Realignment ideas from Rosenthal

[adice15]

Re: Realignment ideas from Rosenthal

Bumping this because there is a strong possibility of the Rays, Yankees, and Red Sox all winning over 95 games, and one of them not going to the playoffs in place of a central winner that didn't even win 90. There's been a lot of talk about something like that happening, but this is looking like its actually going to happen.

[Mr. Rad]

Re: Realignment ideas from Rosenthal

That's a shame.

Reading through all these proposed realignments... Washington and Baltimore will not be together in a division. They are in separate leagues because of the (rather incorrect) perception of DC/Baltimore being one big shared market.

[GreenReign86]

Re: Realignment ideas from Rosenthal

That makes no sense, Rosenthal has lost his mind. You can not have an odd number of teams in a league, unless you get rid of league play and become like the other 3 major sports. Not to mention breaking up the best rivalry in baseball. The only thing I would do is put the Rockies in the AL West, and the Rangers in the NL Central, then to add parody I would throw the Rays in the NL East, and the Mets in the AL East

[SPTO]

Re: Realignment ideas from Rosenthal

Bumping this because there is a strong possibility of the Rays, Yankees, and Red Sox all winning over 95 games, and one of them not going to the playoffs in place of a central winner that didn't even win 90. There's been a lot of talk about something like that happening, but this is looking like its actually going to happen.

Yeah things like that has happened every once in a while in MLB but it seemed like a once every decade or 15 years kinda deal. Now it seems we're getting situations like this once every 5 years or less (Remember the year the Pads won the West with a putrid record?) Just shows how top heavy the divisions are especially with the AL East.

[BatsareBugs]

Re: Realignment ideas from Rosenthal

Yeah things like that has happened every once in a while in MLB but it seemed like a once every decade or 15 years kinda deal. Now it seems we're getting situations like this once every 5 years or less (Remember the year the Pads won the West with a putrid record?) Just shows how top heavy the divisions are especially with the AL East.

Hey now, remember when the Cardinals also won their division in 2006 (Granted 83-78 is better than 82-80) and they went on to win the World Series?

[SPTO]

Re: Realignment ideas from Rosenthal

Hey now, remember when the Cardinals also won their division in 2006 (Granted 83-78 is better than 82-80) and they went on to win the World Series?

Yep the Twins did something similar in '87.

[adice15]

Re: Realignment ideas from Rosenthal

Since 1995, when the wild card was introduced, the 4 best records in each league made the playoffs only 3 times, or 20% of the time. However, from 1969 to 1993 (excluding 1981), when there was just 2 divisions, the e best records in each league made the playoffs 10 times, or 40%.
That may not seem like much, but keep in mind that during the majority of the 2 division era, only 4 teams made the playoffs out of 26, or about 15%. In the majority of the wild card era, 8 teams made it out of 30, or about 27%.

[Perfect Zero]

Re: Realignment ideas from Rosenthal

This is really stupid, but then again you have to consider the source. The only way any realignment would work is if you added two teams to the American League and created four divisions with four teams each. If the economics were there, it would be a no brainer.

As for the playoffs: This is why you have so many divisional games. If you can't win against the teams in your own division, you don't deserve to go to the playoffs, it's as simple as that. Cutting it down any further just dilutes the regular season and divisional play.

[CMH]

Re: Realignment ideas from Rosenthal

I'm just not in favor of any realignment that is based off current win-loss performance.

Like all sports, things do stay the same (the historically good teams usually always find a way to get back to the top), but other teams will always jump in and out of the mold.

You can't base the future on the present.

However, there is now enough history with the current alignment to prove that the Yankees and Red Sox, most especially, are at an advantage in their division. The Rays are doing their best but at a time when the Yankees and Red Sox are locking in their talented young players, the Rays are talking about a future without Crawford and Pena.

And that's ignoring the Blue Jays and Orioles who have continuously struggled to maintain some consistency.

Now this isn't to take away blame for some front office mistakes that those teams have made, but I do want to acknowledge the difficulties they face.

While I see changes in the other divisions in baseball, I'm having a hard time believing that there will be any shifts in the AL East, especially now that both teams have recognized that signing young free agents is better than grabbing aging veterans.

My main concern is making a dramatic shift in baseball standings because of two teams. There must be a better way to alleviate this issue and I don't think changing divisions around will do much to resolve that. There's still the case of finding ways to increase the revenue of the smaller market teams that are unable to compete financially.

[rsox]

Re: Realignment ideas from Rosenthal

Allowing teams to change divisions so they have a "better" chance of competing is rewarding bad owners like Peter Angelos, who has the money to spend, he just chooses not to. Don't want to compete against the Red Sox and Yankees? no problem just camp out in the AL west for a couple of years and see how you fair.

There are few things that could get me to stop watching Baseball and this is one of them.

[DrJones]

Re: Realignment ideas from Rosenthal

I still think the easiest thing to do is add a second wild card. The two WC then face each other in a one-game playoff (hosted by the WC with the better record) on the Monday or Tuesday after the regular season for the right to play in the Division Series.

This accomplishes several things:

1. No re-alignment necessary.
2. More teams are in the playoff hunt down the stretch.
3. Solves the AL East dilemma.
4. Guarantees at least two dramatic "win or go home" games at the end of the regular season.
5. Provides much more incentive for teams to win their division (in order to avoid both the one-game playoff and the accompanying rotation disruption).

[Starlin4Prez]

Re: Realignment ideas from Rosenthal

There have been more absurd things...like the Memphis Grizzlies in the Western Conference in the Southwest Division.

A couple of these seem too ridiculous. Like both Chicago teams in the NL. Or Boston leaving the AL East. Red Sox vs. Yankees is the biggest money pit for the MLB, why would they take that away.

[vernond]

Re: Realignment ideas from Rosenthal

Anyone who is interested in ways baseball can fix their issues with economics and the current playoff structure should read Fair Ball by Bob Costas it's a very good book although it's about 10 yrs old by now but he has some pretty good ideas.

[SlimKibbles]

Re: Realignment ideas from Rosenthal

Anyone who is interested in ways baseball can fix their issues with economics and the current playoff structure should read Fair Ball by Bob Costas it's a very good book although it's about 10 yrs old by now but he has some pretty good ideas.

I'll second that. Haven't read it in years but he had a lot of great ideas in it.

[Other Guy]

Re: Realignment ideas from Rosenthal

I'll bump this thread as it looks like realignment talks are coming up again...Astros the the AL?

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