Expansion

[nate82]

Breaking up the Cubs from both the Brewers and Cardinals?

 

The Cardinals are the only real rivalry between the two teams the Brewers not so much to either the Cardinals or the Cubs. The teams will still play each other every year as every team plays each team 6 times one home and one away series.

 

Also both Chicago teams in the same division?

 

I don't see a problem here.

 

 

Three NYC team together?

 

I don't see a problem here.

 

 

You also stacked a lot of high payroll teams and stacked a bunch of low payroll teams which probably wouldn't make a whole lot of sense. Mariners/Pirates would probably be pretty darn upset.

 

Not really a problem and the Pirates and the Mariners are not small market teams. The Mariners have had 100m+ teams in the past plus they have signed Cano and Cruz in the past couple of off seasons. The Pirates can also hang with the teams in their division.

[1992casey]

A couple wild cards not mentioned yet- Salt Lake City or Oklahoma City?

 

Both of these metropolitan areas are smaller than Milwaukee.

 

If they are going to realign things and expand, they may as well make the DH MLB wide and just organize the (preferrably largeer) divisions by geographical location. That would save money in travel also. Not sure how Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and the Bay area would feel about that though.

 

The two-market teams have objected to radical realignment in the past. I think their opinion would be pretty important in this matter.

 

From a fan standpoint, it could go either way. Having your rivals closer geographically makes it easier for fans to travel. And it'd be fun to see your teams fight it out head to head. On the flip side, fans in two-market cities have the ability to see every major league team every year if they'd like.

[SRB]

NL EAST

Washington D.C.

New York (N)

Philadelphia

Cincinnati [Pittsburgh would make more sense geographically, but you'd be breaking up the historic Chicago-St. Louis-Pittsburgh rivalries]

 

NL CENTRAL

Chicago (N)

St. Louis

Pittsburgh

Milwaukee

 

NL SOUTH

Miami

Atlanta

Arizona

Mexico City

 

NL WEST

Los Angeles (N)

Colorado

San Francisco

San Diego

 

--

 

AL EAST

Baltimore

Boston

New York (A)

Tampa Bay

 

AL CENTRAL

Kansas City

Minnesota

Texas

Houston

 

AL NORTH

Chicago (A)

Toronto

Detroit

Cleveland

 

AL WEST

Oakland

Seattle

Los Angeles (A)

Portland

[danzig6767]

Montreal, Las Vegas, San Antonio/Austin, Indianapolis, Charlotte, Portland in that order with none being a lock. I wouldn't completely rule out Brooklyn either.

No way would the two NY teams allow for a third one.

[Austin Tatious]

No need to nuke the existing leagues. A tweak here or there like the stros to the AL is one thing. Blowing the whole thing up is entirely out of the question IMO.

[davego]

I wonder if the New England area could or would support another team?

[jerichoholicninja]

I'd love to ditch the leagues and go to 8 4-team divisions or 4 8-team divisions, everybody plays everybody (but favored toward intradivision opponents) , and then seed by record for whatever playoff format they chose.

[brewcrewdue80]

It's good the way it is. 3divisions 5teams in each. To move to 4divisions would be bad when you get the .488 win pct team winning a bad division and making the playoffs while a .575 win pct team is beaten out for wildcard.

 

I'd rather see a team be moved vs. expanding. Tampa has had the worst season attendance the last 4 seasons. 29th the year before that, 29th currently. This is with 4 seasons of 90+wins and lowest win total in a season of 77. You're not going to see attendance increase if they can't draw one on 90win teams. What happens when they go through a stretch of 70s win seasons? Time to move on.

[trwi7]

It's good the way it is. 3divisions 5teams in each. To move to 4divisions would be bad when you get the .488 win pct team winning a bad division and making the playoffs while a .575 win pct team is beaten out for wildcard.

 

You know this could happen with 5 team divisions too, right?

[brewcrewdue80]

It's good the way it is. 3divisions 5teams in each. To move to 4divisions would be bad when you get the .488 win pct team winning a bad division and making the playoffs while a .575 win pct team is beaten out for wildcard.

 

You know this could happen with 5 team divisions too, right?

 

Of course but the odds are likely quite a bit less than the 4 4team divisions. Look at the NFL and 7-9teams winning divisions. Did that happen when it was 3?

[Invader3K]

The two biggest issues with any realignment scenario is that right now, we don't have a good idea where the Rays and A's will ultimately end up. Either or both teams could end up relocating in the next few years.

 

I think Montreal will definitely get a team again at some point. There is a lot of nostalgia for the Expos, and they have drawn well with exhibition games up there. MLB probably would also like to regain the "balance" of having a Canadian team in each league again.

[paul253]

Read an article on SI.com. A couple cities they brought up that I haven't seen mentioned yet, although all are essentially replacements for cities we've mentioned: Vancouver (as opposed to Portland). Austin (as opposed to San Antonio) and Monterrey (as opposed to Mexico City).

[patrickgpe]

Montreal would be interesting, they do show up when the blue jays play exhibitions there.

 

That being said, any expansion would hurt the game, there aren't enough good pitchers now, and now there would be 26 more major league pitchers. ugh.

[MrTPlush]

Montreal would be interesting, they do show up when the blue jays play exhibitions there.

