Baseball is over 150 years old. The game evolved over the years and continues to change. Knowing the answers to these common MLB questions will help you sound like an expert the next time you’re talking baseball with your friends.
1. How does baseball season work?
While other professional baseball leagues exist around the world, Major League Baseball is considered the pinnacle of the sport. Currently MLB consists of 30 teams divided into the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). Each league is further divided into three divisions: East, West, and Central.
Regular Season Baseball
The MLB regular season kicks off at the end of March and typically ends the first week of October. Each team plays 162 regular season games.
Reaching the Post Season
The top team in each division makes the playoffs. Three additional teams from the NL and AL are selected as wildcard teams. The wildcard teams add an element of surprise and sometimes outperform the teams with the best record overall.
2. How do the baseball playoffs work?
Those twelve playoff teams all compete to go to the World Series. The 6 teams in the AL compete to be American League champion and the 6 teams in the NL play to be National League champion.
In the first round of the playoffs, the wild card team with the least wins plays against the division winner with the least wins in one series. A second series is played where the other two wild card teams play against each other. The two division winners with the best records get a bye in this first round. You can see how the bracket is constructed in this graphic from MLB.
Both winners of the wildcard round move to the Division Series, which is a best-of-five. The team with the better record gains the home-field advantage.
At this point, the two remaining teams in each league advance to the League Championship Series (LCS).
The National League champion and the American League champion face off in the World Series.
3. How many times do MLB teams play each other?
Within a division, teams face each other 12 times during the regular season. Each year the schedule changes around which teams face each other in games during the regular season. The general breakdown looks like this in 2025:
- 48 division games (12 games against each other teams in the division)
- 48 games against teams in the other league (NL vs. AL)
- 66 games against non-division teams in the same league
In the past, teams only played against other teams in their league until reaching the World Series. In more recent years, the number of games played between the National League and American League teams increased.
4. How many days off do MLB players get?
One of the more popular MLB questions we received is about how many days off MLB player get on average. Individual players have varying days off. Most starting pitchers will start a game once every 5 days. Starting fielders play in almost every game as long as they are healthy. Teams regularly get 1-2 days off where no games are played. These off days are most commonly on Monday or Thursday. The All-Star Break in July also provides a break of 3-4 days for all teams.
Players who aren’t regular starters receive more days off, but they must be ready to enter the game at any moment, so they still train as if they will be playing.
5. How many hours do baseball players train a week?
The average time baseball players train is between 21 to 28 hours a week. Training in MLB varies from player to player.
The average MLB player is 6’2″ tall and weighs 209 pounds on average.
Training techniques evolve faster and become more effective, and so do MBL players in terms of speed and strength. There are several exercises that almost every baseball player does during their everyday routine.
Baseball players train every day, both off-season and during leagues. They play for 18 hours minimum a week, in which a game lasts around 3 hours a day—also, 3-6 hours of warm-up before games that is part of their training schedule.
6. How many innings are in minor league baseball?
The standard length of Minor League Baseball (MiLB) and Major League Baseball games is 9 innings. The visiting team always bats first in these contests, with the home team always batting last.
If the game is tied after the final out of the 9th inning, extra innings follow. Each team will get a chance to bat in subsequent innings until one team has the lead after the home team has recorded a third out.
The longest recorded innings in the history of Minor League baseball was 33, in the year 1981 played between Rochester Red Wings and Pawtucket Red Sox.
7. Can you try out for an MLB team?
Numerous youngsters dream about becoming professional baseball players. Not everyone who dreams of playing is drafted into the major leagues.
Major League Baseball’s Scouting Bureau holds tryout camps each year to find new talent. A small subset of players who tryout receive a contract from one of the 30 MLB teams. Unfortunately, there are no tryout camps for Minor League Baseball.
In addition to scouting camps, each year many pro baseball teams hold tryout camps for players who might have previous failed to make the big leagues. It’s all about hard work and continuous effort.
8. How many years does it take to become a professional baseball player?
This question will vary greatly by individual. Most Major League Baseball players started playing baseball in grade school and continued through high school and college.
There are a few cases where someone started playing later, but those are fairly rare. Not every player who makes the big leagues goes to college. Some notable standouts are Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. who made his debut with the Seattle Mariners at the age of 19. The last time a player went straight from high school to Major League Baseball without playing in the minors was 1978, when Tim Conroy of the Oakland A’s and Brian Milner of the Toronto Blue Jays both debuted on the same day.
Wrapping up our List of MLB Questions
There are plenty of other bits of trivia to answer in future MLB questions, but we hope you learned a few things about baseball by reading this.
