MLB Reallignment Idea that Selig should probably consider

[RyDogg66]

Fangraphs is currently doing a spot on MLB reallignment, most notably going back to 4 divisions. Just for fun and to kill time before spring training, I tried my own reallignment and this is what I came up with.

 

American League is still the American League w/ DH, but it is now all Eastern Teams

National League is still National League, w/o DH but is now western teams

top 3 teams in each division advance to playoffs.

Round 1 is between the W/C teams in each division, best of 3 games. Winner plays Division Champ from Other division in best of 7.

Unbalanced schedules.

No interleague

 

Division 1

Yankees

Mets

Red Sox

Phillies

Blue Jays

Nationals

Orioles

 

Division 2

Rays

Marlins

Braves

Reds

Indians

Tigers

Pirates

 

National League

Division 1

Cubs

White Sox

Cards

Brewers

Twins

Royals

Rangers

Astros

 

Division 2

DBacks

Rox

Dodgers

Angels

Padres

Giants

Mariners

A's

 

Plausible?

Too Radical?

Ready for Spring Training?

[Warning Track Power]

Oh man...this is an idea that gets me pumped up. Realignment's time has come again especially with the inevitable addition of a 5th playoff team in each league. My thoughts on this topic:

 

#1. 2 divisions in each league: East and West. By doing this, the horribly imbalanced AL West and NL Central problem goes away as each team will compete with the same number of teams for balance. 8 teams in each NL division and 7 teams in each AL division.

 

#2. 2 division winners and top 3 records make the playoffs regardless of division. Guarantees 4 of the top 5 records in each league will make the playoffs. This should do away with the "AL East problem" of the past few years where a 90 win team misses the playoffs in favor of a lesser division winner.

 

#3. Seeding is based on record. Division winners aren't guaranteed home field. For example, 4 teams make the playoffs in the new AL East and the AL West winner has a worse record than all four of them, the AL West winner will not have homefield advantage.

 

My divisional alignment:

NL West

Brewers

Dodgers

Giants

Padres

Diamondbacks

Rockies

Cardinals

Cubs

NL East

Astros

Reds

Pirates

Nationals

Mets

Braves

Marlins

Phillies

 

AL West

Angels

Rangers

Mariners

A's

White Sox

Royals

Twins

AL East

Yankees

Red Sox

Rays

Orioles

Tigers

Indians

Blue Jays

 

I think this is the most realistic scenario. As much as I would not mind RyDogg's suggestion of all west and all east teams in the same division, baseball purists will never allow this in my opinion.

[Invader3K]

RyDogg, I think I really like your idea a lot. The big problem, as I see it, is that people would go ballistic over moving "traditional" NL teams like the Phillies, Pirates, and Braves to the AL, and vice versa. I personally don't like that the NL teams would be at a slight competitive disadvantage of having an extra team in each division in both your proposals. I suppose this is unavoidable until baseball expands to 32 teams, though.

 

WTP's idea is probably a bit more realistic. The Brewers would get somewhat screwed from a revenue standpoint by not playing in the same division as the Cubs and Cards, though.

[Ennder]

I think it is way too radical moving teams between NL and AL. Though I'm fine with just adding the DH to the NL since it will happen eventually anyway. Only way the leagues can be fair. Once they both have a DH you can move teams around any way you want to.

[Warning Track Power]

WTP's idea is probably a bit more realistic. The Brewers would get somewhat screwed from a revenue standpoint by not playing in the same division as the Cubs and Cards, though.

After reading the Fangraphs article, I switched the Brewers into the West and the Astros into the East. It makes more sense from a geographical standpoint for the Brewers as they already have the geographical closeness to and rivalry with the Cubs and Cards. It also makes more sense for the Astros as the closest teams in proximity for them are the Cards, Braves, Marlins, Reds or 3 teams from the east. Houston really has no traditional rival and their location puts them where travel is going to be almost equal whether they are in the east or west. Because of this, I believe the Brewers would hold the rivalry chip and that would swing them into the west.

[Invader3K]

Yeah, the Astros are kind of a weird nebulous team, in terms of geography and having no real rivals. In an ideal world they would probably be in the same division as the Rangers to stir up a Texas rivalry. I think your change of putting them in with the Braves and Marlins makes sense, though.

[sbrylski]

I vote no divisions, and want to see a round-robin style playoff system if we are moving to 5/6 playoff teams.

[RyDogg66]

I would be fine with adding the DH to the National League, or MLB West as a compromise to switching teams from NL to AL. Heck, if we changed the names from AL and NL to something else (Not Legends and Leaders) then there would be no complaining because nobody would know if they were being switched or if other teams were being added to their existing league.

 

As for playoffs. Having 6 teams make the playoffs would obviously INCREASE interest for all teams.

As far as I can tell, no real rivalries are broken up and if anything, new ones are created (Cleveland/Pittsburgh, SD/LAA, etc) and existing ones are enhanced (KC/STL, MIL/MINN NY/NY, CHI/CHI).

 

The regular season ends on a Wednesday. The first round of the playoffs would take place on a Friday afternoon, Saturday night, Sunday night. The first game would be at the 3rd place team's stadium. After the game you get on a place and fly to the 2nd place stadium for games 2 and 3(if necessary). Monday is an off day and then a best of 5 between Division champ1 vs. WC champ2 and Div.CHamp2 vs. WC champ 1. Now the division champ has an advantage because their pitchers are rested and ready and presumably the WC champ tossed their best two pitchers in the WC round, thereby giving meaning to winning the division. ELCS, WLCS and WS are traditional best of 7 matchups.

 

Im not worried about the West teams having to fight past one extra team because each division is the same and there is no interleague so all 16 teams are facing the same dilemma, making it fair.

 

Unbalanced schedules in my original plan would be that you would play each team in your division 15 times divided by 5 3-game series, 3 home, 2 away, alternating each year. You would then play each team in the other league in a home and home series. One series would be 4 games, one would be 3 games. That is only 161 games, so in a rotation you would play one team in the other division 8 times.

 

Travel. I would hope this would save travel times for teams, but it is most likely a wash. With 8 teams in the Far Western division of the West the Brewers could knock that out in three West coast road trips spread out throughout the season. Then they are traveling to places like Chicago, Minnesota, STL more often which is obviously much closer.

 

Outside of being radical, I think it is very reasonable and I cant imagine any team would really cry about losing out on something. I think everyone gains here. The players gain the DH in the other league and perhaps less travel time, especially the East Coast teams. The owners gain extra playoff series making their late season games more meaningful and chances at a title more likely. The fans gain more geographic rivalries and more interest with added playoff teams.

 

It probably should be considered.

[dadofandrew]

No Brewers' fan wants them playing more late night games.

 

My question, why? The current set-up seems to be working fine, and has created many regional rivalries.

[RyDogg66]

In this scenario they would play about 20 9:00 pm starts, if every game were a night game, which they wouldnt be because almost all games on Sundays are day games. Hardly a reason for concern.

 

The current set up works ok, but lets be honest, we need to add the DH to the NL to balance the leagues and adding two playoff teams would benefit everyone. I would guess that just about every fan would be ok with having a few more 9pm starts in exchange for yearly 15 game series with the White Sox and Twins.