So the New York Yankees have just clinched the AL East title, for the eighth straight season, over my Boston Red Sox. But what's stupid about it is there is still one game left between them, and if Boston wins tomorrow they'd finish with the exact same record.

So why have the Yankees clinched already? Because the Cleveland Indians lost. Huh?

It boils down to what happens if two teams finish tied for the division title. One possibility is to have a one-game playoff. Another is to just look at head-to-head records.

MLB came up with the brilliant idea that head-to-head records would only be used to decide the division if both teams have already clinched the playoffs. What that means is if the loser of the tiebreaker automatically becomes the wildcard qualifier, then they use the head-to-head record as the tiebreaker. This seems to have the purpose of not allowing the head-to-head determine who makes the playoffs and who does not.

But what it really does in this case is penalize the Boston Red Sox because the Cleveland Indians, who will finish second in the AL Central, didn't win their game. Had Cleveland won, then they'd still have a chance to finish with the same record as both Boston and New York. In that case, there would be a three-way tie, and Boston and New York would have to face a tiebreaker to determine who wins the division, and the loser of the tiebreaker would then have to face Cleveland to determine who wins the wildcard.

MLB decided that it would be unfair in this case to simply use head-to-head to determine the winner between Boston and New York and would force them to play a one-game playoff. In this case, it would be possible for Boston to 1) beat New York and win the AL East, or 2) lose to New York, but beat Cleveland and win the wildcard, or 3) lose to New York, lose to Cleveland and miss the playoffs entirely.

But now that there cannot be a three-way tie, they lose the first option, which doesn't make sense. New York cannot miss the playoffs at this point, but they should still have to earn the division title, irrespective of Cleveland. If MLB felt that a one-game playoff was necessary to determine who wins the division and who must face another team for the wildcard spot, then a one-game playoff should be just as necessary to determine who wins the the division.

Otherwise, MLB's message is this: "if both teams are going to make the playoffs, who cares which team is the division winner and which is the wildcard?" I don't think that's the message they want to send. And if they think the head-to-head record is reasonable enough, then make that the tiebreaker across the board. You can't have it both ways.