Rosenthal's Reallignment Idea

[RyDogg66]

http://msn.foxsports.com/...lignment-proposal-022510

 

Excuse the poor geographics on the map, but I have to say, I like the idea. So what if it is radical. So what if a couple of teams are playing interleague games the last weeks of the season. As Rosenthal says, what is the difference if meaningless interleague games in September vs. May/June. Further, what is the difference between meaningless interleague games in September vs. playing the Pirates or Royals within your own division in September. I like creating more geographical rivalries and the Brewers proposed division in one of his scenarios of Brewers, Cubs, Cards, White Sox and Royals seems well balanced.

[endaround]

Any plan that treats the Yankees and the Red Sox the same when it comes to payroll is foolish. The Yankee payroll was $206m last year, the Red Sox came in 6th at $122m. The Tigers, that poor, poor team that would replace the Red Sox in Rosenthal's grand plan spent $129m. The Red Sox aren't good due to some huge payroll advantage.

 

The league wants an unbalanced schedule and pennant races along with making interleague games seem special to goose attendance, thats not going to change anytime soon.

Love the Revenue Reallingment that ignores the fact the Cubs are one of the top spending teams in the league ($137m last season).

[Dragonbait]

I also don't like the idea of putting the Astros in the West...

a central team shouldn't be in the West.. 9pm TV start times.... ugh

[Invader3K]

I actually like his middle idea a lot. Playing the Red Sox more often would be a boon to the AL Central teams, and the Tigers have the pay roll to compete in the AL East. I really don't care for his last idea. The moves seem somewhat arbitrary, and I think if the A's do relocate, it will be somewhere on the West Coast (like San Jose or Portland).

 

Anything to eliminate having a single six team division is a good thing, in my mind.

[endaround]

The whole idea of his moving the Red Sox was to make the division more competitive, but how does swapping in a higher payroll team in the Tigers do that? If the Tigers start behaving smartly do we have to realign again?

 

Baseball's problems basically comes down to 6 teams, the Yankees who can lap the field in spending and Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Miami, Oakland, and Tampa which have problems making a $70m payroll. The thing is those last 5 are bad for different reasons. Miami is a huge market that Jeff Loria can't sell to while Kansas City is poorly run franchise in a small market and Oakland would be fine if the Giants would allow them to move.

[Invader3K]

You mention the Marlins. What's frustrating there is that MLB is blowing an easy opportunity to fix the problem. They should be moving them out west and putting them in the AL West. One team in Florida is enough. That would be a simple enough fix (you could move the Pirates to the NL East to balance things out). Bingo, problem solved. Instead, MLB wants to live with their mistake, and is getting a new stadium built in Miami which may or may not fix the Marlins' problems. I can't help but think that after the novelty of the new stadium wears out, Loria will be complaining that people aren't supporting the team, when in reality it will just be him being a cheapskate.

 

Moving the Astros to the AL West would also be an easy fix, but the Astros seem to be completely opposed to such a change, as they've had the chance in the past.

 

Rosenthal's angle seems to be that there isn't any other way to fix baseball's financial inequities, so his proposals basically just "work with what we have now." That is fine, but it's basically just moving the pieces around instead of implementing any real good long term fix.

[kramnoj]

The Yankee payroll was $206m last year, the Red Sox came in 6th at $122m.

 

And this year Cot's has the Sox payroll at close to $166M, without the pre-arby players. Are you really going to dispute that the Sox have a payroll advantage over the vast majority of teams?

 

I've been one to say that teams can compete if they are smart, and for the teams that can't compete, payroll is usually secondary to the smarts of the team management. But the glaring consistent exception is the AL East. I would welcome some kind of realignment that threw both NY teams, Boston, and Philly into the same division.

[paul253]

This whole idea of fixing competitive balance is a joke. Selig and the owners couldn't care less about it, or they'd take a stand against the players (and this is the PERFECT time to do it too). This is about them making/saving money and if they win...all the better. If they truly cared about competitive balance, there are 2 easy fixes.

 

First off you need to do one of these two:

 

1) Salary Cap on the 40-man roster OR

2) Luxury tax that is basically a for every $1 over the limit you pay a $2 fine.

Each of these would be accompanied by a salary floor.

 

Then you fix the draft by doing three things:

1) Institute a world wide draft where EVERY player eligible

2) A rookie salary cap

3) Eliminate comp picks...or at least change the system. It isn't working as it was supposed to. If you want to give a team a comp pick for losing a premium player, then make it at the end of the second or third round and no sooner, and limit it to one pick per player. Teams like the Angels should never be getting 4 or 5 picks before a team like the Pirates get their second pick.

 

All that being said, I do like the plan. I would switch San Diego and Seattle though so all 5 California teams are in the same division.

 

This assures that the best players going to the worst teams, like it is in EVERY other sport and not teams like the best prospects slip down to teams that are willing to pay their ridiculous demands.

 

I'm sure this won't fix everything, but i think its a good start. As long as MLB allows the Yankees to have payrolls 5 times higher than other teams there will always be competitive balance issues.

