Competitive integrity demands more than just realignment

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/expanding-mlb-playoffs-focus-on-fairness/#more-53038

As this Dave Cameron (FanGraphs) column explains, much of the realignment conversation is rooted in this idea that uneven divisions is inherently unfair.

I'd like to propose that, yes, that's true, but if that premise is a valid one--that the game is suffering from some inequities keeping some number of teams every year from competing for a championship, and further, that those inequities are solvable--then, why would we stop at realignment?

Perhaps like you, I've been reading realignment ideas and other ideas for healing MLB ills for years, but this concept is is vastly superior to anything else being talked about right now because it

(1) Deals with the reality of 30 teams (doesn't imagine wild thoughts about sudden expansion or sudden contraction)...

(2) Places every team, not just 27, 28 or 29, in a division where they are historically and geographically well-suited...

(3) Resolves a situation in which about 20 of 30 teams end up with a really lousy August and September... arguably only reducing that to "just" lousy as opposed to "really" lousy, but nonetheless, it's a net-plus... and...

(4) Expands all that is fun about September pennant chases to be the state-of-play for not only September, but backing up into August, and into July(!).

This is nothing short of a 162-game gauntlet, and an ENHANCED one, at that, in comparison to what we currently have in MLB...that is, because unlike what you currently have, under Coherent Restructuring, teams can't just be good for a couple of months of the season and squeak into the playoffs...No, they have to be good enough in Apr-Jul, then good enough in Aug, then good enough in Sep... and only then do they make the playoffs.

And finally (5), relevant to the title of this article, this addresses the other salient issues regarding competitive integrity: first, market inequities which can be resolved by balancing the increased capacity of some teams to acquire talent through free agency with, on the other hand, increasing the capacity of other teams to acquire and develop talent through their farm system; and second, the designated hitter rule, which among other things, reduces the game's world championship to an experiment that indicates the game's better rule (ie, to have a DH or not), as opposed to its assumed purpose to determine the game's best team.

Ambitious? Yes.

But when is something significant and worth doing not ambitious? Millions of grassroots movements are attempted every year, no doubt, and no doubt only dozens of those ever end up being plausibly productive. All we can do is try... and try, we will, to get this into the hands of someone of some influence so that, at least, it gets a chance in front of a legitimate audience. The more extensive the grassroots, of course, the more plausible that becomes.

If you're not ready to jump on-board, those of us who have invite you to be a skeptic--ask questions and probe further. A direct e-mail address is listed at the end of the Flash movie.