I can appreciate the noble idea of allowing smaller market teams, such as the Rays, an increased chance of obtaining post-season action by moving to a different division, but is this what fans really want? Personally, I relish watching the Rays battle against the Red Sox and Yankees in the same division (toughest) every year.

2008 was that more special because the Rays overcame the best, they displaced the perennial favourites. As a fan, I want to see my team compete against the best as often as possible. Would I sacrifice that and move to the Central Division to play against ‘weaker’ teams in the increased chance of a post-season berth, no. This opinion is solely based on how I, as a Rays fan, would ascertain such a venture. Thus accordingly, I could understand why other teams would like to play more often against the likes of the Yankees, but would the Rays front office agree to lose out on all those sold-out games when the big revenue boys come to town, I don’t think so.

All of the teams wouldn’t be able to come to an agreement each year so the only way I could see this happening would be if there was a random cycle of teams. I believe that the Wildcard gives adequate coverage for post-season inclusion in ‘stronger’ divisions.

AL North
Yankees
Red Sox
Tigers
Twins
White Sox

AL South
Indians
Orioles
Rangers
Royals
Rays

NL North
Mets
Brewers
Cubs
Reds
Pirates

NL South
Phillies
Cardinals
Braves
Natinals
Astros
Marlins

There are too many scenarios to account for and allowing any team to walk to any division at any time, just seems weird.

thus allowing the Yanks and Sox to walk into the playoffs every year?

Sound about right.

Problem solved.

I feel that MLB doesn’t care about the smaller market teams winning. I think that the MLB would rather year in and year out having the New Yorks and LAs in world play for the World Series. Why realign? When on the off chance that a Twins, Marlins, Rays, or Brewers team gets close to the World Series the media can play the “small-town Hollywood underdog card.”

This whole “floating” alignment is great fodder like implementing a bright yellow ball in night-games. So realignment will be talked about instead of talking about a balanced schedule or a different playoff system.

Finally, I don’t want realignment, at least not a floating realignment. The Rays will always be in the southeast. If the Rays are to be placed in a different league, it should be in the NL east. So, unless we are talking NL east change, let’s not talk at all. Plus, there is something really sweet about punching the rich kid in the mouth and winning the big bad AL East.

Scrap realignment, balance the schedule and get rid of divisions. The 4 best teams in the AL and the NL reach the playoffs…simple.

What kind of message would this send to the fans if their team chose to play in the ALE? I think it would hurt attendance because management is basically giving up on the season before it starts.

I can’t see any radical changes happening.

I’m much more interested in smaller things that could make the game better.

Ways to speed the game up:
-limited throwovers (you get 1 or 2 and then every time you throw over it’s a ball)
-actually enforcing the pitchclock
-no stepping out of the box

Ways to “fix” umpiring:
-use pitchFX to grade umps
-hold umps accountable
-get rid of stupid rules limiting WS games umped (allows the best to do it)
-incentivize being a good ump (financially and possibley rewards)
-get rid of bad ones
-limited use of replay

Replay and pitchFX are a HUGE bargaining tool for MLB w/ the umpire’s union. They need to use them to hold these guys accountable. There’s no reason for them to still be doing games if they can’t get the calls right. Pay ’em a bit more for less years and hook it on the retirement plan.

I’d rather see a salary cap to make things more competitive.

There are so many flaws with that plan, I don’t know where to begin. Most have been mentioned above.

but this will never happen

No way they split these teams up.
It just seems fundamentally wrong to do this

what about something where if you play in the ALE then you get a break on what you would have to pay as far as revenue sharing. Say only 70% of RS dollars have to be paid. For instance, if you’re the Yankees and you owe 100M in RS, you now only owe 70M. This would entice teams like Boston, Philly, Cubs, and other high payroll teams to play in that division, which should get the best teams facing each other. Tier 2 would be like a 15% break on RS dollars owed and Tier 3 would be no kickback and Tier 4 could give teams a 15% bump in RS dollars received. Teams that aren’t in danger of exceeding the cap would want to play in Tiers 3 & 4.

Each winner of a tier and 2 wild cards would get into the playoffs. The fans would get to see some exciting baseball in Tier 1 and lots of young talent in the lower tiers. The fans can also hold their team accountable if they just sit in Tier 4 the whole time as they are obviously just going after the RS dollars. Tiers 1 & 4 could have 8 teams apiece, while 2 & 3 would have 7. I know this isn’t a well-thought idea as I just conceived it, with a million flaws, but would the crux of the idea be something that you guys would like to see?

?!!!

It seems fairly ridiculous and complicated to actually implement, but at least it means they’re willing to talk about making some changes. And here’s the breakdown of the people involved (according to the USA Today at least):

“The gathering was inspired by baseball Commissioner Bud Selig’s committee to improve the game, a group consisting of four managers, eight current and former executives, one Hall of Fame player and a writer.”

I think simpler is better and doing away with the divisions sounds like the best overall plan to me. Balancing the schedule would go a long ways to help too, though.

Two systems of putting games together, but I need time to fully flesh it out. The main traditional AL/NL alignment, and a geographical alignment to satisfy interleague curiosities. Records and playoffs would still be determined by the traditional AL/NL alignment, but teams would also be divided into geographical pods regardless of traditional leagues to play each other. This idea is inspired by the play format of the provisional US Soccer Division 2 League.

With constant AL/NL interleague games possible, it would also allow the Brewers to return to the AL and even the leagues at 15 a piece, the divisions at 5 a piece.

I’ll have a write-up here in the threads tonight.

Have and East and West conference style like the NBA and NHL

Northeast

Toronto
NYY
NYM
Bos
Philly

Southeast

Baltimore
Washington
Braves
Rays
Marlins

Northwest

Seattle
San Fran
Oakland
Colorado
Minnesota

Southwest

Anaheim
Los Angeles
San Diego
Arizona

Midwest

St Louis
Kansas City
White Sox
Cubs
Milwaukee

North

Cleveland
Detroit
Pittsburgh
Cincy

You get the idea. I can’t figure out where to put the Texas teams.

But play everyone and play the teams in your division just slightly more than the others. Play in your conference more than out of conference. Out of conference you play one home and one road series vs each team.

That would go a long way to fixing the competetive balance. Its not just being in the division with Boston and NYY that makes it tough. Its that we play 36 games vs them and have to compete for the wild card with teams playing completely different schedules. It just makes no sense.

You don’t change the game to appeal to the masses. That’s the surest way to lose the fans that pay the bills.