Realignment/Expansion

[Bananarchy]

Some have projected that the Austin-San Antonio corridor would be a top 10 market by 2050.

 

Problem is, if you built a stadium between Austin and San Antonio, the north of Austin (where the money is made) and the south of San Antonio would struggle to get to the games.

 

 

And count me as AGAINST any alignment that puts the Cubs in our division. The Cubs bring out the stupid among Sox fans.

Edited October 18, 2017 by Sox-35th

[Eminor3rd]

Another pretty radical, yet common sense idea for expansion... Add another team to the NYC market. If you divide the entire metro area by just the Mets and Yankees, it is still MUCH bigger than pretty much any other teams solo market place. Dividing that market up again might do more for rebalancing finances in baseball than anything else.

 

It definitely makes sense on paper, but there's just no way in a billion years the Yankees and Mets would EVER agree to that. It's literally just agreeing to give up vast amounts money, present and future, to someone else.

[Swingandalongonetoleft]

I'm still getting used to Houston in the AL. Not a fan of adding even more teams, but even more opposed to realignment- especially one as radical as proposed.

[Tnetennba]

Any expansion/realignment talk that reduces the DH is a non-starter for me. Universal DH! (no one really wants to see their starter batting 3+ times per game. get real.)

 

Sort out the Oakland and Tampa stadium/attendance issues first and then we can talk about adding teams.

 

If we are adding, Montreal is numero uno. Portland is worth exploring. I draw a blank as to where else is feasible.

 

I am absolutely 100% vehemently against the dissolution of the AL/NL as I do NOT want to deal with the jackass northsiders in the same division etc etc.

 

I also hate the two Wildcards. 3 divisions + WC or 4 divisions, no WC - please.

[Boopa1219]

I hate that the Astros aren't a NL team anymore, they should be in the NL West and the Rockies should be an AL team.

[credezcrew24]

Any expansion/realignment talk that reduces the DH is a non-starter for me. Universal DH! (no one really wants to see their starter batting 3+ times per game. get real.)

 

Sort out the Oakland and Tampa stadium/attendance issues first and then we can talk about adding teams.

 

If we are adding, Montreal is numero uno. Portland is worth exploring. I draw a blank as to where else is feasible.

 

I am absolutely 100% vehemently against the dissolution of the AL/NL as I do NOT want to deal with the jackass northsiders in the same division etc etc.

 

I also hate the two Wildcards. 3 divisions + WC or 4 divisions, no WC - please.

 

The best part of the whole NLCS happened yesterday when Yu Darvish was at the plate. Or how about the Mat Albers double last year? That kind of fun doesn't happen with the DH. Plus the DH takes away a lot of the strategy. So yes there are people who like to see pitchers hit.

 

[Reddy]

Only a bummer for out of town fans like me who love it when the Sox played the Yankees/Mets or now the Orioles/Nats.

 

Otherwise it's all pretty interesting.

[iamshack]

I'd hate if this brought about the end of the DH because I despise watching pitchers attempt to hit. I hope that it goes the other way. I dont know what the hell people find entertaining about pitchers being an automatic out, for all intents and purposes.

Agreed about watching pitchers hit, but the strategies employed to avoid having to have pitchers hit is the beauty of the NL game.

[iamshack]

Even if you divided up the market with a very minor share, it is still bigger than lots of other places. The NYC metro area is estimated at right about 20 million. Even if you divided it up with an extreme share say 5/8 Yankees, 3/8 mets and 1/8 New Team, that still leaves them with 2.5 million people to choose from which is bigger than KC Metro at 2.15 million, and Cleveland at a touch over 2 million. That is how big that market is when compared to everyone else.

I don't think that share is extreme. I actually think it is quite conservative. I suspect it might start more like 15/24 Yankees, 7/24 Mets, and 1/24 New Team.

[Quin]

The best part of the whole NLCS happened yesterday when Yu Darvish was at the plate. Or how about the Mat Albers double last year? That kind of fun doesn't happen with the DH. Plus the DH takes away a lot of the strategy. So yes there are people who like to see pitchers hit.

