Another MLB Idea

There is just something about two 15 team leagues that annoys me.  Also, with only 5 teams in a division, it is easy to get five crappy teams in the division, leaving a weak division winner, while divisions like the AL East seem to be just top heavy.  Look at the NFL ... how many people were annoyed to see the 7-9 Seattle Seahawks host a playoff game?  Put more than 4 teams in that division and it becomes harder for that to happen.

Anyway, we also have another problem.  A lot of teams are just placed in crappy markets, where they cannot generate enough fan base or revenue.  Yeah, they may have smart management, but it isn't a sustainable model, and long term it seems foolish to fight the reality that their market is not big enough to support a major league baseball franchise.

Also, the schedule is currently unfair as teams in the same division do not even play the same opponents, and the travel is all out of whack with teams playing two games away then two games home and all, or breaking up 6 away games verses an opponent to 2 and 4.  An most series are broken up into an odd number of games with teams getting more home games than away games verses most opponents.  Take my Cardinals for example:  They started the season with a 1 game series against the Marlins.  One game!!!  They play the Mets 7 times, 3 home, 4 away.  They play the Astros 15 times, 6 home and 9 away.  It makes no sense.

To that end, I have another radical idea:

Contraction
First, we need to dump the three worst markets:  Tampa Bay, Miami and Oakland.  Sorry Miami, I know you just built a new stadium, but your attendance figures have always sucked and been at or near the bottom of the league since your inception, even in years you were winning.  The market sucks.  Therefore, fold the Miami and Tampa Bay franchises, and let the Athletics move back to Philadelphia where they are originally from.  Philly is like Chicago and New York, it is so big, and the fans are so ravenous, that they deserve two franchises.  Heck, ever the Washington/Baltimore market has two teams, and they both are still doing well.  Philadelphia residents deserve a second team, and it won't hurt the Phillies draw, just as the Mets don't hurt the Yankees.

Realignment
Second, realign the leagues into regional conferences.  It will allow for less travel, which will be better on the players, and help develop better regional rivalries.  However, the differences in the leagues can and should be maintained (i.e. the DH).  So here is how the league would break out:

Western Conference:
National Division (i.e. no DH):  SF, COL, LAD, SD, ARI, STL, CHC
American Division (i.e. DH):  SEA, LAA, TEX, KC, MIN, CHW, HOU

Eastern Conference:
National Division: NYM, PHP, ATL, WAS, PIT, CIN, MIL
American Division: NYY, BOS, TOR, BAL, PHA, CLE, DET

Houston still switches conferences (though I'd prefer if it was MIL because that's where they're originally from, but it makes already difficult conference alignments even more difficult).  The idea is to try and keep all EST time zone teams in the East, so MIL is the only non-East timezone team. 

I already can hear your complaints: 

1. Because you moved OAK to PHA, you took a team out of the West and forced a Chicago and/or St. Louis team there.  Well, if you leave OAK, that pushes either CHW or MIN to the East.  MIN is actually further west than St. Louis and Chicago, so that is not happening.  If you move CHW to the East, then why is it fair that CHC is in the West.  So then you flop MIL and CHC since they are pretty much on the same longitude, but now you split up the historical STL/CHC rivalry.  And if you try to move STL to the east as well, you run into a lot of problems because all the other Eastern teams are in the eastern timezone.  In sum, you really need to keep CHW/CHC/STL all in same conference.  Leaving Athletics in OAK makes only room for two teams in the Eastern Conference.
2. It's unfair that Central Time Zone teams now have to go two hours west, rather than be partnered with east teams one hour away.  However, there are now 7 Central Time Zone teams:  TEX, HOU, KC, MIN, CHW, CHC, STL.  You've just made it better for TEX and HOU, lessened the damage to the other teams now moved west.  Heck ARI is not even in a time zone, so it could be one or two hours depending on where they elect to be on that given day ... 
3. Won't this destroy the DH?  No, because of my next point ....

Rules and Schedule
All teams will maintain their same league rules.  That is why I'm calling the Divisions National and American.  All games will be played by the home teams' rules (i.e. DH v. non-DH).  To account for the increase in "interleague" play, the major league rosters for every team will be expanded by 2 players to allow teams to get that extra DH-type player or bullpen arm they need for playing the other "league" more often.  This will also allow for the other teams to better absorb the two contracted teams.  The 40 man roster should be expanded accordingly as well.

The schedule will be as follows:

1. Each team will play teams in their division 10 times.  Five home, five away, broken up into three and two games series as detailed below.  However, they will play four of those teams 11 times, three and three once and three and two the other time.  (This is the one concession to uneven home/away games, but it will only happen four times rather than the crap-ton of times it happens now.)
2. Each team will play teams in the other division within their conference 6 times, a home and home series of 3 games a piece.  (42 total games)
3. Each team will play teams in the other conference teams 4 times, a home and home series of 2 games a piece. (56 total games).  However, to ameliorate the travel concerns, the two game pairings will be structured to minimize travel, unlike now where a two game homestand can be played in St. Louis, then the a two game stand in San Francisco immediately following.  See below.

To work this out, teams will have home/away stands in week blocks. 

1. They may get back to back home blocks or away blocks, but Monday through Sunday will always be all home or all away.  Additionally, the blocks will either be all in-division or all out of division.
2. In an out of division week, a team's schedule will always be Monday through Thursday playing games against other conference teams, and Friday through Sunday playing other division teams.
3. The out of division Monday through Thursday games will be based upon the away team's travel schedule, in order to minimize travel.  The two away games will always be pairs of close cities as follows: STL/KC, LAD/LAA, TEX/HOU, SD/ARI, CHC/CHW, COL/MIN, SF/SEA, NYY/NYM, PHP/PHA, WAS/BAL, CIN/CLE, DET/MIL, PIT/ATL, BOS/TOR.
4. The in-division weeks will have a lot more off days.  If it is a two game weekday series, then the games will be played Tuesday and Wednesday, leaving Monday and Thursday off, with a regular three game stand over the weekend.  If it is a three game week day series, only Monday or Thursday will be off.
5. Ideally, in-division and out of division weeks will alternate to ensure there are not too many days in a row of baseball, but obviously sometimes a team will have to play two out of division weeks in a row, but it will make is so that there is no more than 17 straight total games (unlike the 20 game marathon the Cardinals just finished up).

Playoffs

Each division winner makes the playoffs.  The second and third place teams from a division also qualify as wild cards (making 6 teams per conference, for a total of 12 teams).  Any tie-break games are played on Monday.  If necessary, a second tie-break game is Tuesday. 

On Wednesday, 2nd and 3rd place in the division play a one game playoff against each other, the winner advances to play the 1st place team from the other division in their conference in a best of 5 (2/2/1) series.  The winners play a 7 game championship series.  The home team's rules apply.

For the World Series, the best record gets home field advantage.  The All-Star game is a farce and needs to be recognized as such.

Conclusion


The purpose of this change is to even out the playing field so that teams in the same division play the same opponents as equally as possible and play each other on more even terms.  It also allows every team to play every other team, allowing fans to see players from all teams come into town every season.  It also sets things up regionally to cut down on travel or minimize it as much as possible, while also setting up more regional rivalries.  Finally, it preserves the differences between the leagues while allowing for more regional centralization.  It also makes it harder for weak teams to make the playoffs and get home field advantage because they play in weak divisions.

Just like my relegation idea, this will never happen.  But it is fun to throw the idea out there.