STLtoday.com

Since the season is basically over I was bored. Here is my proposal for realignment. What would you change?

AL West - Seattle, Portland, Las Vegas, Anaheim-----NL West -Giants, Dodgers, Padres, Diamondbacks--AL Midwest- KC, Colorado, Texas, Houston----- NL Midwest - Cardinals, Cubs, Reds, Brewers----AL Mideast - Twins, White Sox, Detroit, Cleveland---NL Mideast - Atlanta, Nashville, Tampa, Miami ----AL East -Toronto, Baltimore, Yankees, Red Sox----NL East - Mets, Phillies, Pirates, Washington-------No more Wild Cards --4 Division winners each league.---------Maybe eliminate Miami and add maybe Charlotte?

With the understanding that MLB will not do any such thing, I like your idea. I don't like "Mideast" as a division title and would use Great Lakes in the AL and South in the NL. And my plan is more divisional games, several in-league games and fewer inter-league games. Like it used to be. Make the divisional games mean something.

And yeah, no more Wildcards.

I'm afraid if baseball goes to 8 divisions, you'll see both the division winner and the runner up in the playoffs. Just like there should be fewer pitchers on a pitching staff, there should be fewer playoff teams, but MLB ain't goin' back.

freed5179 wrote: ↑17 Aug 2025 23:57 pm I'm afraid if baseball goes to 8 divisions, you'll see both the division winner and the runner up in the playoffs. Just like there should be fewer pitchers on a pitching staff, there should be fewer playoff teams, but MLB ain't goin' back.

Yikes .. So 4 divisions of 4 with the winner and 2nd place teams in each in playoffs So that means 8 of the 16 teams .. 1/2 get in

I can already hear the cry of how the 2nd place team in one division had a worse record than one or more 3rd place teams in another division .
Too bad if you play in a tough division that year I guess . You can win 89 games for 3rd in your division and not qualify while a 85 win team takes 2nd place in another division and they advance.

ramfandan wrote: ↑18 Aug 2025 00:13 am

freed5179 wrote: ↑17 Aug 2025 23:57 pm I'm afraid if baseball goes to 8 divisions, you'll see both the division winner and the runner up in the playoffs. Just like there should be fewer pitchers on a pitching staff, there should be fewer playoff teams, but MLB ain't goin' back.

Yikes .. So 4 divisions of 4 with the winner and 2nd place teams in each in playoffs So that means 8 of the 16 teams .. 1/2 get in

I can already hear the cry of how the 2nd place team in one division had a worse record than one or more 3rd place teams in another division .
Too bad if you play in a tough division that year I guess . You can win 89 games for 3rd in your division and not qualify while a 85 win team takes 2nd place in another division and they advance.

The NBA has 16 teams immediately in the playoffs (and another 4 in a play in tournament) out of 30 teams. The NHL has half of its 32 teams in the playoffs, while the NFL has 14 of 32. This is the path baseball appears to want to go down.

I, myself, do not need a month of playoffs.

freed5179 wrote: ↑18 Aug 2025 00:26 am

ramfandan wrote: ↑18 Aug 2025 00:13 am

freed5179 wrote: ↑17 Aug 2025 23:57 pm I'm afraid if baseball goes to 8 divisions, you'll see both the division winner and the runner up in the playoffs. Just like there should be fewer pitchers on a pitching staff, there should be fewer playoff teams, but MLB ain't goin' back.

Yikes .. So 4 divisions of 4 with the winner and 2nd place teams in each in playoffs So that means 8 of the 16 teams .. 1/2 get in

I can already hear the cry of how the 2nd place team in one division had a worse record than one or more 3rd place teams in another division .
Too bad if you play in a tough division that year I guess . You can win 89 games for 3rd in your division and not qualify while a 85 win team takes 2nd place in another division and they advance.

The NBA has 16 teams immediately in the playoffs (and another 4 in a play in tournament) out of 30 teams. The NHL has half of its 32 teams in the playoffs, while the NFL has 14 of 32. This is the path baseball appears to want to go down.

I, myself, do not need a month of playoffs.

Yeah, playoffs are getting so watered down in every league. Makes the regular season less important, especially in baseball. Letting in 1/2 of the league makes 162 kind of pointless!

ramfandan wrote: ↑18 Aug 2025 00:13 am

freed5179 wrote: ↑17 Aug 2025 23:57 pm I'm afraid if baseball goes to 8 divisions, you'll see both the division winner and the runner up in the playoffs. Just like there should be fewer pitchers on a pitching staff, there should be fewer playoff teams, but MLB ain't goin' back.

Yikes .. So 4 divisions of 4 with the winner and 2nd place teams in each in playoffs So that means 8 of the 16 teams .. 1/2 get in

I can already hear the cry of how the 2nd place team in one division had a worse record than one or more 3rd place teams in another division .
Too bad if you play in a tough division that year I guess . You can win 89 games for 3rd in your division and not qualify while a 85 win team takes 2nd place in another division and they advance.

It would be like like the NBA. At one point there were 16 playoff teams out of 24 total franchises. .400 could get you in, but a very low seed has never won it all.

In MLB meanwhile, the WC teams win pennants all the time.

kscardsfan wrote: ↑17 Aug 2025 21:34 pm Since the season is basically over I was bored. Here is my proposal for realignment. What would you change?

AL West - Seattle, Portland, Las Vegas, Anaheim-----NL West -Giants, Dodgers, Padres, Diamondbacks--AL Midwest- KC, Colorado, Texas, Houston----- NL Midwest - Cardinals, Cubs, Reds, Brewers----AL Mideast - Twins, White Sox, Detroit, Cleveland---NL Mideast - Atlanta, Nashville, Tampa, Miami ----AL East -Toronto, Baltimore, Yankees, Red Sox----NL East - Mets, Phillies, Pirates, Washington-------No more Wild Cards --4 Division winners each league.---------Maybe eliminate Miami and add maybe Charlotte?

I like it. Easy on the eyes. Do it like hockey. Total team wins. Guarantee one team per division, then go by highest wins. One division may get three while one gets one. So be it.

3 leagues. The East, the Central and the West. The top three teams in each league make the playoffs. A bye for the champion in each league while the other two duke it out to see who gets the honor of facing the top team. The winners of each division face off with the tie breakers deciding who gets the bye. Then the eventual championship. Teams wouldn't have to suffer ridiculous travel and crossing time zones. Coast teams with higher payrolls would compete with each other while the poorer Central teams would compete with each other. It'll never happen of course because the fans want to see teams like NY and LA with all their stars. I kind of like the old days when wild cards didn't exist. I know the Cards benefited from it but it cheapens the game somewhat I think.

kscardsfan wrote: ↑17 Aug 2025 21:34 pm Since the season is basically over I was bored. Here is my proposal for realignment. What would you change?

AL West - Seattle, Portland, Las Vegas, Anaheim-----NL West -Giants, Dodgers, Padres, Diamondbacks--AL Midwest- KC, Colorado, Texas, Houston----- NL Midwest - Cardinals, Cubs, Reds, Brewers----AL Mideast - Twins, White Sox, Detroit, Cleveland---NL Mideast - Atlanta, Nashville, Tampa, Miami ----AL East -Toronto, Baltimore, Yankees, Red Sox----NL East - Mets, Phillies, Pirates, Washington-------No more Wild Cards --4 Division winners each league.---------Maybe eliminate Miami and add maybe Charlotte?

It will never work because it makes too much sense. I love the idea of no wildcard.