How would this format work for Major League Baseball?

Question

American League

East
New York Yankees
Boston Red Sox
Baltimore Orioles
Toronto Blue Jays

Central
Indianapolis Comets (Formerly Tampa Bay Rays)
Detroit Tigers
Cleveland Indians
Louisville Sluggers (Expansion Team)

Midwest
Chicago White Sox
Minnesota Twins
Kansas City Royals
Texas Rangers

West
Los Angeles Angels
Fremont Athletics
Seattle Mariners
Portland Blue Sox (Expansion Team)

National League

East
New York Mets
Philadelphia Phillies
Atlanta Braves
Washington Nationals

Central
New Orleans Sharks (Formely Florida Marlins)
Pittsburgh Pirates
Cincinnati Reds
Milwaukee Brewers

Midwest
Chicago Cubs
Colorado Rockies
St. Louis Cardinals
Houston Astros

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

Every team will play their divisonal rivals 24 times each. Every team will play every other league rival 6 times each. Every team will play 18 interleague games.

There would be 4 division winners and 2 wild card teams in each league.

Playoffs:
Wild-Card Series (Best of 3)
Division Series (Best of 5)
Championship Series (Best of 7)
World Series (Best of 7)

Answer 1

The playoffs wouldn't prove who is better. Anyone can win 2 out of 3. All playoff series should be 7 games. You have added a 4 tier of playoffs which makes the season too lengthy. Plus 18 interleague games is way too many. The expansion teams would thin the talent level of the MLB a little too much. You obviously did a lot of thinking about this, but there just isn't a realistic way of this working. You end up making more problems then you are solving.

Answer 2

This format would be awful!

The talent in MLB is already extremely "watered down" due to expansion. There are pitchers currently in the major leagues that have no business pitching for any team other than a AAA affiliate.

The ERA of major league baseball was 4.46 in 2007.
The ERA of major league baseball was 3.85 in 1990.

This increase is not due to the batters getting better or steroids. MLB would greatly benefit by getting rid of a team or two.

Would anyone really care if the Devil Rays were kicked out of baseball? Move the Marlins to the AL East and shift the Pirates to the NL East.

Answer 3

Personally, I like the 4 division format idea, once they expand to 32 teams. (Which won't likely be very soon, and shouldn't.)
However, ONLY if the get rid of the Wild Card. Only division winners should make the playoffs. We don't need another round of playoffs, and we need the World Series to end in October.

If they insist on keeping wild cards, I'd rather see em go back to 2 divisions per league with 2 wild-cards.

There won't be a team in New Orleans or Louisville anytime soon. New Orleans can't even keep their basketball team (who'd rather play in Oklahoma of all places.) It was a fairly small market before Katrina, and even smaller now.

Louisville isn't big enough on it's own and is fairly close to Cincinnati, another fairly small market.

Portland is a possibility. Maybe Indy, but it would probably be elsewhere.

South Florida is the 7th largest market in the US. Somehow they will find a way to keep a team. Eventually, a ballpark will be built in the area.

I don't see the Devil Rays moving anytime soon either. They are stuck in that bad stadium deal for a while. I doubt they'd move further than Orlando, when they do.

Sacramento, Las Vegas , South Virginia, Charlotte, San Antonio are possiblities for expansion as well. I expect they'd look to foreign cities as well, San Juan, and Monterrey, most likely.

Here's how I'd do it, assuming no major moves and expansion in Portland and Indianapolis.

AL East - BOS, NYY, BAL, TBR
AL North - CLE, DET, TOR, IND
AL Central - TEX, CWS, MIN, KCR
AL West - OAK, LAA, SEA, POR

NL East - NYM, PHI, WAS, PIT
NL South - MIA, ATL, HOU, CIN
NL Midwest - CHC, STL, MIL, COL
NL West - LAD, SFG, SDP, ARI

At first, it seems Colorado is somewhat out of place, but in fact by air, Denver is closer to St. Louis and Chicago than to LA, and closer to Milwaukee than San Diego and San Francisco. Since they are the only team in their time zone during the season, they have to go one way or the other.

Cincinnati isn't very southern, but being on the Kentucky border, it's not that far out of place.

If say, Charlotte got a team instead of Indy, which is probably more likely, I'd put them in the NL South and move Milwaukee back to the AL in the North, with Cincy in the midwest.

I'd have 18 games against division foes (3 home/away series each) 6 games agains other league foes (1 home/away series each), and 6 games against alternating 2 divisions in opposite league, alternating home and away each time. e.g. NL West and Midwest would play AL West and Central in odd years and AL East and North in even years, playing half of the teams at home, half on the road then switching sites the next time the divisions are matched. That way in every park you can see 3 series against division rivals every year, 1 series against every team in the same league every year, and 1 series against every team in the opposite league every four years.

Only division winners make the playoffs, seeding them by record, and expanding the first round to 7 games, and probably reducing the number of days off.

None of this will ever happen, of course, but that's just how I'd do it.

Answer 4

Very interesting. When I first looked at it I thought it was dumb but after looking again, it's not so bad. How many playoff teams? Still 4? I would go with that considering I think it's dumb that a division winner can't play a WC team if they are in the same division.

One problem is the expansion teams. Right know folks are already complaing about too many teams in MLB which is diluting the pitching talent.

Interesting idear you have there though.

Answer 5

Come on do you really think the Florida Marins and Tampa Bay Devil Rays will move out of Florida? I don't think so. And do you really think there will be new teams coming to MLB. But it looks like you have pretty much the way it is, expect for the few teams, and I believe that is the way that it going to be, but come on Colorado Rockies will never be in the same diversion as the Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals, or Houston Astros, they will be forever in the central diversion. Just like the Colorado Rockies will be in the west diverison. Plus the same for the central vierson in the American League, none of the teams that you have will be in the midwest even through that is where they may play.

Answer 6

Thanks for the effort, but two more teams is about 4 teams too many in my opinion. Another round of playoffs means two weeks into November, and for me baseball is a spring/summer sport. I think the number of games should be reduced or even better, a couple of double headers per team to get the playoffs started earlier and not be played in the freezing cold.

Answer 7

i like this in the fact that the white sox could actually win their division with a sub .500 record. the red sox and yankees may as well be in their own division no one else in their division will ever make the playoffs. why did you move the a's to fremont?

Answer 8

I'm sure Milwaukee will balk at losing the Cubs, and expansion will be frowned upon.

Cubs and Cardinals will veto having to go to a Mountain timezone that often and they have a lot of leverage.

Nice try though.

Answer 9

i like it but too many division games (unless they were all against the yankees). i also dont think MLB would allow there to be no teams in Florida. otherwise its pretty cool. i think portland would be a great place for a team as well as Louisville because portland only has the blazers and louisville has no major franchise. the fans in those cities would probably embrace them.

Answer 10

Too many rounds of playoffs.