, if only we had asked for it. Or, if we did not want it, we should have made that a cognizant decision long ago.

This timing point is extremely important.

I know of leagues that did not know what to do, so they put it up for a quick vote of the owners. The problem with this approach is that biases were built in. Before voting, you can bet that every team owner looked at his/her roster and made the call not based on what is right, but whether the Monday games would help his/her chances to win.

I am not being critical. It is human nature. Again, the issue is that this is the wrong way and time to set league policy.

There are those who feel that Game 163s are inherently unfair, and therefore should be excluded from league races. Since not all teams are playing, there is a built-in advantage to those owners who happen to own players from those clubs, especially in counting stats, goes the thinking.

I understand that, and while I do not agree personally, I can respect the point of view. My take is that it is no different than stats from extra-inning games being included, or on the other side of the ledger, games that are canceled and not made up because races are not affected.

Bottom line, I care far less about the specific Game 163 call one way or another and far more about planning ahead so bad feelings or even worse, bad decisions, can be avoided by having to make potentially league-deciding rulings on the fly.

And you happen to play in an American League-only format and do not have a Game 163 policy in place, you have received your warning. Get on it now!

Brian Walton was the 2009 National League Tout Wars champion, scoring the most points in the league’s 20-year history. He also holds the all-time NL Tout single-season records for wins and saves. His work can also be found daily at TheCardinalNation.com. Follow Brian on Twitter.