Misaligned?

The buzz of late is a rumored discussion about MLB realignment that could also coincide with changing the playoff format. It’s been an idea that’s been kicked around for a few years, consistently being fueled by the following arguments:

1) The NL has 16 teams, while the AL has 14.

2) Hmm…Brewers owner Bud Selig takes over as commissioner in 1992, the Brewers get moved from the AL to the NL in 1994.

2) The AL East is consistently too strong.  

3) Certain teams (namely the Colorado Rockies & Texas Rangers) play all of their divisional games outside of their home time zone.

i.e. every time the Rangers play an AL West road game, it’s a 7:00PM PST start, which is 9:00PM back home…For the Rockies, the difference is 1 hour

4) Realignment would allow for at least 2 more teams to make the playoffs, which adds to the buzz around the sport come October.

Bud Selig manipulated the Brewers into the NL 15 years ago. While they haven't set the world on fire with success, they certainly have been in more playoff races than they would have been had they stayed in the AL. They were in the AL East for many years, but then jumped to the AL Central briefly before the Devil Rays were founded.

The last major realignment occurred prior to the 1994 season, and was met by disaster right out of the gate. Obviously, there was a player strike the very first season of the realignment. Aside from killing baseball in Canada, the stoppage squelched any prospective “buzz” that was there.  

I think they're French Canadian........What happened to Canadian baseball, eh? The Expos drew above the NL average attendance in the late 70's and early 80's, while the SkyDome was one of the toughest places to play in baseball in the late 80's and early 90's.

In addition, the change was met with extreme skepticism as the newly formed AL West had a first place team (Texas Rangers) that was 52-62 at the time of the strike, while the AL Central had 3 teams with winning percentages above .557. The strike could’ve very well killed baseball in Kansas City also.

In any event, I’m of the opinion that a full-blown realignment could be a good thing for baseball. I just hope that they plan it out carefully. To that end, I will propose a prospective realignment model.

NOT A GOOD IDEA

One suggestion that’s been kicking around is to do away with divisions altogether and just have the NL and the AL as respective leagues. This would sound good on paper, as it would satisfy reasons #2 and #3 from above. No more running uphill for the Toronto Blue Jays and Baltimore Orioles. Everyone plays everyone else an (approximately) equal number of times.

It's not fair....they're too good!

The problem with this is that it would place immense travel strain on teams. Using the Mets as an example, they currently could travel to Philadelphia for 3, then to Washington for 3, then to Atlanta for 3 without missing a beat or leaving the eastern time zone. In a “whole league model,” they could conceivably play the Phillies, then the Cardinals, then the Padres and have to do a ton of travelling. Now, you could say they will just schedule road trips in geographic clusters to eliminate that….but can you do that for all 15 league teams while making sure they play everyone the same number of times? I’m skeptical.

Do we keep charged rivalries together, or just do what makes practical sense for baseball?

Another issue is the odd number of teams in each league (15). This means that there would be at least 1 interleague series for every cycle all year long.  This is not as big of a deal (in my opinion).

MY PROPOSAL:

Just for fun, I included their current records so you can see where the teams would stand under this new format. Each league has 15 teams, with 2 divisions.

Key Aspects: The Astros move to the AL, giving the Rangers a rivalry on the schedule more frequently. It also gives them a team in their division that is close to them. For the most part, all teams east of the Mississippi are in the “East”, and all teams west of the Mississippi are in the “West” (except the Brewers).

Playoffs: 6 teams qualify per league. Division winners secure automatic home-field advantage in the Division Series.  The FOUR wild card teams will play prior to the Division Series in a Wild Card Round. The format is:

Wild Card Round (Best of 3…higher seed hosts games 1 & 3)

#1 WC record vs. #4 WC record

#2 WC record vs. #3 WC record

Divisional Round (Best of 5…division winners host games 1, 2, & 5)

#1 Division Winner vs. Lowest WC seed

#2 Division Winner vs. Higher WC seed

Championship Series (Best of 7….highest seeded team hosts games 1, 2, 6, & 7)

Divisional Round Winner #1 vs. Divisional Round Winner #2

American League

EAST	W	L	.PCT	GB
Red Sox	43	28	.606	---
Yankees	41	29	.586	1.5
Indians	39	31	.557	3.5
Rays	39	33	.542	4.5
Tigers	39	33	.542	4.5
Blue Jays	36	36	.500	7.5
White Sox	35	38	.479	9.0
Orioles	32	37	.464	10.0

WEST	W	L	.PCT	GB
Rangers	38	35	.521	---
Mariners	37	35	.514	0.5
Angels	35	38	.479	3.0
Athletics	33	40	.452	5.0
Twins	31	39	.443	5.5
Royals	31	41	.431	6.5
Astros	27	46	.370	11.0

Wild Card Round:

#1WC Yankees vs. #4 WC Tigers

#2 WC Indians vs. #3 WC Rays

Byes – Division Winner #1 Red Sox, Division Winner #2 Rangers

Part of the deal to join the AL for the Astros ---- bring these back!

National League

EAST	W	L	.PCT	GB
Phillies	45	28	.616	---
Braves	40	33	.548	5.0
Reds	38	35	.521	7.0
Pirates	35	36	.493	9.0
Mets	35	37	.486	9.5
Nationals	35	37	.486	9.5
Marlins	32	40	.444	12.5
Cubs	29	42	.408	15.0

WEST	W	L	.PCT	GB
Brewers	40	33	.548	---
Cardinals	40	33	.548	---
Giants	39	33	.542	0.5
Diamondbacks	39	34	.534	1.0
Rockies	35	36	.493	3.5
Dodgers	32	41	.438	8.0
Padres	30	43	.411	10.0

Wild Card Round:

#1WC Braves vs. #4 WC Diamondbacks

#2 WC Cardinals vs. #3 WC Giants

Byes – Division Winner #1 Phillies, Division Winner #2 Brewers

See no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil....Poor Cubs fans go from being 10 games out in the NL Central to 15 out in the newly formed NL East.