MLB Realignment

[DJH]

Talks of dumping the traditional divisions, and instead have two 15 team leagues have apparently begun. Astros would be moving to the American league. Top 5 from each league would make the playoffs.

I think it is a great idea. We would see many more interesting matchups, including more interleauge play. More teams would be in the playoff hunt.

What say you?

[AZGrizFan]

Talks of dumping the traditional divisions, and instead have two 15 team leagues have apparently begun. Astros would be moving to the American league. Top 5 from each league would make the playoffs.

I think it is a great idea. We would see many more interesting matchups, including more interleauge play. More teams would be in the playoff hunt.

What say you?

With interleague play foisted upon us and the realignment that happened several years ago any semblance of tradition is already gone...at this point it's really irrelevant what moves they make...but do the Astros REALLY want to compete with the Yankmees and RedSucks for a playoff spot every year?

[93henfan]

So with five teams making the playoffs in a league, what do they have a play-in game between 4 and 5? I mean, they wouldn't do a series and have the 1,2 & 3's sitting on their asses for two weeks would they?

[UNHWildCats]

I definately favor equal leagues and divisions so moving Houston to the AL West makes sense, because currently its an advantage to play in the AL West and a disadvantage to play in the NL Central, moving them balances each division equally and also gives Texas and Houston a division rivalry.

I however oppose a no division alignment. To do this each team must play a balanced schedule since they are competing with every team for the playoff spots as opposed to only competing with every other team just for the wild card currently, yes right now some teams are at a disadvantage for the Wild card based on schedule, but atleast they are morte evenly scheduled when concerning the division champion playoff spot.

Under a one division format using interleague play, each team would likely play each other just 9 times and each team in the other league 3 times, doing this would require adding 9 games to each teams schedule, doing 8 games per league opponent instead of 9 would mean a 157 game schedule.

maintaining divisions would allow MLB to continue unbalanced schedules outside of each division.

[Ivytalk]

Talks of dumping the traditional divisions, and instead have two 15 team leagues have apparently begun. Astros would be moving to the American league. Top 5 from each league would make the playoffs.

I think it is a great idea. We would see many more interesting matchups, including more interleauge play. More teams would be in the playoff hunt.

What say you?

With interleague play foisted upon us and the realignment that happened several years ago any semblance of tradition is already gone...at this point it's really irrelevant what moves they make...but do the Astros REALLY want to compete with the Yankmees and RedSucks for a playoff spot every year?

I say fuck it. Fuck the whole thing. And string that douchebag Bud Selig up by his balls. Upside down.

[DJH]

I definately favor equal leagues and divisions so moving Houston to the AL West makes sense, because currently its an advantage to play in the AL West and a disadvantage to play in the NL Central, moving them balances each division equally and also gives Texas and Houston a division rivalry.

I however oppose a no division alignment. To do this each team must play a balanced schedule since they are competing with every team for the playoff spots as opposed to only competing with every other team just for the wild card currently, yes right now some teams are at a disadvantage for the Wild card based on schedule, but atleast they are morte evenly scheduled when concerning the division champion playoff spot.

Under a one division format using interleague play, each team would likely play each other just 9 times and each team in the other league 3 times, doing this would require adding 9 games to each teams schedule, doing 8 games per league opponent instead of 9 would mean a 157 game schedule.

maintaining divisions would allow MLB to continue unbalanced schedules outside of each division.

Oh christ, they play 162 games. Every team doesn't have to play the exact same schedule to make it "fair". Playing that many games, things tend to even out, no matter who you are playing.

Don't make this more difficult than it has to be.

[Grizalltheway]

I definately favor equal leagues and divisions so moving Houston to the AL West makes sense, because currently its an advantage to play in the AL West and a disadvantage to play in the NL Central, moving them balances each division equally and also gives Texas and Houston a division rivalry.

I however oppose a no division alignment. To do this each team must play a balanced schedule since they are competing with every team for the playoff spots as opposed to only competing with every other team just for the wild card currently, yes right now some teams are at a disadvantage for the Wild card based on schedule, but atleast they are morte evenly scheduled when concerning the division champion playoff spot.

Under a one division format using interleague play, each team would likely play each other just 9 times and each team in the other league 3 times, doing this would require adding 9 games to each teams schedule, doing 8 games per league opponent instead of 9 would mean a 157 game schedule.

maintaining divisions would allow MLB to continue unbalanced schedules outside of each division.

Oh christ, they play 162 games. Every team doesn't have to play the exact same schedule to make it "fair". Playing that many games, things tend to even out, no matter who you are playing.

Don't make this more difficult than it has to be.

I think any attempt to chip away at the absurdly long regular season is a good thing.

[ODUalum11]

Just the AL East alone should be realigned. In past years that was the best division in baseball but this year thats not even a question. The Orioles who are in last place are only 3 games under .500 and are 8 games back and thats only because the red sox are the hottest team in all of baseball right now.

Realistically, I heard they are thinking about moving the Astros to the AL to make it even at 15 teams in each league.

[SuperHornet]

Why the Astros? Make it the stinking Brewers. Selig can stick his team where the sun don't shine.

[CitadelGrad]

Why the Astros? Make it the stinking Brewers. Selig can stick his team where the sun don't shine.

They want to add another team to the AL West. Houston makes far more sense than Milwaukee.

[AshevilleApp]

I've got no problem with a realignment to bring the Astros to the A.L., it would create a natural rivalry with the Rangers. I don't favor playoff expansion.

As for shortening the season as someone alluded to, I don't mind the 162 games in the regular season, but I would like to see the return of 5-10 doubleheaders each year. That way you're not playing the World Series in November and the fans get more bang for their increasingly expensive baseball buck.

