This is an intentional walk! The third baseman would be holding him on, which is never the case on a steal of home.

He’d have to run 50% faster than the speed of the ball which would be impossible; think of the grounders thrown between innings by the first baseman

He would remain on third, because the catcher would be able to reach the ball

I don’t understand why they don’t just roll it to the catcher. No risk of throwing over the guy’s head, and no risk of a guy trying to hit the ball (unless the batter wants to golf with a baseball bat, in which case, go right ahead)

So the prosecutor doesn’t get death threats from the police union

The world Bud Selig created.

Incorrect. If WC1 is only a game up on WC2, the same number of teams are in the race under both formats.

Under the old format, the team with a one-game wild card lead above a team outside the wild card race would start its ace. This would be the 4th and 5th place teams under the old format

The purpose is that there is an additional layer between the regular season and the playoffs, which spreads the excitement across the regular season and the additional layer, rather than keeping all the excitement in the regular season.

Obviously. And you can expand the format from 5 to 10 teams which would allow for more “meaningful” games, but that’s not the purpose of the discussion

No, this is one reason, not the entire reason.

There’s nothing to assume. They’re allowed to look at the standings before their final game. If their ace is scheduled that day, it is certainly possible it would make sense to bench him

Whichever team has a lead entering the final day, as I’ve already explained

Under the new format, the team has to play another must-win game after game 162, regardless of whether they win or lose. So it would be dumb to use your ace when you know you have a more important game coming.

Under the old format, if you were 1 game up going into the final day of the season, you would have incentive to start your best pitcher.

Teams will prioritize having their ace pitcher over having home field advantage in the play-in game.

When teams are actively holding back their best pitchers in the final weekend of the season, just for the gimmick play-in game, you’ll see how the excitement is lessened compared to the old format

Oh they’re certainly invested in game 163, but it’s undeniably less exciting in the previous 162.

The difference is the wild card game adds a layer between the 162-game regular season and the NLDS, eroding the excitement of those 162 games.

There would still be immense drama under the old wild card format. The teams would be competing for one real spot, instead of two pseudo spots