CPCP's MLB Realignment

You couldalways have Interleaguers to reinstate the old rivalries. That way you'd still get the Yankees-Red Sox to keep ESPN happy. You'd need to play more Interleaguers as there are 13 in each League. Since it's an odd number, you will need Interleague going on to keep them playing every day. 4/13 is a better PO % than 4/14 and 4/16 too.

I'm not a fan of eliminating teams. In fact, I'd expand -- add a team in Portland and in, say, Vegas. Break them up into two leagues of 4 divisions, and get rid of the wild card and interleague play. You'd face the 3 teams in your division 30 times (5 homestands, 5 away). That's 90 games. You'd have a home-and-away (six games total) against the other 12 teams in your division for 72 games. That's 162. I'd keep current divisions intact as much as possible. The DH? Keep it or transition it out slowly.

I like the teams you eliminated. Baseball needs to cut back on some teams so that talent (particularly pitching talent) isn't so diluted. The talent is beginning to catch up to the expansions, but I still think we're seeing a lot of disparity in pitching talent as a result of having too many teams. But, I think you moved too many teams around in the leagues. I see potential for ignighting new rivalries, but there is major damage to some classic rivalries. NY-Boston is the most obvious of a number of rivalries that I wouldn't have split up.

I don't see why Milwaukee gets cut. Yes, it's a small market team. Yes, they have been horrible the last 15 years. But the amount of young talent runs so deep in that organization they could easily compete for several years to come, and it would be a shame to never see that happen because of realignment and contraction.

Can we get rid of the DH too? I can't root for the Mets if they play with a DH.

Same here I could not see my D-backs with DH.

Breaking up Yankees-Red Sox would be a problem. I'm sure every Yanks fan would rather keep their rivalry with Boston than start one with the Mets.

I don't like the idea of having two teams in the same division in the same city. If Chicago and New York are going to have two pro teams, then they should be in separate leagues. (personally, I don't think there should be two teams from the same city in any case - there are 50 states, and California has five flippin' teams!) Plus, as a Brewers fan, I don't like the idea of eliminating them. If we eliminated the Brewers, the next closest are the two Chicago teams, and F that. I would rather be a Yankees fan than a Cubs or White Sox fan (and I hate the yankees).

Funny, this topic came up on a message board I frequent. The author of the post suggested this realignment, which I absolutely love:

Merge the leagues, keep the DH, and realign this way:

East New York Yankees New York Mets Boston Red Sox Philadelphia Phillies Toronto Blue Jays

Mid-Atlantic Washington Nationals Baltimore Orioles Atlanta Braves Florida Marlins Tampa Bay Devil Rays

MidWest Cleveland Indians Pittsburgh Pirates Cincinnati Reds Milwaukee Brewers Minnesota Twins

Central Chicago White Sox Chicago Cubs Detroit Tigers St. Louis Cardinals Kansas City Royals

West Houston Astros Texas Rangers Colorado Rockies Seattle Mariners Arizona DiamondBacks

California Los Angeles Dodgers Los Angeles Angels Oakland A's San Francisco Giants San Diego Padres

The 6 division winners make the playoffs. Then next 2 best records, essentially a league wide WC chase for the last month of the season. Then Seed the teams 1-8 based on record. Another way to do it is to play a "balanced" schedule and then have only the 6 division winners in, with the 2 best teams getting a first round bye.

Also, you might wonder about the realignment in geographical terms. The author compromised between geography AND economics. It's not perfect but it's pretty darn close.

The effort and thought is good... but in the end this is an absolutely terrible idea. Just awful. It takes all of baseball history and rivalries and just tosses them aside. It basically alienates every fan that currently exists and cares at all about the history of their team. You also make the incorrect assumption tha geography equals rivls. Yankee fans don't care about the Mets, Mets fans are obsessed with the Yankees but it's compeltely one sided. Rangers/Stros? Then you basically alienate entire parts of the country from most of the game itself. Putting all the California teams together? THat's probably the worst idea of all the realignment, even more than splitting NYY and Boston. Why not just tell California that baseball doesn't exist outside of their division? Good effort here, but it's an absolutely awful idea.

Bad, idea. Tradition. The current ones are fine. You can't just kick teams out. They are expansion franchises. The Nats are on the rise. Don't tell me the Brewers don't have history. If you've ever been to Miller park like I've had, it's clear they have history. Colorado is doing very well and the attendance is up their too. No comment on TB. There aren't too many California teams. San Diego has population of 1 mill. Would you like another team in Ohio. Common Cincy is even near 500,000 and Cleveland isn't close to a million. The reason. Caly has 5 teams is because its the populous state.

California Resident

Its all bigger in California.

I'm sorry but this has to be one of the stupidest things I've ever read!

http://baseb...ivisions.htm

This is at least a little better... except the dude who wrote this needs to understand the real reason behind the Wild Card and why, with his alignment, we would need TWO wild cards to make it more like football, easily the more organized of the four (yawn, five) major sports.

I do agree with Portland needs a team... said some Mets fan at some point... This guy wants a team in Mexico... which would never work... he's an idiot for thinking Canada and Mexico are similar... oh well. Keep trying.

To me the question is not how, but WHY i would realign the divisions.

The man reason I would and have pushed for MLB realignment is the economic divide that exsist in every division in baseball. This economic divide causes a unfair balance across the league.

I would add 2 more MLB Teams and for this post I will say San Antonio and Portland. I would add 2 more playoff spots per league for a total of 12. (NFL Like)

I would realign the divisions every year by previous years opening day payroll. To start I would take the last 5 years payroll rank.

Team (Payroll rank the last 5 years) American League - Yankees (1), Boston (2), Mets (3), Phillies (9) - Angeles (4), Dodgers (5), Mariners (7), Giants (13) - Cubs (6), White Sox (8), Cards (11), Astros (14) - Atlanta (10), Baltimore (15), Toronto (16), Detroit (12) National League San Diego (17), Arizona (19), Oakland (22), Portland (31) Texas (18) Minnesota (21), San Antonio (32), Colorado (24) Cleveland (25), Brewers (23) Reds (20), Royals (26) Washington (27), Pittsburgh (28), Florida (29), Tampa (30)

No more interleague play and all team plays division teams 22 times x 3 is 66, they play the other 12 teams 8 times which is 96, which gives u a 162 games and the schedule is even. Division Rivals will get more games vs each other and the schedule will be balances.

This would change yearly based on payroll and region so all teams have a chance at the post season. This yearly change and new division rivals will u give u the fresh matchs up fans enjoy.

To review the whole plan visit my Blog: http://thefa...mlb-realignm ent-plan/

Giving all fans or customers hope his or her team can make the playoff will grow the game.

1993 Average Attendance per Team 2,509,926 2008 Average Attendance per Team 2,619,704

MLB Playoffs Since 1995

• 1/3 of the League or top 10 in payroll wins 2/3 of the playoff spots about 5 per season. (50% playoff rate)
• 2/3 of the League fights for the 3 remaining playoff spots per season. (15% playoff rate)
• This causes the bottom 50 percent to not invest in the product on a yearly basis that it puts on the field drives away the fans.
• As the bottom 50 % of teams economically speaking have a chance and reach the playoffs they will bring back the fans and be able to afford to retain talent to be more competitive.
• 28 teams total went to the World Series from 1995-2008.
• 3 teams were not in the top 50% of payroll for that year
• 25 teams were top 50%
• 89% of teams who made the World Series were in the top 15 of payroll.