Since the NL Central has 6 teams and the AL West has 4, and since the Astros are the westernmost team in the NL central, should they be moved to the AL West? That way every division would have 5 teams. Just something I was pondering as I looked at the standings today.
That means there would have to be an interleague game every day of the season or else 2 teams would be off every day of the season.
This was talked about when they did realignment. As I recall, McLane was hard against such a move as it would kill any rivalries we had created over the years (Braves, Mets, Reds). I doubt they will move any more teams to different leagues again.
I'm sorry, but aren't you a Yankees fan? You wouldn't understand this. If the Astros went to the Junior Circuit and started playing gimmick ball, I would find another team to root for. MLB wanted to move the Astros to the NL West, but McLane said not to because of the additional Pacific Time Zone road games.
AL baseball and the DH is so boring compared to the NL, so i certainly would vote against this. take that **** away and let all the teams play under the same rules.
As mentioned, if you had 15 teams in each league, you'd have to have at least 1 interleague series going on a time. The MLB obviously didn't want this and decided to put 16 teams in the NL and 14 in the AL. It used to be 14 in both leagues with both West divisions having 4 teams. But Tampa Bay and Arizona joined in 1998. The didn't want Tampa in the NL because Florida was already there and for some reason, they didn't want to put Arizona in the AL too, so they moved Miluakee to the NL.
Forgot: The decision was that one team from the AL Central had the choice to move to the NL Central. The first offer went to Kansas City who elected to stay in the AL. The option to switch leagues was then offered to Milwuakee who accepted. If they had refused, the move would have been offered to Minnesota.
Yeah its really a blast to watch pitchers hit. Let me tell you, i've really been dying to see Wandy Rodriguez and Ian Snell square up on Ben Sheets and John Smoltz. I just get all jittery with anticipation for those match-ups.
thats not really the point... its the late inning situations that make it interesting... should you take out your SP when hes doin good to put a PH in for more runs etc... its real baseball
That would be more balanced, but the Rangers are already in the AL West. They're not going to put both Texas teams in the same division.
It would NOT be balanced unless MLB decides to drastically change the interleague format. With an odd number of teams in each league, there would have to be an interleague game every single day of the season. It is bad enough when teams don't play within their division in September. It would be doubly worse if teams don't even play within their league in September. If they did do something that drastic, why wouldn't they put both Texas teams in the same division? California teams are in the same division.
You can't have an odd number of teams in a league... it doesn't work. Having 1 interleague series for every series throughout the year would kill any sort of "nuance" that the 2 weeks of interleague play provides. As it is, its only real big in NY, Chicago, and LA (and maybe Houston-Arlington). The rest of the rivalries are blah.
I hadn't considered the problem of having an odd number of teams in each league. I guess there are just going to have to be messed up divisions until MLB either expands or contracts.
The Last time the MLB talked about realignment, this was the plan: AL (3 divisions, 1 wildcard) 1 New York Boston Baltimore Toronto 2 Texas Chicago White Sox Detroit Kansas City Minnesota Clevland 3 Arizona Oakland LA Angels Seattle NL (4 divisions. No Wildcard) 1 New York Philadelphia Pittsburgh Washington (Formerly Montreal) 2 Cincinnati Tampa Bay Florida Atlanta 3 St Louis Houston Chicago Cubs Milwaukee 4 San Fransisco LA Dodgers San Diego Colorado The idea was to get Texas out of the Pacific time zone. At the time, Arizona and Tampa Bay could have been moved to the opposite league without their consent but that expansion clause has expired. The plan failed though. No one liked getting rid of the Wild Card in the NL. Awful awful idea.
