MLB – Changes to Postseason and/or Realignment

There has been quite a bit of talk around Major League Baseball about restructuring the divisions and expanding the playoffs. Some feel that not enough teams make the playoffs and some feel having 16 teams in one league and 14 in another is not a great idea. I’ll talk about both the playoffs and realignment and what I think should be done in each case.

Playoffs:

The talk about the playoffs is to possibly add another wild card team. This second wild card team would more than likely take on the other wild card team in either a one or three game set to see who would take on the #1 seed in the league. The good thing about this is that it provides more opportunities for the underdogs to come out on top, but at the same time, the top three teams would be given days off where in the game of baseball, that could do more harm than good, because pitchers and hitters need to stay in a rhythm.

Also, that would make it so 10 out of 30 teams make the postseason, which most people feel is a fair number. However, with a long and grueling season of 162 games, more playoff games and more playoff teams devalues the importance of the regular season. There does not need to be more emphasis on the playoffs in baseball, I feel. If you are going to add more playoff games, then trim the regular season by a few games. A 150 game regular season would be a nice, even number. But I am not a fan of addition without subtraction in this case, because it would cause more wear and tear on pitchers and hitters alike. My final decision: Keep it the way it is. Baseball has never had a ton of playoff teams, and I don’t see why it should JUST because other leagues (NFL, NBA, NHL) have more.

Realignment:

One of the things that has always felt odd to me is the fact that there are 16 NL teams and 14 AL teams. The oddity continues with the fact that the NL Central has 6 teams and the AL West has only 4. That clearly gives teams in the AL (and more specifically, the AL West) an advantage because there are fewer teams to compete against to get into the playoffs. With the NL Central at 6 teams, usually each team in that division has only a 1/6 shot of getting to the playoffs, as opposed to the AL West’s chance of 1/4. To me, that is unfair. If I was a Pirates, Cubs, Cardinals, Astros, Brewers, or Reds fan, I would be rallying for realignment like crazy. But since my favorite team is in the small AL West, I’m not.

However, I believe in a fair game. I do believe each league and each division should have the same number of teams. So there are two options to go with here if you want to fix that: Either move a team from the NL to the AL, or add one team to the NL and one to the AL, then move one from the NL to the AL, so that there are 16 in each league, just like in the NFL there are 16 in each conference.

Moving an NL team to the AL (Diamondbacks, Rockies, and Astros are the likeliest of candidates) would mean each league has 15 teams. It’s even, but then it’s odd. There would be an odd number of teams in each league, which brings up the point why they currently have the 14 and 16 figures in place. With even numbers in each league, interleague is optional and every team can play every day. If they just moved one NL team to the AL, then either interleague would have to be all season or there would have to be at least two teams (one from each league) not playing each day. To me, that method fixes a problem, but also creates even more.

The other method I mentioned is creating two expansion franchises, and to even it out, put one of the expansion teams in each league then move an NL team to the AL. This would make it 16 and 16, and make interleague optional. However, adding two more teams would add 162 more games that umpires would have to referee, that fans would have to attend, which begs the question “Is there room for two more baseball teams?” There are a few cities out there that could probably support a MLB franchise (Portland, Las Vegas, New Orleans, Oklahoma City, San Antonio, and Vancouver/Montreal). But like I said, adding two teams is a huge deal, and if two get added say by 2014, that would mean that six teams would have been added in 21 years.

However, someday, I see expansion happening. If baseball can continue its popularity, it is a definite possibility. Then, they could copy the NFL and have four divisions in each league. Here is my preferred setup for sometime in the future:

AL West:
Seattle Mariners
Oakland A’s
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
Portland Expansion franchise

AL North:
Detroit Tigers
Chicago White Sox
Cleveland Indians
Minnesota Twins

AL South:
Kansas City Royals
Texas Rangers
Tampa Bay Rays
Houston Astros

AL East:
New York Yankees
Boston Red Sox
Toronto Blue Jays
Baltimore Orioles

NL West:
San Francisco Giants
Los Angeles Dodgers
San Diego Padres
Arizona Diamondbacks

NL North:
Colorado Rockies
Milwaukee Brewers
Cincinnati Reds
Chicago Cubs

NL South:
Florida Marlins
Atlanta Braves
St. Louis Cardinals
New Orleans expansion team

NL East:
New York Mets
Pittsburgh Pirates
Philadelphia Phillies
Washington Nationals


So there you have it. Perhaps someday Major League Baseball will look like that. But until they are ready to add two teams, I don’t think any changes should be made at all.