Rosenthal Re-aligns MLB

[BaltimoreTerp]

One of the things using "names" for divisions instead of geographical regions is that you wouldn't be held to keeping geographical regions together.

For example:

American League

Babe Ruth Division

New York

Boston

Los Angeles

Chicago

Texas

Ban Johnson Division

Baltimore

Cleveland

Toronto

Detroit

Minnesota

Connie Mack Division

Oakland

Seattle

Kansas City

Tampa Bay

National League

Albert Spaulding Division

New York

Chicago

Philadelphia

Los Angeles

St. Louis

Roberto Clemente Division

Pittsburgh

Washington

Cincinnati

Milwaukee

Miami

Atlanta

Willie Mays Division

San Francisco

San Diego

Arizona

Colorado

Houston

Without expansion or changing the basic structure (three divisions) of each league, there are six divisions. All make sense in one or more ways, whether historical, economic, or even in many cases geographical.

It's not a perfect setup, since it does involve lots of travel (less of an issue the further along we get), as well as breaking up rivalries (notably the Dodgers and Giants). However, no division setup would be perfect and it's all academic anyway.

[backwardsk]

I like the AL, but that NL is a geographical mess. Here's my interpretation, although it's not much better.

Northeast

NYM

PHI

WAS

PITT

Southeast

ATL

FLA

HOU

STL

Middle East

CIN

MIL

CHI

COL

West

LAD

SAN

SFG

ARI

EDIT: I didn't create that map, although it's an awesome desktop background, and I wish I did.

Yeah, this could work also. I know Pittsburgh isn't really all that far from Philly and Washington, it just feels like they need to play midwest teams to me.

I also wanted to keep St L and Chicago in the same division. And you have an Atlanta/Milwaukee Braves thing going on. At least Atlanta is not in the west like they were before 1995.

[mweb]

AL:

NYY

Rays

BOS

TOR

Balt

Indy

Cleveland

Detroit

So this helps us, but how it it helpful otherwise? Screws over the Rays and Jays and even the Yanks and Sox since only one of them can make the playoffs.

[Scrat1]

I like Terp's suggestion. I don't like Rosenthal's idea. It feels blasphemous for Dodgers/Angels or Mets/Yankees to be in the same division.

[dedwretched]

LOL. This is hilarious.

The best place to start a business?? Yeah, maybe a maple syrup conglomerate. Not a Major League Baseball team.

The largest city north of Boston? Who cares? Key West is the largest city south of Miami, maybe we should put a team there too.

But Forbes rated as the cheapest place to live! Let's move a baseball team there!

NE people love the Red Sox. Not a crappy team that got dumped into a town with NO CHANCE of supporting a baseball team.

Look, I know you live in Maine, so you are biased to the area up there, but there is just no chance a team is moving to Manchester. Which professional sports team are looking to move to New Hampshire?

I can see a team moving to Brooklyn. I can see them putting one in New Jersey. Hell, I could MAYBE even see them putting one in Connecticut, although I find that highly unlikely.

I can tell you, with all certainty, that there is a 0% chance they put a team in New Hampshire. Not happening, and it's laughable to even suggest it.

Off topic, but you're wrong about Key West being the biggest town south of Miami. Homestead has 31,000 vs 25,000 for Key West. And Kendall is a CDP, but has 75,000. People shouldn't try to disparage other people with the incorrect facts.

[YardBirds13]

Off topic, but you're wrong about Key West being the biggest town south of Miami. Homestead has 31,000 vs 25,000 for Key West. And Kendall is a CDP, but has 75,000. People shouldn't try to disparage other people with the incorrect facts.

Point taken, but you must be able to see that I was saying that in jest. My point was that I could give a you know what what the biggest city north of Boston is. Just the same as I could care less what the biggest city south of Miami is.

If you think that point was my main point, you weren't reading clearly.

[backwardsk]

So this helps us, but how it it helpful otherwise? Screws over the Rays and Jays and even the Yanks and Sox since only one of them can make the playoffs.

You can play around with the divisions any way you want, the point would be that there would be a balanced schedule and you don't have divisions where one team is competing against three teams (like Oakland) and another team is competing against five teams (Cubs).

[byrdz]

Why does their need to be divisions? Why not just two leagues?

[RShack]

Why does their need to be divisions? Why not just two leagues?

Because they don't want fans looking at the standings and seeing their team in 16th place, that's why. Like it or not, that's the main reason...

[Sports Guy]

Re-align or go to a more balanced schedule....Which would you prefer?

[BaltimoreTerp]

Re-align or go to a more balanced schedule....Which would you prefer?

Both.

The point of geographical divisions is to both increase the number of playoff teams while decreasing the amount of travel, which requires an unbalanced schedule.

If you are going to balance the schedule, you might as well re-do the divisions as a part of it in whatever manner you please. Which, since balancing the schedule would be essentially an economic measure, would likely result in an economic-based re-alignment.

[Mad Mark]

Balance the leagues (at 16 teams each).

Balance the schedules (bye-bye, interleague play).

Balance the effin' money!

Five best teams from each league go into the playoffs, with the team with the best record getting a first-round bye. Home-field determined by record. All three series are best of seven. Season is shortened by x days by requiring each team to play one split-admission double header on a Sunday each month. (If roster rules need to be relaxed for that to happen, so be it.)

[Birds of B'more]

One of the things using "names" for divisions instead of geographical regions is that you wouldn't be held to keeping geographical regions together.

I like that idea. A retro-NHL kind of thing.

[My O's Face]

With some expansion:

American League

Division 1

New York

Detroit

Boston

Toronto

Division 2

Baltimore

Cleveland

Tennessee

Tampa

Division 3

Minnesota

Chicago

Kansas City

Texas

Division 4

Los Angelas

Seattle

Oakland

Colorado

National League

Division 1

New York

Philidelphia

Pittsburg

Washington

Division 2

Atlanta

Miami

Chicago

Cincinatti

Division 3

St. Louis

Milwaukee

Houston

Pheonix

Division 4

Los Angelas

San Francisco

San Diego

Portland

All 4 division winners go to the playoffs. The end.

[Birds of B'more]

Realignment will come, and it will come when they expand to 32 teams. It's basically known that Portland is getting a team. The question then comes who else. I know Carolina has interest, and so does Tenn. However so do a few more west teams. I don't think it really matters where you put the other team. Unfortunatly MLB like the NFL wouldn't split up their money making/historic rivals (Was-Dal) despite the location and money aspects of the two teams.

Bal Cin

Tor NYM

NYY Phil

Bos Pitt

Minn Chi

Clev Stl

Det Mil

Chi Col

TB Mia

KC Was

Tex Atl

Car/Ten Hou

Port SD

Oak SF

LAA LA

Sea Ari

That's how I see they do it so they can keep the rivals they want to keep together, form some new ones, and keep travel costs down.

It is? I have to say, that's big news to me and the other 2.2+ million living out here.

In all seriousness, allow me to give you a local's perspective. There simply is no public or political will whatsoever in Portland to build the sort of ballpark it would take to lure the MLB to town. Heck, people are screaming bloody murder and the politicians are spinning their wheels out here over building a new park for the PCL Beavers, since an MLS expansion team is supposed to begin playing here in 2011 in a renovated PGE Park. There's even serious discussion of the Beavers leaving the area altogether. As much as I would love to see MLB here, and I think the area could support it well once it was here, I don't see the stadium thing happening...even when the economy begins to improve.

And finally, the talent-level in MLB is already watered down a bit too much for my liking. Let's not make it worse by adding 2 more teams.