Friday, June 17, 2011

Off Topic: MLB Realignment

One of the hot topics around the MLB world recently has been division realignment. It’s time for MLB to take a step away from its "purist" form and do what is fair. It is time to put the same number of teams in each league and balance out the schedules. Here are a few possible alignments the MLB could switch to. Some are realistic and some are a little more outrageous.


1. This is the simplest realignment. It only involves the Astros moving from the 6 team NL Central to the 4 team AL West. This creates 6, 5-team divisions and 2, 15-team conferences. The drawback to having even conferences is that there are an odd number of teams in each conference so you must have at least one interleague series going on at a time. I don't see why this is an issue as every other major North American sport already does this including the NBA and NFL.



NL East
NL Central
NL West
Atlanta Braves
Cincinnati Reds
Colorado Rockies
Philadelphia Phillies
Chicago Cubs
Arizona Diamondbacks
New York Mets
Milwaukee Brewers
Las Angeles Dodgers
Florida Marlins
Pittsburgh Pirates
San Diego Padres
Washington Nationals
St. Louis Cardinals
San Francisco Giants
AL East
AL Central
AL West
Boston Red Sox
Cleveland Indians
Houston Astros
New York Yankees
Detroit Tigers
Texas Rangers
Baltimore Orioles
Chicago White Sox
Las Angeles Angels
Tampa Bay Rays
Kansas City Royals
Oakland Athletics
Toronto Blue Jays
Minnesota Twins
Seattle Mariners




2. If you want to take it a step further you can realign the divisions based on geographic location. In this economy even a professional sports team should be looking on ways to cut down on travel costs. This model divides the teams by location.


NL East
NL Central
NL West
Florida Marlins
Philadelphia Phillies
Houston Astros
Tampa Bay Rays
Pittsburgh Pirates
Texas Rangers
Atlanta Braves
Cleveland Indians
Colorado Rockies
St. Louis Cardinals
Cincinnati Reds
Arizona Diamondbacks
Kansas City Royals
Detroit Tigers
San Diego Padres
AL East
AL Central
AL West
Boston Red Sox
Chicago Cubs
Seattle Mariners
New York Mets
Chicago White Sox
San Francisco Giants
New York Yankees
Milwaukee Brewers
Oakland Athletics
Baltimore Orioles
Minnesota Twins
Las Angeles Dodgers
Washington Nationals
Toronto Blue Jays
Las Angeles Angels




3. Yet another model based on geographic location. This one is unique because it creates a division for California tams to call their own. It also puts closer together teams from the north-east together. One drawback is that this will create a super division of the Phillies, Yankees, and Res Sox.  But through time things should change. And has anybody thought about realigning the leagues instead of National and American but now East and West?



EL New England
EL Atlantic
EL Midwest
Boston Red Sox
Baltimore Orioles
Toronto Blue Jays
New York Yankees
Washington Nationals
Detroit Tigers
New York Mets
Atlanta Braves
Cleveland Indians
Philadelphia Phillies
Tampa Bay Rays
Cincinnati Reds
Pittsburgh Pirates
Florida Marlins
St. Louis Cardinals
WL Central
WL Frontier
WL California
Chicago White Sox
Houston Astros
San Francisco Giants
Chicago Cubs
Texas Rangers
Oakland Athletics
Milwaukee Brewers
Colorado Rockies
Las Angeles Dodgers
Minnesota Twins
Arizona Diamondbacks
Las Angeles Angels
Kansas City Royals
Seattle Mariners
San Diego Padres



4. Yet another geographical influenced realignment. This one breaks up the Yankees from Boston and from the Mets. This alignment features more balanced divisions and features both good and bad teams in all divisions. And do you even need leagues anymore? You could just take the top 8 or ten teams in baseball and put them in the playoffs.



Atlantic
North
Mid West
Boston Red Sox
New York Yankees
Cincinnati Reds
New York Mets
Toronto Blue Jays
Chicago White Sox
Philadelphia Phillies
Pittsburgh Pirates
Chicago Cubs
Baltimore Orioles
Cleveland Indians
Milwaukee Brewers
Washington Nationals
Detroit Tigers
Minnesota Twins
South East
South
West
Florida Marlins
St. Louis Cardinals
Colorado Rockies
Tampa Bay Rays
Kansas City Royals
Las Angeles Dodgers
Atlanta Braves
Arizona Diamondbacks
Oakland Athletics
Houston Astros
San Diego Padres
San Francisco Giants
Texas Rangers
Las Angeles Angels
Seattle Mariners



5. Bear with me on my final suggestion. This would be more of a rotating division format, updated every couple years based on past performance. In this setup you would have the most parity and the most fairness. Every league is as competitive as the next. Best 8 or 10 teams make the playoffs every year. 


Ruth Division
Wagner Division
Koufax Division
New York Mets
Boston Red Sox
New York Yankees
Cincinnati Reds
Toronto Blue Jays
Cleveland Indians
Texas Rangers
Milwaukee Brewers
Minnesota Twins
Arizona Diamondbacks
Kansas City Royals
Houston Astros
Seattle Mariners
San Diego Padres
Oakland Athletics
Mays Division
Williams Division
Ryan Division
Philadelphia Phillies
Baltimore Orioles
Tampa Bay Rays
Washington Nationals
Florida Marlins
Detroit Tigers
Atlanta Braves
St. Louis Cardinals
Pittsburgh Pirates
Chicago White Sox
Colorado Rockies
Chicago Cubs
Las Angeles Dodgers
Las Angeles Angels
San Francisco Giants


10 comments:

  1. I don't know anything about baseball, but i see that you did a very nice work on this post.

    Keep it up!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you for the tips these are amazing.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I would be the girl on the SNL skit where she judges which team to choose by how cool they look.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Not totally related but it makes me wonder what the Premier League would be like if it was played in a country as big as the US. I don't think it'd be anywhere near as good.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Excellent post, as a Brewers fan I would love to see some restructuring to the NL central (although we'd probably still choke). It would be awesome to see it based geographically, but like you said the east coast would have a super-division. Your last suggestion with a rotating format would be really interesting, but that is definitely a longshot of something like that happening. Great post, thanks

    ReplyDelete
  6. I always love seeing maps of sports teams. It's interesting seeing where all the cities are and stuff. Baseball has always been so bad when dealing with problems like this, it's funny.

    ReplyDelete