It is time to expand the number of teams to 32 in Major League Baseball...starting in 2009-10.
- Add two teams: New Orleans and Las Vegas.
- Move Arizona to the American League, joining Las Vegas in that league.
- Both cities have minor league teams - Las Vegas would be a haven for MLB -and both need an economic boost. New Orleans has the opportunity to utilize the Superdome until either: a) a new stadium is built b) The Saints move West c) the hurricane threat is addressed correctly.
- LSU College Baseball has been the #1 attendance draw in the NCAA baseball in 2004 and 2005. This reflects the market is present for a successful baseball arena.
- Arrange the teams geographically. This develops stronger rivalries.
- Inter Division games of 24 apiece x 3 teams equals = 72 games
Same League games of 6 apiece x 12 teams equals = 72 games
Intra- league play of 3 games x 4 teams equals - 12 games
Intra- league play of 6 games x 1 team (same city or geographical rival) = 6 games. - Playoff format:
5 teams (4 division winners and 1 wild card - with the highest record of 2nd place teams)
Lowest 2 teams (#4 seed and Wild Card) play best of 3 game series.
Divisional round: #1 seed versus wildcard winner in best 5 games. #2 -#3 seed play best of 5 games.
Winners play best of 7 for League Championship.
7 game World Series - no homefield decided by the ALL Star game. Best Record holds home field. - Due to the rescheduling, series can be longer, and cut down on extra travel. For example, playing 24 games against your rivals means that 4 game series are the norm. Instead of 8 three games sets, now you need only 6-four game tilts. Two less series, less travel. Environmentally friendly...
- In the league match ups, rotate the home/away from year to year. Six game sets - one week including the off day. This ideally allows for makeup dates, doubleheaders and the rainout date at the end of the trip. This cuts travel by 50%.
Arranging this sort of schedule is easier, cuts out 2-game sets that are wasteful. Also the realignment (not show, but exists in my head) is ideally suited to maximize competitive balance and rivalries.
Taking a crack at the Divisions:
ReplyDeleteAL Easr: Bos, NY, Bal, TB
AL South: Tex, KC, Ariz, LV
AL North: Tor, Det, Cle, Chi
AL West: Min, Sea, Oak, LA
NL East: NY, Phil, DC, Pit
NL South: Atl, Fla, NO, Hou
NL North: Cin, Chi, Mil, Stl
NL West: Colo, LA, SD, SF
I like the natural NL alignments much better.
I Love all of the ideas to modify baseball and here is what I came up with as far as a plan. it just seems that about 15 of the teams are dead money and have no chance at the post season.
ReplyDeleteYou can review my plan that i sent to Bud Selig and the MLB owners at:
http://thefairball.com/2009/06/mlb-realignment-plan/
I lobby for divisions based on Payroll and Geogragphy with adding 2 more teams to the playoffs to get a total of 6 per League.
Here is how the divisions would lay out to start.
Team Payroll
avr Rank
New York Yankees 1
Boston Red Sox 2
New York Mets 3
Philadelphia Phillies 9
Los Angeles Angels 4
Los Angeles Dodgers 5
Seattle Mariners 7
San Francisco Giants 13
Chicago White Sox 8
Chicago Cubs 6
St. Louis Cardinals 11
Houston Astros 14
Atlanta Braves 10
Baltimore Orioles 15
Toronto Blue Jays 16
Detroit Tigers 12
San Diego Padres 17
Arizona Diamondbacks 19
Oakland Athletics 22
Expansion #1 31Portland
Minnesota Twins 21
Milwaukee Brewers 23
Texas Rangers 18
Expansion #2 32 San Antonio
Cleveland Indians 25
Cincinnati Reds 20
Colorado Rockies 24
Kansas City Royals 26
Florida Marlins 29
Tampa Bay Rays 30
Washington Nationals 27
Pittsburgh Pirates 28
This way you would be groped with teams who have like payroll. So you would have 4 division winners and 2 wild cards.
Basically the more you spend on payroll that impacts who you play in your division.
I don't know that I like have baseball's oldest team (the Braves) in a division where the next oldest team is the Astros. The Braves and Mets are big rivals, so this might be tricky.
ReplyDelete