 

Yeah, but Jim Thome and Frank Thomas are more fun to watch hit.

[jenksycat]

Yeah, but Jim Thome and Frank Thomas are more fun to watch hit.

 

Yeah I would 10000% want to watch some dudes who can't catch a ball to save their lives mash dingers vs. some pitcher who barely knows how to hold a bat get a hold of one 3x a year.

[iamshack]

Yeah I would 10000% want to watch some dudes who can't catch a ball to save their lives mash dingers vs. some pitcher who barely knows how to hold a bat get a hold of one 3x a year.

I think there are benefits to both systems...which is why I support the continuation of one league as a DH league and another without.

[Heads22]

Watching pitchers hit is only fun when its a novelty

[reiks12]

Watching pitchers hit is only fun when its a novelty

 

watching Darvish destroy Carl Edward Jr. last night with mind games was the best atbat ive seen all year

[Jose Abreu]

Pitchers hitting is such a boon to NL pitching stats that people don't seem to realize. If you're facing a hitter with a .250 OPS 11% of the time as opposed to a big time power hitter, your numbers are going to be much better. This is why I think that both pitching and hitting in the AL are superior to the NL, although most who I've talked to disagree with me

[greg775]

Having the Cubs in our division would be typical baseball and awful. I would think the Sox brass would love it. It'd likely help attendance in theory, at least until people got used to all the games.

Don't do it baseball. I still can't believe baseball thinks it's great to have teams play teams in their own division 19 times. It's gawd awful.

[spiderman]

Talk of the MLB expanding to two more cities and realigning their current structure has been circulating online this week. This article proposes some possible changes:

 

http://www.baseballamerica.com/columnists/...CgDpd02WuY1L.97

 

The main changes would be:

 

- 156 game schedule

- Four divisions of eight teams (Sox divsion has Cubs, Brewers, Cardinals, Rockies, Royals, Astros, and Rangers)

- 12 playoff teams (Four division winners play winners of four play-in games)

 

Personally, I would be pretty surprised to see the MLB shake things up this much. It's an interesting idea though and does make sense on a lot of levels. Would love to see the Brewers in the Sox division. Cubs vs Sox in a division race would be very interesting to say the least.

 

Thoughts?

 

Strange division alignment with Colorado and two teams from Texas in the same division as the Sox, Cubs, Brewers and Cardinals. I haven't looked closely enough, but I would have thought teams like the Tigers, Twins, Reds, or Indians would be better candidates.

 

I'd love to cut the season back soon, but this isn't enough. Wouldn't a 12 team playoff go far into November (again, not having seen the format), and having that many playoff teams would seem to make the 156 games even less suspenseful. My guess is you'd have some "division" races, but if both teams end up making the playoffs, it wouldn't be that important, and you could end up with a bunch of average/ok teams fighting for the wildcard spots. I think a lot of purists would not like the division races being (potentially) even further minimized.

 

Would the White Sox want to be the in same division as the Cubs? Again, purists, some fans would love/hate that, but would the White Sox support that?

 

[OmarComing25]

IMO the extra "strategy" of NL baseball is way overblown (in those situations the right move is obvious the majority of the time). It's also artificial, it wouldn't exist if pitchers were remotely competent hitters. And there's nothing exciting about seeing a team walk the 8th hitter to kill a rally with 2 outs.

 

That being said, I do kind of like having the two different flavors of the leagues, so I'm not sure I'd be for making everything uniform across both leagues.

Edited October 19, 2017 by OmarComing25

[bmags]

IMO the extra "strategy" of NL baseball is way overblown (in those situations the right move is obvious the majority of the time). It's also artificial, it wouldn't exist if pitchers were remotely competent hitters. And there's nothing exciting about seeing a team walk the 8th hitter to kill a rally with 2 outs.

 

It's novelty but so is baseball.

 

I don't want the DH removed in AL, I just think it's fun how baseball has real meaningful differences between NL and AL as opposed to Eastern/Western:NFC/AFC conferences.

