The award for dumbest realignment idea yet goes to......

[MessiahRp]

Invader is right; Houston has no business being in the NL Central. It's not really fair to Texas that all their division away games are two time zones away. This system would give them several more in the central time zone which should help with broadcast revenues.

Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't Houston in the Central Time Zone? The only division games out of the Central Time Zone for Houston is Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, and that's only 1 time zone over, not two.

I think he means unfair to Texas Rangers fans.. whose games are all two times zones over. Houston being in the AL West would give them a local time zone opponent.

[Invader3K]

I don't think the time zone thing is such a huge issue with modern air travel. Houston would just fit in much better with the AL West teams in terms of geography and "culture". They are basically right down the road from the Rangers (relatively speaking) and the D-Backs play almost as close to them as the Cardinals do. They just don't "fit" in the Central Division.

[berniebrewer4life]

If all the media revenues were shared they probably wouldn't need a salary cap.

Bingo. I think shared revenue would be a lot easier to pass than a salary cap, as well.

[dadofandrew]

HOU playing so many games two hours later would affect their TV money, as well as their fans ability to enjoy their games.

[joepepsi]

I don't think the time zone thing is such a huge issue with modern air travel. Houston would just fit in much better with the AL West teams in terms of geography and "culture". They are basically right down the road from the Rangers (relatively speaking) and the D-Backs play almost as close to them as the Cardinals do. They just don't "fit" in the Central Division.

It's not hte air travel, it the start time if you're sitting at home watching the game. Every Brewer division road game starts at 6-7 at night, more or less. For Ranger fans you're talking a lot of 9PM start times. Truthfully, how many of us watch Brewer west coast games from start to finish. That has to affect Rangers' broadcast revenues.

 

It's not that I think it should be all about the Rangers. It's just, if writers are so worried about the disadvantages of teams in the AL east, shouldn't we look at the disadvantages of other teams in MLB?

[AJAY]

AJAY, the Yankee / Red Sox division thing was a joke on my part, not

part of the article.

 

I do agree that revenue sharing

(particularly local TV revenues) would be the best way to get rid of the

salary disparity. Soon we'll get all of our TV through the internet,

and in a shrewd move by Selig, all internet revenues are shared, so this

problem could work itself out.

 

I apologize for my error. I read the article and then read several comments on this board. Unfortunately, I got confused about who had said what. My bad.

 

Anyway, under the proposal outlined in that article, the Yankees and / or Red Sox would still probably

make the postseason virtually every year thanks to their enormous

wealth. That is NOT good for the game. In fact, it's very disgraceful.

Baseball should not be like pro-wrestling where you want to artificially

boost television ratings by ensuring Boston or NY makes the postseason.

Teams who make the postseason should have to earn it rather than buy

it, even if it means that some of the more popular teams are not in the

playoffs and ratings take a dip. Instead of silly gimmicks like the one

proposed in this article, baseball should just increase revenue sharing

and have a hard salary cap. It works beautifully in football.

 

I still believe that once the playing field is level and we get rid of the small-market / big-market stigma, all the teams will seem more attractive to national audiences. When I was a kid, a game between the Orioles and the Royals was considered to be a marquee matchup. I really miss those days. We didn't need Yankees / Red Sox at all.

 

It also says something about the pathetic state of a sport when the league and the networks are so desperate to have NY or Boston in the playoffs just to boost ratings. Baseball should be embarrassed about this.

[Invader3K]

It's not hte air travel, it the start time if you're sitting at home watching the game. Every Brewer division road game starts at 6-7 at night, more or less. For Ranger fans you're talking a lot of 9PM start times. Truthfully, how many of us watch Brewer west coast games from start to finish. That has to affect Rangers' broadcast revenues.

That's a very valid point I hadn't quite thought of.

 

The ideal would seem to be sharing all TV/radio revenue between all the teams. However, there is basically no incentive for teams like the Yankees to agree to this. And really, they built their own YES Network, I don't think they could be forced into it by MLB.

[Tbadder]

That is NOT good for the game. In fact, it's very disgraceful.

Baseball should not be like pro-wrestling where you want to artificially

boost television ratings by ensuring Boston or NY makes the postseason.

Teams who make the postseason should have to earn it rather than buy

it, even if it means that some of the more popular teams are not in the

playoffs and ratings take a dip. Instead of silly gimmicks like the one

proposed in this article, baseball should just increase revenue sharing

and have a hard salary cap. It works beautifully in football.

 

I still believe that once the playing field is level and we get rid of the small-market / big-market stigma, all the teams will seem more attractive to national audiences. When I was a kid, a game between the Orioles and the Royals was considered to be a marquee matchup. I really miss those days. We didn't need Yankees / Red Sox at all.

 

It also says something about the pathetic state of a sport when the league and the networks are so desperate to have NY or Boston in the playoffs just to boost ratings. Baseball should be embarrassed about this.

 

 

BRAVO!!!!!!

 

 

Honestly, I get accused of being so cynical and negative--I don't see how you guys can stay so positive when it's obvious that the system is at best broke, and at worse corrupt. W.B. Yeats said "the center cannot hold" and I really believe that without a major adjustment baseball will implode. Maybe not in our lifetime, but it has to. It's not a sport; it's a media agreement, a business demand.

 

 

P.S. Yeah, Chelsea is the class this year, kudos to them, but nobody plays the 'beautiful game" more beautifully than the Gunners!

[kilgore37]

By beautiful game you mean death by 1000 passes?

