It seems unfair that the AL West teams only have 4 teams, while the NL central has 6 teams. It makes the odds of winning your division harder. Why don't they move the Houston Astros to the AL West or move a NL West team to the AL West and move a NL central team to the NL west? This would give all the divisions 5 teams and even out the playing field.
2007-05-01 03:11:16 · 11 answers · asked by Boss Hog 1 in Sports ➔ Baseball
That creates an uneven number of teams in each league. See this answer to a similar question.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070427205515AAbUJr5
2007-05-01 05:15:19 · answer #1 · answered by cubspatssox 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because "even number of teams per league" is a lot more important, and convenient, than "balance" is. Now, before you pursue this everblack idea any further, sit down and work out a functional full-season schedule, taking care to (a) minimize off days (need to fit 162 games into a 183-day window), (b) plan no more than one doubleheader per team, and (c) avoid having interleague play on more than 21 days. Go ahead, do that with 15 teams per league. Try dividing 15 by 2 and getting a correct, integer result. Tricky, huh? Variations of this question need to be a lashing offense. BTW, in recent seasons, the Astros won the NL Central (under the six team alignment) in 1998, 1999, and 2001, and also took the NL wildcard in 2004 and 2005. That's five playoff appearances in the past 10 seasons. Compare the other NL Central teams during that time: Cardinals -- six. Cubs -- three. Brewers -- zero. Pirates -- zero. Reds -- zero. Looks like the Astros are holding their own, and their home division is not much of an impediment. Success is an established and available possibility for the team.
2016-05-17 23:43:10 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Two primary reasons.
One, it would necessitate at least one interleague game almost every day of the season. The logistics of scheduling NOW are pretty complex; working out a reasonably fair-n-balanced schedule with interleague play all season long moves the problem closer to impossible.
Two, economics. Other than the headliner series, interleague really isn't all that popular, so there's no incentive to implement more. Little hope for increased revenues, and more likely to cause a (horrors!) dip in the income streams.
Balancing the divisions to five teams each isn't solving a problem; it would be causing one.
It's really not important, but a better approach, which could happen but won't soon, is to (a) expand to 32 teams, (b) realign into eight divisions, four teams each, and (c) only the divisional champions advance to the postseason, and revoke the wild card berth.
Of course the Cubs still wouldn't win.
2007-05-01 04:01:26 · answer #3 · answered by Chipmaker Authentic 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
There was talk about Houston moving - but they complained about having to play too many games on the west coast, where there is a 2 hour time delay (which would hurt tv ratings), and MLB agreed with them. Also, they did not want to switch leagues, which is understandable.
But the truth is that this move needs to be done. It is a joke that the odds to make the playoffs in one division is 25% (1 of 4 teams), and 17% in another. Why would they let there be this shift of balance?
2007-05-01 03:17:32 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I was wondering this exact thing the other day. To me, out of the interest of keeping alive an all texas world series someday, it would be prefect to move the Astros to the NL West and then take say, the Rockies and move them to the American league.
While this may be Ideal and more fair/exciting, I think it would be nearly impossible to alert a team all of a sudden that they have switched leagues. The whole DH thing kind of screws it up a little.
2007-05-01 03:18:01 · answer #5 · answered by deeznutz 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because traditionalist don't like interleague play -- if there are an odd number of teams in each league there would have to be interleague games every day and the distinction between the AL and NL would be meaningless.
2007-05-01 03:18:40 · answer #6 · answered by MrGlich 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Ok it's simple math, if you have 15 in one league and 15 in the other league you will have 2 teams sitting every day. cause you only have a couple of interleague games. having 14 in one league and 16 in the other keeps it even so nobody is sitting
2007-05-01 03:43:58 · answer #7 · answered by hair_of_a_dog 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
they should make a switch, the only thing is the nl central is weak but so is the al west, it should be done but it would take a lot
2007-05-01 03:18:12 · answer #8 · answered by jss104 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There would always have to be an interleague series (you know how MLB feels about interleague play), unless you gave one team in each league three or four days off every 15th series.
2007-05-01 03:18:04 · answer #9 · answered by CSUFGrad2006 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
hey i would like that but then it is too easy to get into the playoffs and in the playoffs i want to see teams that deserve to be there
2007-05-01 03:15:29 · answer #10 · answered by Sam G 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