As he did with growth, the automated strike zone, on the spot replay, the zombie runner, the golden at bat, and many others. and many others. and many others. over time Rob Manfred opened his mouth in entrance of a microphone and spouted ideas about realignment. And for the previous few days everybody has been speaking about this.
We’ve seen proposals for 4 crew divisions.
There have been folks mentioning 8 crew divisions if/when MLB expands to 32 groups.
Your typical AL/NL north, south, east, and west divisions.
Transferring groups throughout leagues?
Eliminating the leagues all collectively!
All of those concepts have pluses and minuses. Something that basically solely works with growth ought to have to attend till there truly is growth. Bear in mind when the AL West had 4 groups and the NL Central had 6? If there are geographic divisions you then would wish to be sure that these growth groups ended up settled first earlier than you draw up that map. Contemplating we don’t even know for positive that the Athletics will find yourself in Las Vegas or the Rays in Tampa or St. Pete or Orlando – you get the image.
I’ll come proper out and say my private perception is that that is the leagues want to remain. So long as you’re going to have the World Collection it’s a contest between the AL and the NL. It’s not simply two greatest groups that made it via a playoff gauntlet. They may be vestigial labels now however they need to keep.
The one fascinating thought I heard talked about was to do it randomly.
Thirty groups, thirty-two groups, doesn’t matter.
Balanced schedule? Doesn’t’ matter.
So the concept is that this: in August, similar to now, the MLB schedules are launched for the subsequent season. You’d know who you’re enjoying, when, and the place. And what number of instances. Identical to right now. It it had been as much as me, you’d know your league. As a result of I believe that’s nonetheless part of the historical past of the sport to proceed. There isn’t any purpose to combine up the leagues or exchange them with East and West to have some sort of construction to find out, finally, who faces off within the World Collection.
You then’d have your Winter Conferences and free company. Identical to right now.
However in Spring Coaching, divisions could be drawn.
So your division could be disconnected from schedule. However is that basically a difficulty? There’s no purpose Crimson Sox-Yankees, Dodgers-Padres, Mets-Braves and many others couldn’t nonetheless have just a few extra video games, like they do now as a result of they’re in the identical division.
Now, on this instance I’d nonetheless have AL and NL. So the randomness is a little much less.
If you wish to go complete hog although, there are 29 different groups…
However what it will imply is that groups can’t merely “funds down” to their division rivals. Proper now if the Angels suppose the AL West will probably be weak subsequent season, they’ll say “we don’t want yet another reliever.” We’ve see the Minnesota Twins and Cleveland Guardians do that within the AL Central. Heck, the Cubs type of did this over the winter buying and selling Cody Bellinger for wage reduction and are actually getting punished by the Brewers.
It might be wildly totally different. You might have rivals however not know the way vital they had been. You might get a “good draw” or a “unhealthy draw” – stronger or weaker groups. However each crew could be in the identical boat. Your division may, in some situations, embrace the Yankees and Mets and Dodgers and Astros but in addition it could possibly be the Pirates and Rays (in a down yr like 2025).
If I had been commissioner I admit I’d most likely maintain issues near how they’re now. But when I needed to make a change why do cardinal path divisions like the opposite sports activities. Why not swing for the fences and re-imagine the entire thing. It would fail spectacularly however baseball has been going 150 years, there’s time to rethink too and take a look at once more.