 

That being said, any expansion would hurt the game, there aren't enough good pitchers now, and now there would be 26 more major league pitchers. ugh.

 

Good Manfred would kill two birds with one stone. He wants increased offense.

[SRB]

Montreal would be interesting, they do show up when the blue jays play exhibitions there.

 

That being said, any expansion would hurt the game, there aren't enough good pitchers now, and now there would be 26 more major league pitchers. ugh.

 

Aren't we in the middle of a historically-noteworthy era of good pitching? There aren't enough major-league hitters, more likely.

[MrTPlush]

Charlotte seems a likely choice for a US team. They have the highest attendance in minor league baseball. Indianapolis also draws pretty well.

[jerichoholicninja]

Montreal would be interesting, they do show up when the blue jays play exhibitions there.

 

That being said, any expansion would hurt the game, there aren't enough good pitchers now, and now there would be 26 more major league pitchers. ugh.

 

Aren't we in the middle of a historically-noteworthy era of good pitching? There aren't enough major-league hitters, more likely.

 

Sure, adding 26 more pitchers would dilute the pitching talent. Same as adding another 24 or so batters would dilute the hitting.

[owbc]

So far in 2016 strikeouts are at a record pace and batting average is at 40-year low. We are getting very close to 1 in every 3 batters striking out. I know most of us (and MLB) would prefer for things to naturally balance themselves out, but if the trend continues there will be action soon. Strikeouts are boring.

 

I think it's generally accepted that expansion helps hitters more than pitchers, but I haven't seen any data to back it up. There was a big jump in offense in 1993 but not so much in 1998. Plus the background trend was already on the upswing. There probably isn't much difference between AAA-MLB at this point...teams are constantly swapping players and it doesn't seem to make any difference which .210 hitter is batting 8th or 9th.

 

Brooklyn is another very good option, but market rights would kill that one. In fact, any expansion including Montreal could easily be killed by markets. Look at the A's situation...an easily solvable problem ruined by stupid market rules. Why would Rogers want another Canadian team when they commonly drawing > 1 million viewers for regular season Blue Jays games? A team in Charlotte would hurt the Braves.

[DHonks]

FVBrewerFan, actually the A's recently received a proposal in cooperation with the city. For 15 years the team tried moving to San Jose or Santa Clara, but the Giants blocked it. Oakland is afraid of losing the Raiders, and more willing to work with the A's, including a waterfront stadium.

[MadThinker88]

Comparing Charlotte, NC (& impact to the Braves) to Santa Clara, CA (& impact to the SF Giants) is apples to oranges.

 

Charlotte hosts a successful AAA team (not affiliated with the Braves) and is 250 miles away from Atlanta.

Santa Clara does not host ANY level in minor league ball and is under 50 miles away from San Fran.

There are plenty of MLB teams within 250 miles of one another. A lot fewer are within 50 miles.

[DHonks]

MadThinker88, Santa Clara does basically host the San Jose Giants. I think the San Jose stadium was about 10 minutes from my dorm in college. Unless the San Jose squad no longer plays in the Cal League

[SRB]

Manfred suggests Mexico City and Montreal.

 

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/eye-on-baseball/25579374

 

I think a Mexico City franchise would be awesome!

[DHonks]

It would add a passionate fanbase, but can it work financially and security-wise? Security would be an issue. the elevation and dry air would cause it to be a Coors Field-type. What about the Peso? and is there enough of a middle class to support a franchise?

[SRB]

It would add a passionate fanbase, but can it work financially and security-wise? Security would be an issue. the elevation and dry air would cause it to be a Coors Field-type. What about the Peso? and is there enough of a middle class to support a franchise?

 

Contrary to Mexico as a whole, Mexico City is not particularly dangerous. It's likely safer than a number of American cities with MLB franchises. If the concern is that players would not want to live there, I suspect there are quite a few MLB players who would be lining up.

 

The population is obviously much poorer than in the United States, but we're talking about a city the size of New York here. Even if the middle class is a tiny percentage of the population, the (hopeful) fanbase for a flagship Mexican franchise would be so huge that I doubt they would have any trouble making money. It would be interesting to see what they set ticket prices at.

[1992casey]

Economically, I'd think that the biggest concern would be selling tickets in pesos and paying players in dollars. Otherwise, there's no reason to think that a Mexico City team couldn't do very well.

 

Some economic tidbits quoted from Mexico City's Wikipedia page:

 

[list-sp]

• According to a study conducted by PwC, Mexico City had a GDP of $390 billion, ranking it as the eighth richest city in the world after the greater metropolitan areas of Tokyo, New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Paris, London and Osaka/Kobe…
  
• Excluding the rest of the Mexican economy, Mexico City alone would rank as the 30th largest economy in the world.
  
• Mexico City has one of the world's fastest-growing economies and its GDP is set to double by 2020. [based on a 2008 forecast]
  
• The top twelve percent of GDP per capita holders in the city had a mean disposable income of US $98,517 in 2007. The high spending power of Mexico City inhabitants makes the city attractive for companies offering prestige and luxury goods.

[/list-sp]

If you ever visit Mexico City, it's easy to find people who are obviously very affluent. You'll be staying in hotels and eating in restaurants with them.