[endaround]

The Yankee payroll was $206m last year, the Red Sox came in 6th at $122m.

 

And this year Cot's has the Sox payroll at close to $166M, without the pre-arby players. Are you really going to dispute that the Sox have a payroll advantage over the vast majority of teams?

 

I've been one to say that teams can compete if they are smart, and for the teams that can't compete, payroll is usually secondary to the smarts of the team management. But the glaring consistent exception is the AL East. I would welcome some kind of realignment that threw both NY teams, Boston, and Philly into the same division.

No the Sox are among the next group down from the Yankees; the Mets, the Phillies, the LA teams, Detroit and the Cubs. That's 7 teams. The Red Sox are not unique like the Yankees are.

[adamb100]

Could never understand why the pirates are in the NL Central. Last checked Pittsburgh is in the North East of the country.

[Invader3K]

Yeah, but the difference is that those other teams are in different division (other than the Mets and Phillies, obviously). It's virtually guaranteed every year that both the Red Sox and Yankees will make the playoffs, and that is just not good for the sport as a whole. Either splitting them up or putting them in a division with other high payroll teams would lead to better competitive balance in the long run.

[clancyphile]

Actually, why not move the Devil Rays to Las Vegas or Portland, Oregon, and move the Marlins to Tampa/St. Pete?

 

 

AL East

Yankees

Red Sox

Indians

Blue Jays

Orioles

 

AL Central

Tigers

Royals

Rangers

White Sox

Twins

 

AL West

Portland/Vegas Devil Rays

Angels

A's

Mariners

 

NL stays the same

[Invader3K]

I was going to say that I thought the Rays had a new stadium coming, but it looks like those plans have been scrapped for the time being. Would kind of be a shame to see them relocated after their recent relative success.

[Mr QL]

I don't see how splitting up The Red Sox and Yankees makes things more competitive for the rest of baseball besides the AL East besides making it more likely they both make the playoffs any given year.

[logan82]

Putting the Red Sox or Yankees in the central would make it so they are both division winners and open up the possibility for other AL teams to win the wild card. Right now the Yankees and Sox are the 2 best teams in the AL year after year pretty much eliminating the opportunity for the rest of the the teams in the AL East to have a chance at the playoffs except on very rare occasions.

 

If Detroit ever got their act together that would pretty much mean you have no chance at getting to the playoffs in the AL unless you are in the AL West.

[paul253]

Putting the Red Sox or Yankees in the central would make it so they are

both division winners and open up the possibility for other AL teams to

win the wild card.

 

But it would lower the possibility of all the other teams in the Central making the playoffs winning the division. I think its a wash, either way.

[piccione88]

Having the sox, and tigers does lower the possibility for the other teams in the Al Central, however the big advantage is that the wild card team will not be locked up every year by the Sox, or Yankees. It would be nice to have the 4th best team in the playoffs, rather than whoever wins the central.

[BrewCrewForever]

I think Rosenthal is on to something here. I like the new division names and they are split up perfect. Kind of cool to have both NY teams, Chicago teams and CA teams in the same divisions.

[kramnoj]

No the Sox are among the next group down from the Yankees; the Mets, the Phillies, the LA teams, Detroit and the Cubs. That's 7 teams.

 

What kind of logic forms this group? The Brewers are closer to the Angels than the Angels are to the Red Sox. Let's be clear, rather than just listing names.

 

Angels this year are at $116M before pre-arby players.

 

Cubs this year are at $138 before pre-arby players.

 

Dodgers high was 2 years ago at $118M

 

Mets highest was last year at $149M.

 

Phillies were at $113M last year.

 

Tigers were at $137M two years ago.

 

White Sox were at $121M two years ago.

 

How can it be disputed that the Red Sox have a payroll advantage for the vast majority of teams?

[Invader3K]

Basically it's:

 

Tier 1a) Yankees

Tier 1b) Red Sox

Tier 2) LAA/LAD/CHC/CHW/DET/PHI/NYM

Tier 3) Everyone else.

[mletto157]

I would say more like:

 

Tier 1: Yankees

Tier 2:

Tier 3: Red Socks

Tier 4: LAA/LAD/CHC/CHW/DET/PHI/NYM

Tier 5: The Majority

Tier 6:

Tier 7: KC/PIT/MIA/OAK/FL

 

Edit: You might even be able to throw another tier between the LAA group and The Majority...

[Invader3K]

Well, I'm not sure what your point is in inserting "empty tiers", but you are right that there are some bottom of the barrel teams below "the majority".

[mletto157]

The point was there is a pretty wide gap between those. The difference between NYY and the LAA group is HUGE. And the difference between the majority and the FLA group is also pretty wide. I wanted those to stand out.

[NYChez]

In your chart, I'd put the White Sox and Tigers in the "majority". On a long-term basis, they're not in the same category as the Angels, Cubs, etc. I'd also consider moving the remaining "tier 4" teams into the Red Sox category.

[Invader3K]

Really good article related to the AL East and competitive balance: Rays owner cautious about future.