[Latilleon]

Getting rid the American League and the National League would be foolish. Baseball is about history and it is the granddaddy of major leagues. The different conferences in the NHL and NBA are meaningless. When teams from the same big markets play either other in basketball and hockey, it's nothing special.

 

The worst part about going to the proposed realignment, the World Series goes from being a special event allowing the best of the different leagues to play either other for the championship of baseball, it's just a team from the East versus a team from the west.

 

I like the current separation. I like that the Sox and Cubs compete in different leagues. I don't want the Sox and Cubs to be divisional rivals. The Sox have three trips to the Pacific time zone two out of three years. Is travel really that big of a deal? They don't play one game on the road trip and head back.

[hogan873]

I like the idea of expansion and realignment, and the referenced proposal is pretty good. I'm on the fence about the DH. I see the reasoning for the DH, but at the same time I think having the pitchers bat adds a managerial aspect which I think enhances the game. If push came to shove, though, I would probably agree to leave it the way it is with the DH in the AL only. One thing that I've not seen thrown out there is the idea of an EH vs. the DH. Have the pitchers hit (or attempt to...at least get in the box with a bat) and have a "DH" as well. So you'd have 10 hitters. I'm not sure that would work, but it would keep the DH and keep the spot in the lineup where the manager would have to be creative at times.

[Bob Sacamano]

Getting rid the American League and the National League would be foolish. Baseball is about history and it is the granddaddy of major leagues. The different conferences in the NHL and NBA are meaningless. When teams from the same big markets play either other in basketball and hockey, it's nothing special.

 

The worst part about going to the proposed realignment, the World Series goes from being a special event allowing the best of the different leagues to play either other for the championship of baseball, it's just a team from the East versus a team from the west.

 

I like the current separation. I like that the Sox and Cubs compete in different leagues. I don't want the Sox and Cubs to be divisional rivals. The Sox have three trips to the Pacific time zone two out of three years. Is travel really that big of a deal? They don't play one game on the road trip and head back.

 

How about instead of 4 divisions of 8 teams, cutting each division in half to 4 teams creating 4 divisions in both leagues (teams in each)?

 

Example:

 

Midwest: Both Chicago franchises, Colorado, Houston, Kansas City, Milwaukee, St. Louis and Texas.

 

Midwest AL: White Sox, Astros, Royals, Rangers.

Midwest NL: Cubs, Rockies, Brewers, Cardinals.

Edited October 19, 2017 by soxfan2014

[Balta1701]

How about instead of 4 divisions of 8 teams, cutting each division in half to 4 teams creating 4 divisions in both leagues?

Let's just take the AL Central as an example - which team belongs elsewhere? Cleveland, Chicago, Minnesota, Detroit, KC?

 

I guess you lose KC to a division with Houston somewhere right? The current setup doesn't seem all that bad in putting most teams in a time zone that makes sense along with other teams in the same zone.

[flavum]

8 divisions of 4 teams wouldn’t work in baseball. You’d have to play the same 3 teams 27+ games each, or risk division winners with losing records.

 

If they must expand, the best scenario is:

 

No divisions (2 16-team leagues)

Close to a balanced schedule

No interleague play

Keep top 5 in each league making postseason

Top 3 get in. True 4th and 5th best teams play to get in.

Edited October 19, 2017 by flavum

[bmags]

I like the idea of expansion and realignment, and the referenced proposal is pretty good. I'm on the fence about the DH. I see the reasoning for the DH, but at the same time I think having the pitchers bat adds a managerial aspect which I think enhances the game. If push came to shove, though, I would probably agree to leave it the way it is with the DH in the AL only. One thing that I've not seen thrown out there is the idea of an EH vs. the DH. Have the pitchers hit (or attempt to...at least get in the box with a bat) and have a "DH" as well. So you'd have 10 hitters. I'm not sure that would work, but it would keep the DH and keep the spot in the lineup where the manager would have to be creative at times.

 

I'd rather just remove the pitching position from the hitting lineup entirely so only 8 players bat.