I've been hearing about this today and finally tracked down an article. I pray it doesn't come to this:
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that the dumbest thing i've ever heardComment -
like that idea a lotComment -
David Schoenfield at ESPN had a similar article about this a month or so ago, so if anything it shows you how slow Tom Verducci at SI can be. The idea is so crazy that at first I can't believe anyone is serious about it, and then I remember that we're talking about the baseball owners.
Note the "no sacred cows" bit. Someone ask the committee and/or Selig if there is any possible way the Red Sox and Yankees would ever be split up and not in the same division. Then vome talk to me about sacred cows.
I am in favor of realignment (to six, five-team divisions) and an overhaul to the schedule (getting rid of the fcuked-up interleague rivals crap). I'd move Houston to the AL West, either them or Kansas City (with Milwaukee going to AL Central in that case). I really don't want my Asotrs to become an AL club, but it makes the most sense geographically. The Rangers get screwed year-in, year-out on the present alignment. Can you imagine the Yankees being in a division with tams all two time zones away? (LINK)Comment -
I like the idea myself would be great to see other teams contend in the same division against the super powers such as the yanks and red sox.Comment -
I like the idea. It's an "outside" of the box approach. Something baseball desperately needs!Comment -
Might not be the dumbest thing I've ever heard, but it is right up there!
Baseball's competitive balance can be fixed in 10 minutes with the right salary structure in place. But, of course, there are so many parties involved and they only have their selfish interests in mind.
With the exception of providing a great avenue for making money, MLB just serves no other useful purpose to me.Comment -
Interesting idea, but also an awful idea. I'd hate to see teams switched in to different divisions leaving the same division as their rivals. Just an all around bad idea IMO.Comment -
Wow that sounds like a really bad idea, Bud you messed the game up enough, just retireComment -
Trying to leave a legacy to cover up for the All-star game mistake.
I think there definitely has to be some boundaries put on this (more so than just the timezones) and not just free reign to go to whichever division you'd like. I think the big clubs would still want to be with other big clubs (more games against top opponents draws more fans, as opposed to winning against the nationals and pirates and drawing 2/3 full stadiums), yet at the same time, consistently playing top teams would mean a lower win% and less chance at playoffs which means less $$.
I really don't know how they could pull this off to be honest. Majority vote to approve moves would never work (do trades in Fantasy baseball ever not get vetoed?), and there would be tons of resentment towards the commissioner (if it's Selig, he deserves it) if he were the one making the decisions.
Quite the interesting topic, but I think the floating realignment would be tough to implement. I wouldn't mind moving the brewers outa the NL central. With Braun, Fielder, Gallardo, Gamel, Escobar and soon Brett Lawrie, they will have a nice core of talent in the field and can cause some problems to the Cubbies if they somehow manage to get some young talent for their aging stars and stay competitive.Comment -
If that's what is driving Bud Selig's decision-making process, then he's got to be an incredibly insecure person. And anyone who blames Bud for the tie in the '02 game can't see the forest for the trees. Thinking he had to make up for that with the decision to give home-field to the winning league, yeah, that was a mistake. The tie never bothered me since it was a FCUKIN' EXHIBITION GAME! How many fans go nutso when Spring Training games are suspended after 10-11 innings?
An ever-changing alignment of the divisions would be ridiculous and the only reason I can think of that MLB brass believes it to be a good idea is so they can further skew the regular season schedules and do their best to guarantee the New York's, Chicago's and LA's an advantage getting to the postseason.Comment -
I thought it was April's Fools when I read it. A better idea would be to not have any divisions at all and the ones with better records go to playoffs. Each team plays all others equal amount of games at home and on the road. They use this format in soccer.Comment -
Great idea in theory but just will not work out...it would piss off so many people it wouldn't even get voted on.Comment -
baseball needs relegation. I used to be an avid fan, years ago, but with so many other options out there, the sport just bores me to tears these days and has so for years now.
send down one team a season.Comment -
Baseball needs contraction and a salary floor. Remove 2 teams (Tampa Bay and/or Florida, maybe Padres or Astros), and mandate that a team must spend at least $55 million on their roster over a 5 year period or they must pay a luxury tax. The problem isn't so much the Red Sox and Yankees extra money, it is the small-revenue teams making a profit from luxury taxes by not spending.Comment -
I've been screaming that realignment needs to happen for years. There cannot be competitive balance when one division (NL Central) has 6 teams and another (AL West) has 4. 16 NL teams and 14 AL teams makes no sense. I actually think the Astros would be the logical club to switch. It would balance things out very well.Comment -
Pavy,
That actually makes a lot of sense. Agree with you on this one.Comment -
I don't think that this will fix the problem that the Yankees and Red Sox almost always make the playoffs. If anything it makes it easier. Using the example from the article, the AL East under this plan could look something like this:
Red Sox
Yankees
Orioles
Royals
Indians
With almost 1/3 of their games against those 3 teams, or caliber of teams, how would the Red Sox and Yankees not go the playoffs every year?Comment -
After thinking it over, it's not as bad of an idea as everyone is making it out to be. The one thing it could promote though is tanking. Why wouldn't Toronto or Baltimore tank games to get out of the AL East?Comment -
yep yepComment -
that is the ****in dumbest thing everComment -
They don't need to realign the divisions. All they need to do is add 2 more wild card teams to each league. You'd have a total of 6 teams from each league making the playoffs, with 3 of them being wild card teams that could possibly all come from the same division. The first round of the playoffs would be a best 3 outta 5, with the top two teams in each league receiving a bye.Comment -
Well, for four of the six divisions it's 18. It's 19 in the AL West, and anywhere from 15-18 in the NL Central. Until the asshats that are in charge of the scheduling can level that out, I sure as hell don't want the Chief Asshat realigning the divisions and screwing things up even more.Comment -
Stupid idea. How bout just a salary cap??
For obvious reasons, MLB or any existing pro league can't go this format, but how cool would relegation be like they do in England for soccer?Comment
