The first half of the short season is on the books for the Pacific Northwest’s little Class-A baseball league and while there are miles to go before the playoffs actually arrive, the organization of the league’s standings and rules could require a cheat-sheet for the uninitiated. Imagine trying to organize a playoff bracket for a league that only includes eight teams, split into two divisions of four. With only a handful of contenders who are all so evenly matched at their level, there are ties to be broken, eliminations to be determined, and only a week or so to schedule those matchups against each other.
The Northwest League actually divides the season into two halves for the standings, and this week marked the beginning of the second half. Currently, the Hillsboro Hops are sitting at the top of the South Division with only three games played. But the first half of the season was clinched by the Eugene Emeralds, based on win percentage of .737, well above Hillsboro’s .500 after 38 games. What does that mean for the post-season? It’s sort of a mid-season pennant race, and it means Eugene is guaranteed a slot for the playoffs regardless of the rest of the season. Also, the winners of the first half get a choice of venue for their Division Final series (they may host Game 1 or both Game 2 and 3).
So Eugene has plenty of options near the end of the season. The bullpen can be deployed liberally in the final weeks to give starters rest without worrying over their record or possible elimination, and they can alternatively have home turf advantage to start the series or finish it. Hops fans can attest that some teams are more potent at home and others more so on the road, and since the NWL has all eight teams playing most every night, the first half winners can bequeath extra travel time to their opponents if the play schedules work for them. But what happens if two teams tie for the first half of the season?
There are numerous tiebreakers in place, with head-to-head records being foremost and division-only records after that. The range of tiebreakers narrow down to a simple coin flip if necessary. The North Division’s first half was actually tied between the Spokane Chiefs and the Tri-City Dust Devils with a win percentage of .500, but the tiebreaker puts Spokane in the driver seat, with two wins against the Devils and one loss during their only series in the first half.
Four of the eight teams in the league make it to the playoffs–otherwise there wouldn’t be enough teams for an actual tournament bracket–so the winners of the second half of the season fill out the third and fourth slots. However, if Eugene were to win the second half of the season in the South Division after already winning the first half, the next best win percentage would decide which team rounds out the post-season.
Once the Division Finals are decided, the North hosts Game 1 and the South hosts Games 2 and 3 of the Championship series, scheduled for September 11-13 this year.
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