MLB considering scrapping divisions and moving NL team to AL

[Randle McMurphy]

A simple form of realignment has been raised in the labor talks between Major League Baseball and the players' association, according to four sources: two leagues of 15 teams, rather than the current structure of 16 teams in the National League and 14 in the American League.

According to a highly ranked executive, one consideration that has been raised in ownership committee meetings is eliminating the divisions altogether, so that 15 AL and 15 NL teams would vie for five playoff spots within each league. Currently, Major League Baseball has six divisions.

A source who has been briefed on the specifics of the labor discussions says that the players' union has indicated that it is open to the idea of two 15-team leagues, but that the whole plan still hasn't been talked through or presented to the owners.

"I'd still say the odds of it happening are less than 50-50," one source said.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=6651634

This is far more interesting to me than the rumour of the additional playoff spot. Scrapping the divisions and going back to a balanced schedule would finally put the Rays, Jays, and Orioles on an equal playing field to the rest of the league. If teams are really going to be competing for the same wildcard playoff spots, after all, they really should be playing the same schedule.

Of course, I still find it very hard to believe that the league will give up the 18 NYY/BOS games a season for the sake of fairness and equality.

[Schad]

Yeah, I can't see it. For one thing, a 15/15 league split would be nightmarish for scheduling purposes...with most teams in action on most nights, you'd either have to make interleague a year-long thing done on a piecemeal basis, or you'd be hard-pressed to shoehorn in a 162 game season.

And the only way they'd consider diminishing the Sox/Yanks rivalry (and the Cards/Cubs, and Dodgers/Giants, etc) is if there's a rebellion of middle-tier owners who feel that a balanced schedule would boost their income...either because they'd suddenly get more games against top teams who fill stadiums, or because they'd finally have a chance to compete. Unfortunately, the odds of that are extremely long; there are really only three teams playing in a division truly stacked against them, and we're apparently much happier to draw 35k per game eighteen times a year.

[There There]

I'm not sure there is a viable solution to managing 15 team league's... Interleague all season long would probably drive the purists away in droves

But i've been hoping for some time now that they would do away with divisions altogether

Just scrap the divisions and go with the current 14 and 16 leagues until they can figure out whether they either want one more round of expansion or contract two teams

[darth_federer]

Can someone explain why every team doesnt play each other atleast once in the MLB every couple of years atleast? Even if you did a 3 game series for every NL team there are more than enough games for the rest of the AL. The Cubs went to Boston this year for the first time since 1908. Why cant they switch things up so every team plays each other in a 2 year cycle atleast?

[CrymeTime]

I'm not sure there is a viable solution to managing 15 team league's... Interleague all season long would probably drive the purists away in droves

But i've been hoping for some time now that they would do away with divisions altogether

Just scrap the divisions and go with the current 14 and 16 leagues until they can figure out whether they either want one more round of expansion or contract two teams

I would love 15 team leagues. All year around Interleague would be interesting rather than the 1 series in May and 5 in June/July.

1 per month (April to September) would be interesting.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

If they were to remove Interleague, teams would be idle for 3 games. I find this pretty good. Teams could possibly move back to a 4-man rotation, with an extra arm in the bullpen.

If a game is rained out you could could use an Idle day to reschedule, giving the other team a double-header vs 2 different teams. The "idle" team would still have 2 days off.

OR

You could have multiple double-headers (hoping for no rain-outs) vs 2 different teams, Ending one while Starting the next one, to reduce the number of Idle days.

for example

Yankees in town July 20 pm, 21 pm, 22 am
Tigers in town July 22 pm, 23 pm, 24 am

[Yosemite Dan]

I love the idea, it's like the old days where there was no divisions. And get rid of interleague, it's so lame, for every Mets-Yankees series you get stuck with several other stinkers which are pointless. Takes away from the allure of the World Series and All Star games. Unless the 2 rivals are both good then the games mean even less. People are greatly overestimating the significance of a Yankees-Mets series when the Mets usually stink anyways. It's hard for NY fans to get excited if the Mets are also rans.

Giving many small market teams a fair chance to make the post season with a balanced schedule and keep fan interest in those markets is alot more important financially to MLB than sacrificing a few Red Sox-Yankees Games.

MLB had a balanced schedule for decades and they did just fine with it. The Yankees and Sox will still meet each other twice a year if they get rid of the silly interleague games.

[DonVitoMan]

They should do this and just totally scrap interleague play.
straight up conference battles

[Evermore]

MLB should save themselves some travel costs and switch to an East/West format...

[U_Mad]

http://deadspin.com/5811743/our-simple-guide-to-mlb-realignment-or-sorry-seattle-youre-losing-another-team


plz make this happen

[Hoopstarr]

Well, that's just **** stupid in every way.

[number15]

no way Philly agrees to enter that division.... they never make the playoffs

[torontoaces04]

Sign me up.

[LittleOzzy]

I agree with all but Seattle losing their team.

Why not just have San Diego join the Texas teams?

[Avenger]

I actually think there's a good chance of MLB getting rid of divisions. The point about losing Yankee-Red Sox games is pretty questionable, most baseball fans including a ton of Yankee-Red Sox fans are sick of this manufactured crap. Its hard to get people excited for a rivalry when you see each other 18 times a year, the ratings have at best been stagnant and the 18 games a year are killing the rivalry more than anything.

[Hoopstarr]

Not only does that not fix the unbalanced schedule issue but it actually reinforces it. And it screws a fine baseball city and the league out of a valuable team in favor of Oklahoma of all places.

[J.Kim]

Not only does that not fix the unbalanced schedule issue but it actually reinforces it. And it screws a fine baseball city and the league out of a valuable team in favor of Oklahoma of all places.

Not sure if serious....

I'm pretty sure that thing about moving Seattle to Oklahoma was a joke by Deadspin... (as is the overall post which is a semi-joke, especially judging by the comments and the type of posts that Deadspin has made in the past)

[Hoopstarr]

I was serious. Now I just think it was a lame joke.