03-12-2010, 05:36 PM
Every now and then, a story outside the world of the Chicago Cubs comes up and gets me thinking. Yesterday, there was some news that came out, which stated that baseball Commissioner Bud Selig Was thinking about creating a new alignment system for the divisions in baseball. In this system, the divisions would be separated by factors of the size of a teams payroll, their geography, and if a team wanted to compete this year or if they were in a transition year where they were rebuilding their franchise for years ahead. While I would not be completely against realignment in baseball, I do not think that the idea Selig is pitching is the way to go about mixing things up. While this idea would bring around some change and a little more excitement, there could also be several issue which will come along with this idea,
In the Selig system, a team which knows they have little to no shot of competing for a title can decide that they do not want to play in their current division. For instance, the Pittsburgh Pirates could request to be placed in a division with teams like the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox to insure that they will draw a good sized crowd on a nightly basis. This would work well to help teams draw gate attendance, the problem would come into play, if more than the allowed amount of teams wanted to make a similar move. How would you go about deciding which teams were more worthy and more in need of this change? The next likely step would be to look at the size of the team's payroll who was requesting such a move, and give the team with the lower payroll that opportunity; as long as the move made sense geographically. For example, the San Diego Padres could not request to play in the American League East, because there would be a lot of issues with travel and setting up games. You could also face the possibility of having entirely new divisions on a yearly basis, while also losing out on some of the fan favorite rivalry games. There are many issues with this idea of Selig, which is why I am not for this at all. However, a change could be made, and would be beneficial to baseball. But how to go about changing things is the question.
One reason some fans want to see realignment is because of the whole uneven divisions. Some fans are not quite sure why the National League Central has six teams, while the American League West only has four. Some are not sure why this was done. That is an easy one to answer. Both leagues can not have 15 teams, and have five teams per division. If that were the case, there would be one team from each league off for a small stretch of games. That would extend the season even further into November, unless you played around with the entire schedule and gave Major League Baseball a schedule which was similar to the NFL. That idea would make for some interesting matchups, but is also filled with holes, and would ultimately fail.
The problem with playing interleague all year long, and playing games against every team would severely limit the games against your own league and more specifically, your own division. On average, if you were to play a series on the road and at home against every team in baseball, you would be limited to five games against every team with only 17 games left over, which you could divide up against the teams in your own division. In the case of the Cubs, that would be about three extra games, or one series, against each of your division rivals with two games left over. Could this idea work? I suppose so, but you would miss out on the games with your heated rivals. Cub fans would surely miss playing around 17 games a year against the hated St. Louis Cardinals, even though that would also mean easier games taking their places.
My idea though, would steal a little from Selig's thought process, while also sampling a little bit from the European Football League (we call this soccer). With Selig's plan, you can change divisions every single year based on what you were doing, and how much you were spending. Changing the entire division every year is not the way to go. Making slight changes every year though, would be something very interesting. In the EFL, teams that are among the worst in the league can be sent down to a lower level, while a team among the best in the league would be brought up to replace them. My idea is similar to what they would do, but completely different at the same time. In my thoughts for realignment, we would keep the divisions as they are for the first year, but they would change every year, much like in the Selig plan. Here is how this would work.
At the end of the season, you take the worst team in every division, and send them to the other league where they would replace their counterpart. What this means, is the worst team in the National League West and the worst team in the American League West would switch leagues and divisions. You would follow this same guideline for every other division in baseball. If we were to go off of last years standings, the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Oakland Athletics would trade places, as would the Pirates and the Kansas City Royals, and the Baltimore Oriels and Washington Nationals. This would keep baseball running in the same manor as we are used to, while creating new matchups on a yearly basis. One downside would be the same team going back and forth every year, which could realistically happen. But who is to say that the team that switched leagues wouldn't play better in their new situation? Then a different team would get moved the following year, which would create even more interesting matchups. I am sure the cellar dwellers in the American League East would love to play in a division without the titans of baseball. Could this idea work? I believe this idea would be a great way to change things up tremendously, without throwing the whole system out of whack.
