The Yankees, The Rays and the Sox, OH MY!
As the 2011 regular season begins to wind down, the New York Yankees find themselves locked at the top of the division, and have home-field advantage throughout conference playoffs, yet still have a lot to play for. Their rival, the Boston Red Sox, is currently battling with the Tampa Bay Rays for the wild card spot in the playoffs. This created an interesting dynamic when the Yankees and the Red Sox recently played each other in a double header. The Yankees decided to rest four of their starters in each of the games, yet were still able to win one of them. This essentially prevented the Red Sox from making any progress in their Wild Card Race, while still allowing the Yankees to rest their starters.
This is a prime example of how networks work. For example, if you look at the networks involved with MLB playoff contention, specifically the AL east/wild card, you would see that the Yankees, Red Sox, and Tampa Bay Rays are considered three of this year’s biggest threats. However, only two of these teams will make the playoffs and since the Yankees have already clinched their spot, it comes down the just the Rays and the Sox. The network between these teams would normally be a simple triangle and all of the relationships would be negative. However, since the Yankees already clinched their playoff spot, winning games would not truly benefit them in anyway, but could definitely hurt their opponents. That being said, it is interesting to point out that the Yankees won their most recent series against the Red Sox, and may have really hindered their playoff chances. This makes me believe that although the Yankees usually have just as much interest in beating the Rays as they do the Red Sox, once winning no longer matters to the Yankees, they gain more from having their Rivals eliminated from playoff contention then they do from simply beating the Rays. This makes me think that the Yankees and the Rays would change to a positive relationship between the two and the two will “team up” to conquer the Red Sox. This is similar to “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” kind of thing. Regardless, the world will find out as the Yankees begin as three game series with the Rays tonight. Perhaps Manager Joe Girardi will rest more starters tonight than he did against the Red Sox, giving the Rays an inherit advantage. Rivalries can be a huge game changer in networks and playoff contentions.