Buck Showalter's MLB Realignment Plan
by Eli Greenspan on Aug 24, 2009 11:25 AM EDT
27 comments
Buck Showalter recently explained his idea, calling for a realignment of Major League Baseball. Teams play teams in their division too often, especially teams that do not draw numbers.
Realigning baseball and doing an overhaul on the scheduling could change the baseball season. No interleague play, a DH full-time, things could really be exciting.
What do you guys think?
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Why?
They’re called pitchers for a reason.
@bs_uf15bosox9be The Original Gameday; Learn to use SB Nation
Splitting up the Cards and Cubs
is a deal breaker for me
Albert Pujols is ridiculous.
by stlhulsey on Aug 24, 2009 11:52 AM EDT reply actions 1 recs
As a Sox fan...
…I love the Sox/Yanks rivalry. Is 18 times a year too much? Yeah, probably. But 6 times a year is way too few. I’m sure Cubs/Cards fans and all the rest would echo that.
And while ol’ Buck was talking a mile a minute so maybe I missed something, what’s the big deal with everyone being in the same timezone in their division? They only play each other 6 times regardless of what division they’re in. So the Sox will still play the Angels and I’ll still have to stay up until 11 to see the start of the game.
Man I love that tuna casserole.
Exactly.
What’s the point of divisions if everyone plays each other 3 times away and 3 times home?
@bs_uf15bosox9be The Original Gameday; Learn to use SB Nation
Yes.
If every team plays an equal schedule, then why should we have divisions? Just take the top 8 teams in the whole league for the playoffs.
DH Lowell.
by BoldandBrash on Aug 25, 2009 1:36 PM EDT up reply actions
No interleague play, a DH full-time
I don’t like either of these ideas personally. I think it’s fine the way it is.
by Brendan Scolari on Aug 24, 2009 12:21 PM EDT reply actions
Cant see the vid..but
Ive for a long time wanted an NFL style realignment where 2 new teams were added (Las Vegas and Charlotte or Indianaoplis) where there would then be 4 divisions in each league. Play teams in the division 26 times per year, 6 against teams in your leage home and home (3 each) and one interleague series home and home(rival series) and one alternating interleague series home and home…78 games division, 72 games for league games outside of division, 6 games rival series, 6 games other interleague….
It doesn’t really address the fact that schedule makers NEED 4 game and 2 game series to make the schedule work. With teams only playing each other 6 times (3 home, 3 away), you are eliminating that.
Unless you did 2 home, 2 away, and 2 neutral site games.
But that would get even more confusing. Would be kinda awesome to be able to see the rest of the league a little more often.
@bs_uf15bosox9be The Original Gameday; Learn to use SB Nation
I do think the divisions need to be changed up a little, but this is not how it should be done. Right now the two central divisions are just plain weak and up until this year the the al west was really only the angels. Competitive balance needs to be a goal but Buck went over the deep end. It’s also insane that 3 of the 5 best AL teams are in the same division
by McCann's the Man on Aug 24, 2009 2:52 PM EDT reply actions
They're all pretty much in one division right now:
MFY, Rays, Sox, in that order, according to JinAZ’s power rankings on Beyond The Boxscore.
@bs_uf15bosox9be The Original Gameday; Learn to use SB Nation
I think the Angels are better than the rays, sabermetrics just hates the angels for some reason.
by McCann's the Man on Aug 24, 2009 7:46 PM EDT up reply actions
Wow
It pains me to say this but Buck is on crack. While I agree that the divisions could be realigned and it might be a boon to the game, but I had two problems here. 1. that last division is a cluster foul up. From Colorado to Atlanta to Houston that is insane, if you are trying to go regional. 2. This isn’t how the NFL works. They kept saying that but it isn’t true They still have the AFC and NFC and teams still play teams in conference more, because of their divisions. It was just a bad example to go with a whacked out idea.
The Players Union would never go for this...
you cannot just say, “contract two teams”…they tried that years ago and it didn’t work…the players union will never agree to whack 50 jobs, indeed isn’t specified in the last CBA? If you want to renegotiate that when the current deal expires, well, good luck with that.
i agree with buck that teams play way too many games inside the division
1. i’d like to see MLB get rid of divisions altogether and just have two separate leagues.
2. Scheduling is as even as it can be made (some teams can plan an extra game against one another if they have to).
3. three playoff spots per league (the first place team gets a bye through the “divisional” series)
"Look at me! I'm Tomokazu Ohka of the Montreal Expos!"
what the hell is this
how do you have 4 div named for great players….I’m sorry but Ted Williams isn’t one, Ty Cobb isn’t one…..Buck you Suck! both of those players were way better players then Jackie, or Roberto! not to take anything away from their contributions to the game, but if your gonna put the best make it the best! How about a Cy Young div.?
TheBigRib
That last division is more like the division of left overs.
And removing Detroit away from old AL east and AL central rivals is stupid.
I love how drastic the realignment has to be
I’ve been clamoring for years about a realignment, but only to make the AL and NL have the same amount of teams. AL West has 4 teams, NL Central 6. Seems pretty simple to me, move Houston to the AL West. It’s not like Houston has short flights to inter-division rivals as it is – Milwaukee (1004 miles), Chicago (939 miles), St. Louis (678 miles), Pittsburgh (1136 miles), Cincinnati (895 miles) – so why not just make the leagues equal and every division contain 5 teams??
Broad Street Hockey -
Makin' it look mean since 1967.
by Geoff Detweiler on Aug 25, 2009 8:42 PM EDT reply actions
It's not the travel with Houston moving at the AL West
It’s all the West coast games. Outside of playing the Rangers, all the games are in the Pacific Time Zone, 2 hours from the Central Time Zone where the Astros play. It would drive down the fan base having so many games late in the evenings. Kids wouldn’t see games, working professionals couldn’t stay up to watch the game starting at 10pm with work early in the AM.
As an Astros fan, I wouldn’t mind playing the M’s and A’s instead of the Cards and Cubs so many times a year. But it just won’t work for the team
That whole thing was terrible.
Buck doesn’t seem to realize that football has an AFC and an NFC, and that they play an unbalanced schedule in that sport. I’d guess that the backlash if they contracted would be pretty bad.
"We're just as bad as the old Mets, but this time nobody's laughing"
-Dallas Green
I don't know.
It’s an interesting idea but some things, like making the DH full time, make me not so sure how great this system he proposes is. Also, What difference does it make that all the teams in each division makes a difference when you play everybody the same number of times? Another thing, why are the divisions named after old players?
Scott
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