Is it time for realignment?

[adambr2]

No matter how many years I see it, I still can't get over the fact that there are 6 teams in the NL Central, 4 in the NL West, and 5 in every other division. Doesn't it seem to make natural sense to move one team to the AL West and then all things are equal?

 

The big argument against this, is that there will always have to be an interleague series going on.

 

What I don't understand, is why this is such a big deal. So what if there is always one interleague series? The NFL plays "interconference" matchups every week, and they seem to do just fine. We can still have the limited amount of interleague games, while having an interleagues series going on at all times. I don't see why this is such a big deal. So what if there is interleague going on. Is there a rules saying that all teams must work simeltaneously?

[BillScottCanRake]

I know there are lots of rules related scheduling games, some of which I think have been negotiated into the CBA. There are rules about travel, how far you can travel between games and how it relates to when you can play your game, etc. Those things have to be considered when creating a schedule.

 

I also believe the season has to be completed (under normal circumstances) in 180 calendar days, which amounts to 18 off days per team in a season. I don't know if this is part of the CBA or just a ML rule, but either way I don't think you could start the season any earlier or end it any later due to weather concerns.

 

I won't try to crunch the numbers at 3am, but if that 180-day rule is hard and fast, and the number of interleague games is set to 15 per team, it might be possible that you can't create a 162 game schedule that abides by all the rules, even when you don't consider other rules that restrict the how the schedule is built.

 

I suspect that Major League Baseball doesn't think it's too big a deal that two divisions don't have five teams like everyone else. It doesn't seem to be a competitive advantage or disadvantage for those teams, and it's probably easier on the schedulers to make sure each league has an even number of teams than trying to work out all the logistics involved in two 15-team leagues.

[1992casey]

Two 15-team leagues were considered with the last expansion. I believe there were even some sample schedules made up. I'd love to see them.

 

Theoretically, with six 5-team divisions, you could do this and have some beautiful symmetry:

• Intradivision: 72 games (4 opponents times 18 games apiece)
  
• Intraleague, interdivision: 60 games (10 opponents times 6 games apiece)
  
• Interleague: 30 games

It's going to be interesting to see how this thread co-exists with the Interleague play thread. If the comments turn out to overlap a lot, we may want to consider a 'merger'. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

[Invader3K]

I think it's a given that MLB is probably going to expand to 32 teams eventually, much as I would hate that. I think only then are you going to see the leagues even again.

[BillScottCanRake]

Does anyone know what it takes to move a team from one league to another? I'll be honest, I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention to the Brewers when they moved to the NL, so I don't know if MLB had to offer anything to Milwaukee as an enticement to move. If I get some time I'll try to read up on that a bit. I suspect moving the Brewers was easier because Selig was commissioner and Wendy was the "owner".

 

The other thing that might be hard is finding another team to play in the AL West that is willing to move. I suppose moving the Astros would work as adding another Texas team to the AL West might make scheduling a bit easier and it solves the issue of the NL Central having too many teams.

 

But if Houston does't want to move, it would probably require multiple teams shuffling around, and that might be too much of a hassle.

 

 

Interleague: 30 games

 

Without getting to much into whether or not interleague play is good or not, that number seems to be a key (if the team moving issue is resolved). If the current number of games (15) is something that can't be easily changed (i.e. it's collectively bargained or something), I think that would make moving it tougher to create a good schedule.

 

 

I think it's a given that MLB is probably going to expand to 32 teams eventually, much as I would hate that. I think only then are you going to see the leagues even again.

 

That would solve things... eight four-team divisions with no wild card.

[1992casey]

I believe that generally, major league teams can even veto moves between divisions. It's a little muddy because before the league offices were merged, each league had slightly different rules. But I do recall both the Diamondbacks and D-Rays being considered 'movable' without team approval until a set number of seasons went by.

 

I don't believe there were any enticements to switch leagues. The Royals were offered first crack and turned down the invitation. The Brewers were the only other team to express interest.

 

I remember other owners going out of their way to say that Bud was very concerned that the move could be viewed a 'special favor' to the Brewers and that it wasn't the case at all. I think that if nobody would have volunteered to switch leagues, MLB would have decided to put both expansion teams in the same league.

 

The problem I have with 4-team divisions and no wild card would be that the chance of crummy teams in the playoffs (while good ones stay home) increases dramatically.

[afeter]

I agree 100% with this poster. It is completely unfair for a division to have 6 team competition when another has only 4. This problem should be fixed immediately. I am still confused how MLB ever got into this situation. IE how the teams in the central or even the NL agreed to play against more competition.

This is probably my number one issue with baseball right now. It may be wrong, but I would sooner remedy this issue than the steroid problem.

2nd on my list of grievances. The value of the all star game. Why in the world would you determine home field advantage of the most important series by one irrelevant game....Well maybe this is number 1, but i digress.

[1992casey]

I think baseball views the Rangers playing in the AL West as its number one alignment issue. At any rate, it's a perfect example of what baseball was trying to avoid when it created the uneven divisions.

 

Getting reasonable TV times is important. I love the occasional 9 PM game, but I wouldn't be a fan of seeing 30 per year.

 

Interestingly, several years ago, Bob Costas recommended two 15-team leagues, with the Astros in the AL West to give the Rangers a 'mate'.

[Invader3K]

The only problem with that, is that it does make some sense to have one AL and one NL team in the state of Texas. It matches what they've achieved in Chicago, New York, LA, Florida, the Bay Area, etc.

