Saturday, June 18, 2011

Will Baseball Realignment Occur?

John Renshaw:
The current format of 16 teams in the National League and 14 teams in the American League will be recreated into 15 teams in each league. In doing so, the playoff system would grow too, resulting in five playoff spots within each league.
Currently, the MLB has six divisions, and a possible consideration will feature three divisions of five teams in each respective league, and not only do I think this is a solid idea, but it will simplify the structure of the MLB.
A no-brainer decision wouldn't be difficult for an ordinary corporation to make, but then again, this is Major League Baseball.
The big sticking point is one National League team will have to relocate to the American League. Many baseball executives believe the likely franchise will be the Houston Astros, which will enhance a rivalry setup with the Texas Rangers.
I'm not a huge proponent of change.  I have yet to attend an interleague game.  But I really like the idea of putting the Astros into the AL West.  That would leave the NL Central and the AL Central as perfectly Midwestern divisions.  The other realignment idea I heard, having two 15 team leagues with no divisions is stupid.  That would require an interleague series every day of the season.  As people were complaining about how the 6 teams in the NL Central really screwed up scheduling for interleague play, all I could think of was that it would be great to get Houston out of the NL Central.  Please make this change.

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