(05-25-2018 01:46 PM)BePcr07 Wrote:  3 - Divisional Realignment

Assuming Portland from #1 above, I'd move to 4-division setup similar to the NHL. I would prefer maintain the AL/NL split keeping Carolina in the AL, Montreal to the NL, and Nashville to the AL along with shifting around some other teams. However, for this post I'll get rid of the AL/NL and go by geography.

Western Conference
Pacific: Seattle, San Francisco, Oakland, LA Angels, LA Dodgers, San Diego, Arizona, Colorado
Central: Houston, Texas, Kansas City, St. Louis, Minnesota, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Milwaukee

Eastern Conference
Metropolitan: Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Toronto, Pittsburgh, Nashville, Atlanta, Miami
Atlantic: Carolina, Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, NY Yankees, NY Mets, Boston, Montreal

This is a dead letter at this point. Bud Selig proposed something like this about 10 years ago. The western teams supported it but not enough others did.

Selig's idea was to organize the divisions by time zone, as here, in order to make each club's local TV revenue more valuable, because each team would be playing a lot more road games in its own time zone, i.e., more night games starting at 7 or 7:30 local time instead of 4:30 (for western teams playing on the east coast) or 10:30 (for eastern teams playing on the west coast).

The western teams also liked the concept because it would have greatly reduced their travel burdens.

But, it wrecks the traditional AL-NL structure, even if you call one of these leagues the AL and the other the NL. That's a non-starter for baseball tradition-lovers.

Also, the rules of MLB provide that any realignment that involves teams switching leagues must receive both majority approval from all owners and each team that would be moving from one league to the other must agree to the switch. (MLB blackmailed the Astros into agreeing to move to the AL. The team was in the process of being sold, and Selig told them that MLB would only approve the sale if the Astros agreed to switch leagues.) If the above "Western" league is the NL, then you'd have 8 teams moving from AL to NL, and 7 teams moving from NL to AL. All 15 of those teams would have to vote yes on the plan.