 

I think we could see something if one of the Florida teams move, honestly. Maybe the Marlins move to Las Vegas and join the AL West or something.

[jlau20]

This is probably my number one issue with baseball right now.

 

That's unfortunate.

 

Of course, I'm sure if the logistics worked out, no one would really complain if there were six-five team divisions.

 

IMO, though, there really doesn't seem to be an advantage to playing in a division with 4 teams vs. 6 teams. You still have to have a better record than every other team in your division to win it. Would it be unfair if a team was in a one team division? Yes. Is it unfair that the Brewers play in a division with six teams? Probably not, especially with the way the Brewers have been playing against those teams this year. I'd rather play in the six team NL Central than the five team AL Central or AL East that's for sure.

 

It is what it is. As nice and symmetrical and pretty looking as 6-5 team divisions would be, it's not entirely necessary.

[adambr2]

If expansion eventually does bring in 2 more teams, I think I'd almost rather see there be 2 division in each league, of 8 teams each, and 2 wildcards. Since this is essentially how baseball was before, without wild cards, I don't think this would be a problem.

 

I agree, they COULD make 15 and 15 work. But like every significant change, it would be an adjustment and probably have some growing pains, so up until this point, they just would rather stick with what they got rather than go through the trouble of making a signficant change and moving an NL team back to the AL. (I wonder if the Brewers would end up moving again in this scenario).

[BillScottCanRake]

It is completely unfair for a division to have 6 team competition when another has only 4.

 

I think the bigger issue than having a 6 and 4 team division is that Texas has to play all their road division games two time zones away on the West Coast. I think that Texas is at a greater disadvantage because of that than any NL Central team is having an extra team to compete with.

 

Adding Houston helps to the AL West helps in that Texas and Houston can both play some of their divisional games in Texas, but it hurts in that another team has to play a large number of divisional in California and Seattle.

 

I think that until two more teams are added there isn't a good enough solution to the problem that baseball will mess with it.

[Invader3K]

Adding to what I said earlier, and I know this would never happen, but if the Marlins moved somewhere out west and joined the AL West, you could have the Pirates switch to the NL East, and it would balance things out perfectly. The Pirates would get the benefit of playing more road games in their own time zone, and you'd have 15 teams in each league, and each division having five teams.

[lithium75]

Up until a month ago I would have totally agreed with this post. It is stupid to have 2 more teams in the NL than AL, and it seems unfair to play in a division with 6 teams when most others are in a division with 5 and one division gets to play with 4.

 

About a month ago I read an article that explained it in a totally logical fasion, and I am convinced that the way things are is the best current soultion.

 

The reason is this. There are 30 teams in Major league baseball right now. To even things up, there would have to be 15 AL and 15 NL teams.

 

If that were the case, think about all the non-interleague games. If teams are only playing only teams in their league, that would leave 7 teams playing the other 7 in their league. Considering that most series' last 3 games, that would leave one team in each league that would be left with no one to play. One team a league would be forced to have a 3 day layoff from games.

 

i agree that the solution to this is to have those two teams play each other, but according to the article, there would be teams who would have to have 3 day vacations, and scheduling would be impossible.

 

In short, the reason why there are 16 in one league and 14 in the other is due to scheduling. One day off from games is enough. Imagine a June week where you would have 3 days with no Brewer games...

[Invader3K]

Well, like I said earlier, I think eventually MLB will expand to 32 teams. I just hope by that point we see a true international draft develop.

[afeter]

That's unfortunate.

 

really. I don't understand your logic at all. Four teams trying to win a division is just as comparable to 6 teams. Ah.....

 

why is my choice of problems with baseball unfortunate?

[lithium75]

Another part of MLB's explanation for why there are 14 AL and 16 NL teams was that there are teams struggling to survive in MLB. Florida, Tampa Bay, Pittsburgh, ect. It would be stupid to expand when teams are in trouble.

 

This is why the contraction talks were brought about. trust me when I say that it will be many years from now when MLB will expand again. There just is not any markets where a new team could succeed. If there were a market where a new team could succeed, then one of the struggling teams would relocate before a new team was added.

 

Let's face it. It is not perfect, but we are stuck in a six team division. If 2 new American league teams were added, then there would be one division in the AL that had six as well, but we would STILL be in a 6 team division. The only way to make the 6 divisions work with an even # in the AL and NL is to contract to 24 or to add to 36 making 3 divisions of 4, or 3 divisions of 6 per league.

 

Another possibility is to have 4 divisions in each league and eliminate the wild card. expand to 32, and have 8 4 team divisions. This would not work due to the fact that the wild card is a good thing. It rewards good divisions. Without the wild card, bad teams beat out good teams because they play in bad divisions. It is not fair that a team makes the playoffs ahead of a better team just because it plays in a weaker division.

 

Also, this doesn't work because MLB has no where to expand to.

 

Once again, we are stuck playing in a 6 team league where everyone else gets 5 or 4.

[logan82]

I completley agree there should be realignment. I originally thought it should be Houston that should go. That would be the easiest. After giving it some thought though I think Colorado or Arizona should go to the AL West and Houston should go to the NL West. Houston is the obvious choice to be moved from our division, in my opinion. They are the farthest out of the general region the rest of the teams are in.

[dadofandrew]

Houston does not want to play that many West Coast games. It is what it is until we add 2 more and have 32.