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Monday, May.21/2012

Chuck Booth (Lead Baseball Writer and @chuckbooth3024 on twitter)- Despite being a Yankees fan, I admit the economics of baseball are way out of whack. I was talking with a few other fans about the MLB and thought of a radical new change in division re-alignment that may finally end the disparity between all ball clubs having a chance to make the playoffs each year. Much like soccer, it would kind of be a tier system. Scheduling and travel wise it makes a lot more sense as well. For those hardcore fans I would also make each team play at least 3 games against every other team in the Majors. Let’s see if you like what I have done.

The new AL would feature the bigger payroll teams. I know this break’s up 130 years of tradition but it is time to move into the new millennium.  There would be 15 teams in each league so that would make for 1 Interleague series at all times.  Under this format you could still keep your 2^nd wild card berth.  After you read these Divisions take a look at how I would break up the 162 game schedule-and then demo sampled the natural rivalries playing each other 12 or 19 times still.  I believe this is the fairest and most accurate way to have competitive balance for all of the clubs.  The National League would take a bit of a hit however they should change the All-Star Game to mean nothing for the World Series home advantage.  The team with the best record overall in the regular season should have home field advantage when deciding the World Series and playoff round.  There would be 50 interleague games for each team.  This still only represents 30% of the games folks.  With more teams rotating through the league, the games would remain fresh.  They can still keep the American League and National League Stats separate like the NFL does. Read the rest of this entry →