MLB Realignment

During the MLB offseason, I always scour the baseball sections of ESPN, FoxSports, etc., and every year they seem to come up with a new radical idea for realignment that they feel would be beneficial. I found two such articles this winter that I want to quickly analyze.

First is David Schoenfield's thoughts, via ESPN, who proposes that the teams in the American League would be changed every year so teams like the Rays, O's and Jays wouldn't be in the same division as the RedSox and Yankees. Cmon now. 5 AL teams (NYY, BOS, LAA, SEA, and OAK) stay in the same division while all the others get to jump around every year. And the National League merely stays the same. Really? That's like saying that the pitcher will bat in one league but not the other (oops!)...its ridiculous!

Then there's Ken Rosenthal's idea from FoxSports.

He mainly focuses on the "necessity" of getting the RedSox and Yankees out of the same division. One scenerio is modest and has the Sox switching division with the Tigers and playing in the AL Central. Another completely jumbles all teams and creates divisions based on a team's location, like the NL Midwest with MIL, CHC, CHW, STL, and KC. But this messes with the historical integrity that baseball loves to base itself off it. I personally don't like the idea of the RedSox and Yankees separated either. Their rivalry is the greatest in sports right now and separating them could really hurt the game. Plus watching them go at it is great entertainment (See Pedro and Don Zimmer ↑)

That brings me to my idea. To warn you, there are some things that I don't know how they'd work, but that's the fun of it. It kind of looks like the NFL's system, but that's working isn't it? I believe that it isn't that far-fetched of an idea, but it would be a miracle if anything like this ever happened. Take a look:

AL East AL North AL South AL West

Baltimore Chi WhiteSox AZ/CO Portland*
Boston Cleveland Kansas City LA Angels
NY Yankees Detroit Las Vegas* Oakland
Toronto Minnesota Texas Seattle

NL East NL North NL South NL West
NY Mets Chi Cubs Atlanta AZ/CO
Philadelphia Cincinnati Florida LA Dodgers
Pittsburgh Milwaukee Houston San Diego
Washington St. Louis Tampa Bay San Francisco

*Denotes expansion team

A little explanation:

• There would be two expansion teams in cities such as Las Vegas, San Antonio, New Orleans, Portland, OK City, Charlotte, Orlando, etc. I picked Vegas and Portland only because I feel those markets would support the team fairly well. Since the AL has two less teams than the NL, they would both be AL teams.
• Tampa Bay would switch leagues with either Arizona or Colorado. This is mostly just for geographical reasons in regards to divisions. All three teams are new teams within the past twenty years, so their move would not mess with the so-called "historical integrity" that so many baseball purists argue. Tampa would probably welcome a move to get out of the NL East and their team seems more built around pitching and defense, a NL trait. Playing in the thin air, Colorado would greatly benefit from an extra hitter, while Arizona might also welcome a move to a weaker division (based off my divisions at least).
  
  
• Going off the historical integrity thing, most teams remain within the same division as they previously had been in. For example, the AL East and NL West would look very similar, only minus one team.
  
  
• The leagues and divisions would finally have the same number of teams. None of this 16 vs. 14 NL to AL ratio or 6 teams in the NL Central and only 4 in the AL West. That is so stupid.
  
  
• I would propose abolishing the DH, but probably wouldn't get enough support. Even though one of the greatest Brewers to ever play, Paul Molitor, was primarily a DH, it's still a no-brainer to get rid of it. If the Brewers were still in the AL, we'd never get to see Yovani Gallardo hit dingers! I HATE THE DH!!!
  
  
• What about the playoffs? There could be a few different scenerios:
  1. Getting rid of the wild card and just going by division winners
  2. Creating an NFL-style Wild Card Series with the top two teams getting byes and well needed rest, while two wild card winners play the other division winners
  3. There is one wild card team and they play the worst division winner in a 5 game series to see who will advance to the division series. The division series is then expanded to a 7-game series.
  4. Any other ideas?

I may think of more, but that's all for now. I'll post later if more ideas come up. Please feel free to comment, I'm very interested to see what everyone thinks!