Nerdlinger
Realignment Enthusiast
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I Root For: Realignment!
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RE: Oakland A's to explore relocation
(06-06-2021 10:05 PM)DawgNBama Wrote: (06-06-2021 08:06 PM)AllTideUp Wrote: (06-06-2021 05:13 PM)Wedge Wrote: (06-06-2021 03:28 PM)Nerdlinger Wrote: (06-06-2021 01:12 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote: if you were going to try to go to 32 and regionalize a bit, So long as none of the expansion teams are out west, here’s what I’d do:
Switch the A’s, Mariners, and Angels to the NL
Switch the Marlins and Braves to the AL, and add both expansion teams to the AL.
Align with the 4 divisions of 8. The NL would look like this:
NL West: Seattle, Oakland, SF, LAA, LAD, SD, Arizona, Colorado
NL East: St Louis, Milwaukee, CHI Cubs, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Washington, NYM
AL Central: Minnesota, CWS, Cleveland, Detroit, Toronto, NYY, Boston, Baltimore
AL South: KC, Texas, Houston, Atlanta, Tampa, Miami, Expansion #1, Expansion #2
It’s a blend of traditional and regional.
Half-measures are rather pointless. You're still separating key geographic rivals (Yankees/Mets, Cubs/White Sox, Reds/Indians, Nationals/Orioles, Brewers/Twins, Cards/Royals).
At least one of the two teams in each of those pairs don't want to be in the same division.
The all-western division makes sense because the western teams have always had far more travel than the rest of MLB and an all-western division would cut that down as much as possible.
As for the rest? Selig pushed the idea of realigning by time zones 10 or 15 years ago -- two eastern divisions, one central, one pacific/mountain. In addition to helping the western teams cut down on travel, Bud's idea was to have each team play more games in its own time zone to make their local TV deals more valuable.
But today, local TV rights on RSNs are dying because so many TV providers have dropped the RSNs. The next model for MLB TV rights might be something like selling a third of each team's games to local free TV so that local fans can watch more games, and putting the rest on MLB.TV with a reasonable per-month or per-season price for fans who only want to watch their local team.
So if there's no big monetary windfall on offer, then you're left with the question of how to convince teams to switch leagues, given that a team can only be switched with its approval. The three AL West teams would agree, and I think the Marlins would agree if you put them in the AL East with the Red Sox and Yankees. I don't know if the Braves or another NL team would agree. And I don't know how MLB owners feel about the 8-team divisions, either. I like the idea, and 8-team divisions are better for competitiveness and scheduling, but some of the usual bottom-feeder clubs might oppose it because they'd rather finish 4th or 5th in a division instead of 7th or 8th.
I'd be shocked if the Braves had any desire to leave the NL.
Fun fact...the Braves and the Cubs are the only two remaining charter members of the NL.
Same here, but I would have thought that the Giants, Dodgers, Reds, and the Pirates would be NL charter members as well.
Braves and Cubs are indeed charter members, joining the NL in its first season, 1876. The Giants and Phillies joined in 1883, the Pirates in 1887, the Dodgers and Reds in 1890, and the Cardinals in 1892.
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