MLB realignment

[Seattle1]

Ok there are 16 teams in the NL and 14 in the AL. One team should be transferred from the NL to the AL so everything would be even-Steven. Then both leagues could have three 5-team divisions exactly.

So, what team should make the switch? The Brewers since they were previously an AL team? What would your realigned league look like? I would say the three best candidates for jumping to the AL would be the Brewers, Diamondbacks, and the Rockies. The last two because they have been in existance the shortest amount of time so the switch would be less jarring, than say for the Dodgers.

[otis89]

How would having 15 teams in each league work? There would always be one team not playing for 3 or 4 days in each league, or there would always be an interleauge series. Each league needs an even number of teams.

[PopTop]

Three, 5-team divisions in each league is the only way we're ever going to get back to having anything close to an equitable schedule in each division. Well, that and doing away with the interleague rivalry silliness.

I'm all for it. I'd even be for it if it meant my Astros shifting from NL to AL.

[KCGHOST]

15 teams in a league and no interleague play means one team is inactive everyday. Due to travel issues one team would proabably be inactive for 3-4 days in a row. The HAL 9000 couldn't come up with a workable schedule under such restrictions.

Back when we played a balanced everybody complained because teams were playing the majority of their games outside the division.

If you want "fairness" expand to 32 teams with 8 teams per division and two divisions per league. Have a balanced 154 game schedule strictly within each division. The division winners will meet in a best of seven playoff series. The winners of the playoff series will meet in a best of seven "world series".

[Seattle1]

How would having 15 teams in each league work? There would always be one team not playing for 3 or 4 days in each league, or there would always be an interleauge series. Each league needs an even number of teams.

There must be a way to do it. The only thing I can see with an odd number of teams in the league is that you could never have all teams playing on the same day (except during interleague play). You could probably stagger 2, 3, and 4 game serieses so that no team is idle for too many days in a row.

[baseball junkie]

How about we just do away with divisions all together? Shift a team from the National League to the American League -- I'd suggest the San Diego Padres. Then let the team with the best regular season record in each league slug it out in the world series.

Advantages:
1.) Brings back the meaning and excitement of the pennant chase
2.) Shortens the baseball season (less NFL encroachment)
3.) Better teams playing better World Series
4.) No more wildcard teams getting lucky and taking a series from a superior team.
5.) Gives the World Series back its significance -- it would be the only playoff baseball

Of course this will never happen. But it's a fairly good idea and it seemed to work for the first 70 years MLB's history.

[circusmaximus]

Its hard to believe that the 16-14 setup has lasted this long, people should know by now that its way too imbalanced. For the 1998 expansion, the league turned down the possibility of 15-15 because interleague would have to be everyday, but SO WHAT??? It would be so much better to see one or two IL series going on at every point of the season rather than continuing with this block scheduling. Think about how much more attention an IL matchup would get if it were the only one going on. Plus, the races would be even more exciting if they had it down the stretch in September. To make pennant races more meaningful you might as well take away the Wild Card, but there should still be eight playoff teams. So, you would have four four-team divisions (North, South, East, West) per league and each division champ goes to the playoffs. Yes, this means two expansion clubs in the AL totaling 32 in all, most likely in Portland and some other place that already knows how to support a team (Buffalo, Charlotte, Indianapolis, New Orleans). Starting with the Division Series, the club with the best record in each league is the top seed and plays the fourth-best division winner, while #2 faces #3.

[Evangelion]

Having an odd number of teams in a league will never work. The reason why it won't work has been stated. That type of setup might work in football, hockey or basketball, since they do not play everyday, but in baseball it will never work.

You either go back to having 2 division in each league with 8 or 6 teams for each division or you remain with the current setup.

I would have two division with two division winner and the the next two team with the best record in the playoff. Then have each division winner play the WC teams, winner advance to the next round, then to WS, where the team with the best record get home field advantage.

Also due away with interleague play or at least make it more balance. The current system is flawed system. Yankees verus the Mets six times each year for the fans? Sorry, but that's might be for money, but it's unfair and I doubt I need to explain why, but if I must, I'll give an example.

Royals verus the Cardinals six times a year.

Mets verus the Yankees six times a year.

Royals worst team in baseball.

Mets, Cardinals and Yankees are contenders.

Cardinals swept the Royals in all six games.

Mets spilt with the Yankees.

Mets lose the WC by one game.

Fair? No. This flawed system should be fixed, but MLB has not fixed. I like the idea it's for the fans, but I hate how unfair that make schedule and also take away from the WS. Sorry, but a Met and Yankee WS even disinterest me when they played six times earlier.

American League v.s National League. Usually, it would be two teams meeting for the first time ever. I always liked that aspect about baseball until they introduce interleague play.

Anyway, a unbalance schedule will always exist regardless of what type of setup MLB or any sport use. You can't predict which teams are going to be good or bad. The best you can do and make sure every team plays each another the same amount of times.

Of course, I like to play the worst teams in the league at end of yearwhile another team might be playing the best. During the time when the contender are going for the final playoff spot. So, unbalance schedule? Yep and I don't see much can be done about that.

[sopclod]

Wow, it's been a long time since I posted. I'm pleased to see I still have my account here.

I've always wanted to see MLB go to 6 5 team divisions. I like order and symmetry.

I don't see a problem with interleague play being a normal part of the schedule like it is in other sports.

As far as unfair matchups, sure Royals-Cardinals is unfair now, but what about 5 years from now? or 10? It certainly isn't any more unfair than having the Yankess and Red Sox in the same division. How would you like to be the owner of the Blue Jays, Devil Rays or Orioles?