[cnycerveceros]

I'm glad somebody posted this link. When I read it I had all these same thoughts. Why do some teams get the privilege to stay in divisions while others do not? Yes, let's destroy the attraction of division rivalries except for the Red Sox, Yankees, Phillies, Dodgers. Great idea for the game.

[Invader3K]

"BRAVO!!!!!! Honestly, I get accused of being so cynical and negative--I don't see how you guys can stay so positive when it's obvious that the system is at best broke, and at worse corrupt. W.B. Yeats said "the center cannot hold" and I really believe that without a major adjustment baseball will implode. Maybe not in our lifetime, but it has to. It's not a sport; it's a media agreement, a business demand. "

 

Yeah, I pretty much accepted a while ago that the Brewers will probably never win the World Series in my lifetime, and I'm not even 30 yet. The odds are just stacked way too high against that possibility. I will just continue cheering and hope they can remain competitive and relevant, and hopefully at least make the playoffs on a somewhat regular basis.

[jhart05]

Man if that's all it takes to write for ESPN, I'm applying today.

[TooLiveBrew]

What do people think of adding another Wild Card team in each league? My idea would be a WC round elimination playoff, then follow the playoff structure as-is after that. What made me think of this is the absolute dominance of the WC by the AL East runner-up in recent seasons. Additionally, there's usually at least one other team in each league worthy of making the postseason.

 

For example, last season would have seen a WC round of SFG@COL & TEX@BOS. I know this would extend the postseason, but honestly just doing away with the ridiculous off-days in the schedule now would rectify much of that.

[Invader3K]

Yes, I think 10 teams total should make the playoffs. Have the two WC teams from each league face each other in either a one game shootout (like they've had the last three years anyway), or a best of five series with no off days. That would give an extra team from each league a chance to make the World Series, and eliminate some of the "You should have to win your division, the Wild Card is evil" type whining from the "traditionalists."

[owbc]

I really do not want to see any more playoff expansion. They play 162 games for a reason--and it is unfair for teams that played that many games to have to play a short series to advance.

 

If they were going to do it, I would only be happy with a reduction to 154 games, expansion to 32 teams, and most importantly, moving up the trade deadline by at least a month.

[TooLiveBrew]

Why would it be unfair? What about a team that misses the lone WC spot by one game? They aren't worthy, even though they might've missed out by the other team being luckier?

[nate82]

I wouldn't mind having the high spending teams being stacked into one division. Think about it for a second here you could have a division of Cubs, Yankees, Red Sox, Mets, and Cardinals all in one division. Now lets say the playoff system stays the same that eliminates 3 big spending teams from ever making the playoffs and you could probably even cross out 4 if all of those teams were in one division. Sure the big spending teams get a division all by themselves but it does fix the parity problem. Instead of having 3 of 8 or 4 of the 8 teams being big market teams playing in the playoffs you have now eliminated it to 2 or 3 at the most. This would allow the middle of the pack teams more of a chance to win in the playoffs more since there will be more middle of the pack teams than there will be higher spending teams.

 

It wouldn't be a great system but realigning the divisions in terms of the amount of payroll each teams have and the cities market size wouldn't be a bad idea. Having the Cubs, Yankees, etc. all in one division would even out the league and create more parity in the league since you wouldn't have one or two teams absolutely dominating one division year in and year out because they can spend more than the other teams in their division. Will the division that has all the high spenders get more publicity? Of course they will and they do now so nothing is really changing here. I really think realigning the divisions in terms of media market share and team payroll is something that could work and create more parity.

[Invader3K]

I really do not want to see any more playoff expansion. They play 162 games for a reason--

That is nice to say, but 162 games hasn't resulted in clear cut playoff teams the past three seasons. 10 teams out of 30 would still be a much smaller ration than any other major sports league.

 

I'm personally fine with your other ideas of cutting down the regular season a bit and possibly expanding to 32 teams in the future.

[paul253]

I don't think realigning based on team payrolls would work because you'd have to keep adjusting the divisions every few years. I believe strongly in a salary cap but that's very unlikely to ever happen. The only way to even out payrolls, in my opinion, is to have a luxury tax so ridiculously high that nobody dare go over it. Also have a penalty for payrolls that are too low. If you can't meat a certain payroll you have no business being a major league team. Set the levels somewhere around $60 million on the low end and $120 million on the high end.

[nate82]

I don't think realigning based on team payrolls would work because you'd have to keep adjusting the divisions every few years. I believe strongly in a salary cap but that's very unlikely to ever happen. The only way to even out payrolls, in my opinion, is to have a luxury tax so ridiculously high that nobody dare go over it. Also have a penalty for payrolls that are too low. If you can't meat a certain payroll you have no business being a major league team. Set the levels somewhere around $60 million on the low end and $120 million on the high end.

Not just the payroll but the media market size also. The Yankees, Cubs, Red Sox, and Mets will always have a high payroll and can afford a high payroll for a long time with their media market.

 

Also a minimum salary or at least one that is not spoken looks to be coming just look at what MLB and the MLBPA did to the Marlins this year. I think in the next CBA there will be provisions that will be very strict on how the revenue money should be spent by teams. I believe more revenue sharing maybe possible if the money that is being shared goes to the teams payroll and there is a floor or the team going below that floor will lose revenue sharing. I believe this is going to be a real possibility.

[BCZF]

If all the media revenues were shared they probably wouldn't need a salary cap.

Bingo. I think shared revenue would be a lot easier to pass than a salary cap, as well.

But don't you give the Yankees/Sox power over the entire league then? Think an NYC resident who already ponies up extra for the YES network is going to sit while their money goes into a rival teams coffer?

I dunno, I'm probably wrong, just seems too.... Easy?