Friday, June 17, 2011
How to Realign Major League Baseball
Rumors have been floating around about the potential for MLB to realign into a system with two 15-team leagues and no divisions. Early rumors have the top five teams from each league making it into a 10-team playoff. I like the idea of balanced leagues, divisions or no divisions. But a system with no divisions has the potential to lessen rivalry.
Early rumor speak of the Houston Astros being the team that would switch from the National League to the American league, creating a natural rivalry with the Texas Rangers. Don't you think we could do better creating natural rivalries than just that one adjustment?
In a division-less League, the Yankees would likely play the Red Sox the same amount of times as the Seattle Mariners. The Chicago Cubs would play the St. Louis Cardinals as often as the Florida Marlins. Creating one natural rivalry, only to lessen a dozen others doesn't seem wise to me.
Let me propose what I believe to be a better system for Major League Baseball that would increase rivalry throughout the league.
Major League Baseball should have no leagues, but three 10-team geographic divisions: East, Central, and West. Where would the teams fall under my system?
East — Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, Florida Marlins, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, Tampa Bay Rays, Toronto Blue Jays, and Washington Nationals
Central — Atlanta Braves, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Indians, Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Royals, Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins and St. Louis, Cardinals
West — Arizona Diamondbacks, Colorado Rockies, Houston Astros, Los Angeles Angles, Los Angeles Dodgers, Oakland Athletics, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants, Seattle Mariners, and Texas Rangers
This geographic divide simply takes the 10 teams furthest to the east, then 10 teams furthest to the west, and then those remaining end up in the Central. Under this system, teams in the East would never have to cross a time zone to play within their division. Those in the Central would have to cross one at most and those in the West will only have to cross two time zones when the Texas teams are involved.
Perhaps you are asking, why does geography matter? Firstly, as a financial concern, less travel means less money. Secondly, and more importantly for baseball fans, for the sake of rivalry. There are some good rivalries in baseball today, but rivalry always grows stronger with proximity. It's a lot easier to hate teams when they are closer to home. Ask somebody who grew up in New York City or Brooklyn (which was its own city at the time) when the Giants, Yankees, and Dodgers all played there. The hate that existed between the fans makes the today's Red Sox and Yankees fans look like they are holding hands.
They say familiarity breeds contempt. Proximity breeds hate. Some of the rivalries created under this system include Cubs vs. White Sox, Yankees vs. Mets, Angels vs. Dodgers, Indians vs. Reds, Twins vs. Brewers, Marlins vs. Rays, and Nationals vs. Orioles. Admittedly, the one team that would suffer from this, losing its rivals and not gaining any to closer proximity, is the Atlanta Braves. So, of course, it isn't perfect. One possible solution would be moving the Pirates to the Central and the Braves to the East. I'd hear arguments for that.
I also think the playoff system could work very well in a three division league. Take the top four teams from each division, creating a 12-team playoff similar to that in the NFL. Give each division winner a first round bye, along with the team with the next best record that didn't win their division. Opening round series would be played between teams ranked 5-12 with 5 playing 12, 6 playing 11, and so on. The lowest seed to win would then play the highest seed with home field advantage always going to the higher ranked team.
Let's do a mock up of this idea as if were taking place this season with results as of Sunday, June 12. While Milwaukee and Atlanta are currently tied, let's give Milwaukee the tiebreaker for simplicity's sake at this point.
East
1. Philadelphia (1 overall)
2. Boston (4 overall)
3. New York Yankees (7 overall)
4. Tampa Bay (10 overall)
Central
1. Milwaukee (2 overall)
1. Atlanta (5 overall)
3. St. Louis (6 overall)
4. Cleveland (9 overall)
West
1. San Francisco (3 overall)
2. Arizona (8 overall)
3. Texas (11 overall)
4. Seattle (12 overall)
First-Round Byes
1. Philadelphia
2. Milwaukee
3. San Francisco
4. Boston
Opening Round
5. Atlanta vs. 12. Seattle
6. St. Louis vs. 11. Texas
7. New York Yankees vs. 10. Tampa Bay
8. Arizona vs. 9. Cleveland
Again for simplicity, let's say that the higher ranked teams won each of the opening series.
Second Round
1. Philadelphia vs. 8. Arizona
2. Milwaukee vs. 7. New York Yankees
3. San Francisco vs. 6. St. Louis
4. Boston vs. 5. Atlanta
One could argue for the bracket being set from there with the winner of Philadelphia vs. Arizona playing the winner of Boston vs. Atlanta etc. Or one could re-adjust the bracket again, making sure the highest seed always plays the lowest seed. I'm not fussed either way.
This system does necessitate change in other areas as well. Firstly, what would the schedule be like? With nine division opponents and twenty inter-division opponents, I'd recommend three games against every non-division opponent (60 games) and 11 games against every division opponent (99 games). This would shorten the season by three games (159), a necessity when dealing with an extra round of playoffs.
Non-division games would be a standard three-game series alternating location each year. Division matchups would alternate with each team between six home, five road games and five home, six road games. This would probably do away with four-game series, creating more two-game series.
Another difficulty would be ever plaguing question: Should we have the pitchers hit or have designated hitters? I see a number of options with this.
1. Uniform system.
Either no pitchers hit or all pitchers hit in every division.
2. Each division votes and chooses.
If the West wants pitchers to hit, they'll hit. If the East wants a DH, they can have one. Home teams call the shots.
3. Each team chooses for themselves and remains that way for the entire season.
If the Cardinals want to keep having their pitchers hit in the Central, so be it. If Boston wants to keep David Ortiz in at DH, so be it. Again, home teams call the shots.
4. Each home team chooses on game day.
I think this would be the most fun. Home teams can be allowed to choose whether or not their pitchers hit on a game by game basis, based on their own pitcher's ability to hit, their own DH options, the opposing team's pitcher's ability to hit, and the opposing team's DH options. I know this would be infuriating to some teams, but it would redefine home field advantage and make winning on the road a real accomplishment. Imagine a playing the Red Sox and being able to effectively bench David Ortiz every time he is on the road. It really has some potential.
The final difficulty I see with this proposal is the All-Star Game. Again, I see a number of options.
1. No All-Star Game.
I know it may not be a popular option, but it is feasible. At this point, the MLB All-Star Game is the best of the four major American team sports. Getting rid of it would at least lead the way for us to not have to sit through another pointless NFL Pro Bowl.
2. Split the Central and play East vs. West.
I don't really like it, but one could easily split any of the divisions in half and make each half join the other divisions. There's no good way to decide which division to split or which teams to send in which direction, but I suppose it's an option.
3. Round robin All-Star Games.
Playing three All-Star Games would be ridiculous, especially if the games meant nothing, but it would allow for greater exposure of relief pitchers as actual all-stars. I don't see any other advantage, though.
4. Unaffiliated All-Star Game.
Again, I think this is the most fun option. Instead of having teams that have to align with a certain league or division, why not have the fans vote for their favorite two of everything, including starting pitchers and coaches, flip a coin for each, and assign them to an unaffiliated all-star team. Have the players and coaches fill in the gaps and just have a good, old-fashioned, fun-loving baseball game. This would allow for Roy Halladay to pitch to Ryan Howard, for King Felix to pitch to Ichiro, or for Joe Mauer to trash talk Justin Morneau as he steps to the plate.
Realignment is never an easy thing to bring about. It requires so much politicking and complaining that I can't imagine my system ever even being considered. But it provides MLB with the opportunity for each ball club to play each other every year, it could save each club money in travel costs and it could help to recreate location based rivalries.