[Knick9]

If you really want realignment for the time being, check this out:
The American League will have 2 divisions of 7 teams. Though, two wild cards will be put in place here.

AL East:
Boston
New York
Toronto
Baltimore
Tampa Bay
Detroit
Cleveland

AL West:
Chicago
Minnesota
Kansas City
Texas
Oakland
LA of Anaheim
Seattle

As for the National League, they will have 4 divisions of 4 teams and no wild cards at all.

NL East:
New York
Washington
Philladelphia
Pittsburgh

NL North:
Chicago
Milwaukee
St. Louis
Colorado

NL South:
Cincinnati
Atlanta
Florida
Houston

NL West:
Arizona
San Diego
Los Angeles
San Francisco

[MyDogSparty]

As you can see, in my re-alignment plan I'm a big fan of location and rivalries...

AL 1
Anaheim Angels
Arizona Diamondbacks
Colorado Rockies
Los Angeles Dodgers
Oakland Athletics
San Diego Padres
San Francisco Giants
Seattle Mariners

AL 2
Chicago Cubs
Chicago Whitesox
Houston Astros
Texas Rangers
Kansas City Royals
St. Louis Cardinals
Milwaukee Brewers
Minnesota Twins

NL 1
Boston Red Sox
New York Mets
New York Yankees
Washington Nationals
Toronto Blue Jays
Philadelphia Phillies
Pittsburgh Pirates

NL 2
Atlanta Braves
Cincinnati Reds
Cleveland Indians
Detroit Tigers
Baltimore Orioles
Florida Marlins
Tampa Bay Devil Rays

[circusmaximus]

If you really want realignment for the time being, check this out:
The American League will have 2 divisions of 7 teams. Though, two wild cards will be put in place here.

AL East:
Boston
New York
Toronto
Baltimore
Tampa Bay
Detroit
Cleveland

AL West:
Chicago
Minnesota
Kansas City
Texas
Oakland
LA of Anaheim
Seattle

As for the National League, they will have 4 divisions of 4 teams and no wild cards at all.

NL East:
New York
Washington
Philladelphia
Pittsburgh

NL North:
Chicago
Milwaukee
St. Louis
Colorado

NL South:
Cincinnati
Atlanta
Florida
Houston

NL West:
Arizona
San Diego
Los Angeles
San Francisco

That alignment for the NL is definitely the way to go. Its the exact same way I see it. However, with regards to the AL, it doesn't seem like expansion is likely at this time, but if a spending limit or better revenue sharing plan can be introduced, it would be much more reasonable. With 16 teams, you would have:

AL East
NY Yankees
Boston
Baltimore
Toronto

AL North
Minnesota
White Sox
Detroit
Cleveland

AL South
Texas
Tampa Bay
Kansas City
Indy? Charlotte? Nashville? (expansion)

AL West
Oakland
LA Angels
Seattle
Portland (expansion)

[Thunder John]

I'd love to see realignment on geographical terms. Throw out the DH in the AL or add it to the NL to make the game uniform, then split teams up in terms of proximity. You'd have a lot of fun with 18 Mets-Yankees games every year.

Consider:

Division 1:
NY Mets
NY Yankees
Boston
Toronto

Division 2:
Pittsburgh
Philadelphia
Detroit
Cincinnati
Cleveland

Division 3:
Chicago Cubs
Chicago White Sox
Milwaukee
Minnesota
St. Louis
Kansas City

Division 4:
Baltimore
Washington
Atlanta
Florida
Tampa Bay

Division 5:
Seattle
Colorado
Arizona
Houston
Texas

Division 6:
LA Dodgers
LA Angels
Oakland
San Diego
San Francisco

Split them up in AL/NL however you want, especially if DH rule becomes uniform to both leagues. The division assignments thus would pretty much end the breastbeating and hairpulling of those who abhor interleague play because most of those matchups are in the division already. And if you wanted interleague play, do it like the NFL, with the strength of schedule determined by last year's record. That way, you'd have say the Royals and Tampa Bay playing a series, taking away the advantage some teams have in their schedules this year by playing weak interleague opponents.

[ivylover]

i would just give the AL two expansion teams?

[Seattle1]

Ok once we start talking about expansion though, are we then getting into a situation of diluted talent? Would there be enough starting pitching to go around?

[circusmaximus]

Diluted talent is one thing, but the main concern I have about expansion is the cities the league may consider. Some of the markets that have been mentioned in relocation controveries lately have been ones that are way too small and INEXPERIENCED when it comes to pro sports (San Antonio, Las Vegas, Monterrey, Norfolk). There are other places with multiple franchises other than baseball and would be much better options (Indy, Nashville, Buffalo, New Orleans).

[M'sfan4ever]

For scheduling reasons, and because MLB only uses IL for a few weeks each year, you cannot have 15 teams in each league. After this years IL play I cannot fathom anyone wanting to see it all year long. My favourite team is in the AL, but I'm an NL guy, and this year was just horrifying. No way I want to see it all year long.

[sopclod]

For scheduling reasons, and because MLB only uses IL for a few weeks each year, you cannot have 15 teams in each league. After this years IL play I cannot fathom anyone wanting to see it all year long. My favourite team is in the AL, but I'm an NL guy, and this year was just horrifying. No way I want to see it all year long.

At first I thought you were saying something about illinois.

I think a lot of people get caught up in the here and now. We are talking about changes that would be in effect for years, decades. Just because the AL dominated interleague play this year doesn't mean it will always be that way. And besides, what's the difference if the Cubs play the White Sox or the Cardinals? They get killed either way (just one example).