Of course, who says baseball needs to change at all? The change to three divisions and the addition of the wild card upset a lot of fans, and some wish things would go back that way. However, since we are used to the way the divisions are now, and why would teams want to get rid of the Wild Card? Why not just make a minor tweak, which could go a long way to refreshing the game. My idea of realignment is far from perfect, but there are plenty of reasons why making a change like that would benefit the game. New rivalries could be formed, as well as getting to see your favorite team play in parks which you only get to see once every couple of years with the current interleague system. If they must make a change to the divisions, I hope they do not over think things and blow up the game we know and love.
http://worldseriesdreaming.mlblogs.com/arc...-stay-away.html
If you want to read any of my other recent blogs, such as my look at the individual starters at every positin for the 2010 Chicago Cubs, feel free to click my blog link in my profile and share your thoughts. Id post them here as well, but I dont want to take up the whole front page
In the Selig system, a team which knows they have little to no shot of competing for a title can decide that they do not want to play in their current division. For instance, the Pittsburgh Pirates could request to be placed in a division with teams like the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox to insure that they will draw a good sized crowd on a nightly basis. This would work well to help teams draw gate attendance, the problem would come into play, if more than the allowed amount of teams wanted to make a similar move. How would you go about deciding which teams were more worthy and more in need of this change? The next likely step would be to look at the size of the team's payroll who was requesting such a move, and give the team with the lower payroll that opportunity; as long as the move made sense geographically. For example, the San Diego Padres could not request to play in the American League East, because there would be a lot of issues with travel and setting up games. You could also face the possibility of having entirely new divisions on a yearly basis, while also losing out on some of the fan favorite rivalry games. There are many issues with this idea of Selig, which is why I am not for this at all. However, a change could be made, and would be beneficial to baseball. But how to go about changing things is the question.
One reason some fans want to see realignment is because of the whole uneven divisions. Some fans are not quite sure why the National League Central has six teams, while the American League West only has four. Some are not sure why this was done. That is an easy one to answer. Both leagues can not have 15 teams, and have five teams per division. If that were the case, there would be one team from each league off for a small stretch of games. That would extend the season even further into November, unless you played around with the entire schedule and gave Major League Baseball a schedule which was similar to the NFL. That idea would make for some interesting matchups, but is also filled with holes, and would ultimately fail.
The problem with playing interleague all year long, and playing games against every team would severely limit the games against your own league and more specifically, your own division. On average, if you were to play a series on the road and at home against every team in baseball, you would be limited to five games against every team with only 17 games left over, which you could divide up against the teams in your own division. In the case of the Cubs, that would be about three extra games, or one series, against each of your division rivals with two games left over. Could this idea work? I suppose so, but you would miss out on the games with your heated rivals. Cub fans would surely miss playing around 17 games a year against the hated St. Louis Cardinals, even though that would also mean easier games taking their places.
My idea though, would steal a little from Selig's thought process, while also sampling a little bit from the European Football League (we call this soccer). With Selig's plan, you can change divisions every single year based on what you were doing, and how much you were spending. Changing the entire division every year is not the way to go. Making slight changes every year though, would be something very interesting. In the EFL, teams that are among the worst in the league can be sent down to a lower level, while a team among the best in the league would be brought up to replace them. My idea is similar to what they would do, but completely different at the same time. In my thoughts for realignment, we would keep the divisions as they are for the first year, but they would change every year, much like in the Selig plan. Here is how this would work.
At the end of the season, you take the worst team in every division, and send them to the other league where they would replace their counterpart. What this means, is the worst team in the National League West and the worst team in the American League West would switch leagues and divisions. You would follow this same guideline for every other division in baseball. If we were to go off of last years standings, the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Oakland Athletics would trade places, as would the Pirates and the Kansas City Royals, and the Baltimore Oriels and Washington Nationals. This would keep baseball running in the same manor as we are used to, while creating new matchups on a yearly basis. One downside would be the same team going back and forth every year, which could realistically happen. But who is to say that the team that switched leagues wouldn't play better in their new situation? Then a different team would get moved the following year, which would create even more interesting matchups. I am sure the cellar dwellers in the American League East would love to play in a division without the titans of baseball. Could this idea work? I believe this idea would be a great way to change things up tremendously, without throwing the whole system out of whack.
Of course, who says baseball needs to change at all? The change to three divisions and the addition of the wild card upset a lot of fans, and some wish things would go back that way. However, since we are used to the way the divisions are now, and why would teams want to get rid of the Wild Card? Why not just make a minor tweak, which could go a long way to refreshing the game. My idea of realignment is far from perfect, but there are plenty of reasons why making a change like that would benefit the game. New rivalries could be formed, as well as getting to see your favorite team play in parks which you only get to see once every couple of years with the current interleague system. If they must make a change to the divisions, I hope they do not over think things and blow up the game we know and love.
http://worldseriesdreaming.mlblogs.com/arc...-stay-away.html
If you want to read any of my other recent blogs, such as my look at the individual starters at every positin for the 2010 Chicago Cubs, feel free to click my blog link in my profile and share your thoughts. Id post them here as well, but I dont want to take up the whole front page