[dbackjon]

Moving a team from the NL to AL would mean one interleague series always going on

[AshevilleApp]

Moving a team from the NL to AL would mean one interleague series always going on

Why?

[bandl]

Moving a team from the NL to AL would mean one interleague series always going on

Why?

Uneven amount of teams in each league

[JoltinJoe]

I just can't get excited when the only "pennant race" which will matter will be for 5th place.

[ODUalum11]

Also gotta remember that the NL central has 6 teams (pirates, cubs, astros, brewers, reds, cardinals). Regardless if it's the Astros or not, it would definitely be a team from that division.

And now that I look at it, every other division has 5 teams with the exception of the AL West who only has 4 (M's, A's, Rangers, Angels). Moving the astros to the AL and specfically the AL West makes the most sense.

[UNHWildCats]

I've got no problem with a realignment to bring the Astros to the A.L., it would create a natural rivalry with the Rangers. I don't favor playoff expansion.

As for shortening the season as someone alluded to, I don't mind the 162 games in the regular season, but I would like to see the return of 5-10 doubleheaders each year. That way you're not playing the World Series in November and the fans get more bang for their increasingly expensive baseball buck.

I have long held the opinion that MLB should have scheduled doubleheaders.... one every weekend split between Saturday and Sundays. Allow team to carry an extra player or 2 on the roster to offset the heavier workload... by doing this every week the season can end in early september and the playoffs done by mid october at the latest... enough of world series games going into november.

[UNHWildCats]

I just can't get excited when the only "pennant race" which will matter will be for 5th place.

[ODUalum11]

I've got no problem with a realignment to bring the Astros to the A.L., it would create a natural rivalry with the Rangers. I don't favor playoff expansion.

As for shortening the season as someone alluded to, I don't mind the 162 games in the regular season, but I would like to see the return of 5-10 doubleheaders each year. That way you're not playing the World Series in November and the fans get more bang for their increasingly expensive baseball buck.

I have long held the opinion that MLB should have scheduled doubleheaders.... one every weekend split between Saturday and Sundays. Allow team to carry an extra player or 2 on the roster to offset the heavier workload... by doing this every week the season can end in early september and the playoffs done by mid october at the latest... enough of world series games going into november.

I also believe they should increase the number of playoff teams. I feel like every year there's always 1-2 teams that deserve to be in the playoffs. I'm also all for this sort of realignment with the Astros to the AL West. Like its already been mentioned, it would open up for an interleague series every weekend which I think would help the league.

[UNHWildCats]

I have long held the opinion that MLB should have scheduled doubleheaders.... one every weekend split between Saturday and Sundays. Allow team to carry an extra player or 2 on the roster to offset the heavier workload... by doing this every week the season can end in early september and the playoffs done by mid october at the latest... enough of world series games going into november.

I also believe they should increase the number of playoff teams. I feel like every year there's always 1-2 teams that deserve to be in the playoffs. I'm also all for this sort of realignment with the Astros to the AL West. Like its already been mentioned, it would open up for an interleague series every weekend which I think would help the league.

I agree, IM all for Houston to the AL, All for expanded playoffs of some sort... just not for a one division league.

[ODUalum11]

I also believe they should increase the number of playoff teams. I feel like every year there's always 1-2 teams that deserve to be in the playoffs. I'm also all for this sort of realignment with the Astros to the AL West. Like its already been mentioned, it would open up for an interleague series every weekend which I think would help the league.

I agree, IM all for Houston to the AL, All for expanded playoffs of some sort... just not for a one division league.

I believe they should expand the playoffs to 6 teams (3 division leaders, 3 wild cards).

[bandl]

I agree, IM all for Houston to the AL, All for expanded playoffs of some sort... just not for a one division league.

I believe they should expand the playoffs to 6 teams (3 division leaders, 3 wild cards).

This. Almost just like football (except 6 divisions instead of 8), and the wild cards can come from any division or even just 1 division.

Might have to make the first and second rounds 5 games each though if they don't shorten the amount of games in the season or employ more doubleheaders.

[ODUalum11]

I believe they should expand the playoffs to 6 teams (3 division leaders, 3 wild cards).

This. Almost just like football (except 6 divisions instead of 8), and the wild cards can come from any division or even just 1 division.

Might have to make the first and second rounds 5 games each though if they don't shorten the amount of games in the season or employ more doubleheaders.

I think they'd have to shorten the season though in order to make it work because they'd be easily playing into November. For a sport that starts in late March, early April.

[UNHWildCats]

This. Almost just like football (except 6 divisions instead of 8), and the wild cards can come from any division or even just 1 division.

Might have to make the first and second rounds 5 games each though if they don't shorten the amount of games in the season or employ more doubleheaders.

I think they'd have to shorten the season though in order to make it work because they'd be easily playing into November. For a sport that starts in late March, early April.

thats where scheduled doubleheaders would come in.

[GannonFan]

I don't mind the idea where if you have more than one wild card team that they have to play each other in either a one game or three game series and then the winner being the lone wild card going forward. Wouldn't extend the season too much, it would get more teams into the playoffs, but would actually put the wild card team at some disadvantage compared to division winners.

With that said, I'm fine with doing away with divisions. I actually miss getting to play the other teams in the NL more than we do now. Seeing the Pirates or the Cardinals or even the Cubs just 6 games a year seems like too little. For the Phils, those teams were NL East compatriots for so long. Having to see Florida or Washington 18 times a year gets a bit boring. Heck, just the fact that we could reduce the whole "Yanks/Sox" talk on ESPN to half of what they do now would be reason enough to change the format.