With 16 teams in the National League, why doesn't MLB re-align the teams?

Question

What does everyone think about re-aligning the 16 National League teams to four divisions? Each division would have the same amount of teams and the wild card could be eliminated, taking only the four division winners to the playoffs. I've listed my idea for the divisions below. As far as I can see, all the classic rivalries are still there and a better Philly/Pitt rivalry is created. The only teams I had trouble pegging were Arizona and Colorado. Let me know what you think.

Natrional League:

East:
New York Mets
Philadelphia Phillies
Pittsburgh Pirates
Washington Nationals

North:
Chicago Cubs
Cincinnati Reds
Milwaukee Brewers
St. Louis Cardinals

South:
Atlanta Braves
Colorado Rockies
Florida Marlins
Houston Astros

West:
Arizona Diamondbacks
San Diego Padres
San Francisco Giants
Los Angeles Dodgers

Answer 1

For once, a good re-alignment plan. I'm tired of the whole 15 per league thing that people seem to have.

However, I think that MLB likes the Wild Card idea and the second chance element, along with the symmetry of the 3 divisions and one Wild Card. Having one league with 3 divisions and the other league with 4 would be a little weird, and it would create pressure from teams and fans in NL cities to eliminate the wild card entirely. I think having the same rules (as far as making the playoffs is concerned) for each league is better for the game.

As far as your divisions, I think that you should switch the Rockies and Cardinals. The Cardinals would fit fine in either your North or South divisions, but the Rockies would have shorter trips to the cities that make up the North division than they would the teams in the South division. For a team that operates in the Mountain time zone to have to make that many trips to the East Coast every year is just unfair. I understand keeping the Cubs and Cardinals together, but it would be more fair travel-wise to keep the teams closer together geographically, and the rivalry between the Cubs and Cardinals would still be played, since they would still play each other every year.

Answer 2

It is reasonable, but recognize what the wildcard berth does: keeps more teams in the chase for October (at least mathematically) later into the season (often until the final weekend, and twice to playoff games in the last ten years). Longer delays to elimination begets more enduring fan interest begets more ticket sales and better tv ratings.

Four divisions with only one team, per division, playing on kills casual or bandwagon fan interest if there's a runaway winner. That doesn't happen as severely with the wildcard option; even today, with only five days remaining in the season, there are still eight (of 16) NL teams alive, any one of which could end up in the wildcard slot (including any of the current division leaders). Now, this is partly due to the rank mediocrity that the NL currently wallows in, the sort of "parity" and "competitive balance" that Seligula loves to foist upon fans as being a Good Thing (feh). But it is true nonetheless, half the teams are still in the race. For the sake of baseball's core economic interests -- "make money!", followed by "make more money!" -- that is very much desirable.

Other than that, I don't much like the South for one reason -- it is spread across three time zones. The Rockies are the real problem, being the only Mountain zone team (Arizona doesn't do daylight savings and so is essentially Pacific), and are better bundled with three Central teams, so remix the East, North, and South to have two time zones each.

Answer 3

I was suggesting the same thing too, like they have in football. The only problem is that you couldnt do the same in the Al, as there is only 14 teams. My suggestion is to add two more teams into the MLB and move Florida (its gonna happen eventually) to Portland, and they could create a rivalry w/ Seattle. Watch: Some teams, Like Milwaukee, or Az may have to move to the Al
Al East:
New York (A)
Boston
Baltimore
Toronto

AL North:
Cleveland
Detroit
Minnesota
Chicago

AL South:
Tampa Bay
New Franchise #1
Texas
Kansas City
AL West:
Oakland
Seattle
Anaheim
New Franchise#2 (Or if Florida moves to Portland, or this new team could be in Portland)

NL East:
New York N
Philadelphia
Washington
Pittsburgh

NL North:
Chicago N
Milwaukee
Cinncinnati
St Louis

NL South:
Houston
Atlanta
Florida(If they stay there)
Colorado

NL West:
Arizona
San Francisco
Los Angeles
San Diego

Hope that makes sense. We can assume Florida, for the sake of making this simple stays there, and the new franchise can move to portland and be in the west. Colorado is kind of out of place being in the south, but hey, it cant be all perfect. I think this could work. If you just realign the NL it wont work b/c it will mess the playoff format, therefore it needs to be both leagues.
This way there still could be be a wild card, or even two if we expand the playoffs(which Im in favor for)

Answer 4

Or....If you want all the divisions in BOTH leagues to be the same, you could send the Rockies to the American League West, and the move the Astros from the the National League Central to the National League West.

That way all three divisions in BOTH leagues would each have 5 teams.

American League:

East:
Yankees
Red Sox
Blue Jays
Orioles
Rays

Central:
Indians
Tigers
White Sox
Royals
Twins

West:
Angels
Mariners
Rangers
A's
Rockies

National League:

East:
Braves
Mets
Phillies
Nationals
Marlins

Central:
Cubs
Cardinals
Brewers
Pirates
Reds

West:
Giants
Padres
Dodgers
Astros
D-Backs

Personally though, I think the current alignment is fine

Answer 5

Not bad. As a Mets fan I thank you for getting rid of the Braves! How about we put the Phillies in the South too and put Florida in the East?

Answer 6

pointless it would cause more confusion and the AL would have to do the same. THAT would make total dominance for cubs,braves, padres, and mets