Quote from BoosterSD on June 3, 2021, 2:34 pm

We have always been in the NL West. COL and AZ are newer to the league and do not have the long standing tenure that SD, SF, and LAD have. Additionally, when AZ was brought into the league, it was under the premise that they would eventually move to the AL West. However, when the time came to do it, I believe Colangelo (the Owner at the time) was hesitant to move leagues; probably due to the money he would have to pay to a DH, and they had a large payroll commitment at the time. AZ was bailed out by HOU being willing to move and create the natural rival in the TEX Rangers.

With the DH coming for both leagues in the next CBA, that would eliminate one of the AZ complaints. Additionally, I think that COL could/should move to the AL prior to SD, since they have no real history of dominance in the division.

From a personal point of view, I would love for AZ to move to the AL, since I am Padres fan that lives in AZ and that way I could route for both teams until the sporadic series that they play in Interleague, and potentially the World Series.

Quote from fenn68 on June 3, 2021, 2:52 pm

With the universal DH … league will not make a difference. Making the move to get a short term “competitive advantage” is just that … short term plus some other team has to switch leagues … not sure I see any team eager to do that (unless paid a large sum to move).

Personal preference is realignment:

San Diego - LA Angeles - LA Dodgers - SF - OAK; (the CAL Division)

Texas - Houston - AZ - Colo - Seattle

At least for the CAL Division … shorter travel for fans … enhance regional rivalries … and for SD avoid the altitude series with AZ and COLO.

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When MLB expands in about 5 years, roll AZ, COLO, and Seattle back into the Pacific West (8 team division) … one of the then 4 divisions dividing up the 32 teams. Will make playoffs structure more straight forward.

 

Quote from UKdude on June 4, 2021, 3:47 am

Thanks for the replies!

Hi Booster,

Thanks for your post. One of the reasons I wanted to switch one of the NL West teams was because, in my proposed structure, I wanted to pair every team with an interleague neighbour and a divisional rival. The interleague pairing was so that, like you, many fans would be able to see every MLB team and player play in the flesh within a reasonable travel time of your own ballpark. The divisional pairing was a scheduling aid to reduce travel. As you guys know, the Friars have just been on the road and gone from Milwaukee to Houston and then back to the Cubs. That's a lot of travel compared to my proposal where the team would spend three games in Milwaukee and then concurrently another three game series in Chicago, a short trip away. The team would then come home (having had a travel day in between) and play 6 games at home in a row against the Mets and the Phillies. This would be the same for every MLB team in a balanced and fair schedule. Each team in each division plays the same number of games against the same teams.

 

In my proposal Arizona would be your interleague paired team and either Dodgers or Angels would be your division twin depending on your league.

I chose ARI to switch as they are the most recent expansion team in the area... they have more chance of making the post season in the AL West and it would redress the balance of AL/NL teams in the South West region. But no dice with their fans. The alternative would be SD to switch, which would be less fair in my view, but there would be no Giants/Dodgers to stop you in the division race.

As it is, it might be that the Dbacks move from Arizona to Las Vegas in the near future anyway and if they did it might involve them becoming an AL team in any deal with Sin City.

Hey fenn,

I'm trying to come up with a solution that reduces travel or doesn't split a division over more than one timezone. I also want to bring Texas and Houston into a central division. At the moment you have Seattle-Houston divisional games involving a commute of half the nation and two timezones. My proposal:

AL WEST ARI LAA OAK SEA

NL WEST SD LAD SF COL

AL CENTRAL TEX KC CWS MIN

NL CENTRAL HOU STL CHC MIL
There are two other eastern divisions which we can ignore in the Padres' case. There are plenty of Houston fans still sore at the Bud Selig saga where the new ownership were forced into the AL because Selig wanted his Brewers to have a local rivalry with the Cubs, so switching Astros back to the NL would not be massively unpopular. This would bring back the Cards-Astros rivalry from the 80s and a new grudge match-up between the Astros and Selig's Brewers.

In an 8 team division you are definitely getting a more straightforward play off route, with an 8 division structure only division winners go through to the post season.

 

 

 

Quote from fenn68 on June 4, 2021, 6:46 am

FYI .... early favorites to move to Las Vegas is OAKLAND. Their stadium situation is just not progressing to MLB's satisfaction. TB and AZ are both candidates to push relocation ... so until those three (at least) are resolved along with expansion ... hard to commit to a regionalized alignment.

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The pushback against 4 team divisions is the high probability of lesser quality teams (from a league perspective) winning divisions and making the playoffs. Argument is that the better teams should be rewarded with the playoffs ... and therefore create an incentive to ensure the quality of the various teams.

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This will not happen .... but going to 4 "leagues" of 8 regional aligned teams would minimize travel, create rivalries to be played more often (and maybe more rivalries), while over the course of the season let the better teams move to the top of a balance schedule. Eliminate inter league games ... creating 4 silos and when the playoffs start add the intrigue of teams playing each other for the first time. (note the 8 team league was the norm before expansion in the 60's and created the need for a World Series).

When they then go to the 16 team playoffs .... could be fun setting up four "brackets" with each "bracket" have a 1st - 2nd - 3rd - 4th place team each from different "leagues". A lot of mystery with those match ups of teams that have not played each other.

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Going to take a long time .... looking as though resolving the OAK - AZ - TB situations (and that will be years) will be priority one ... and since the new CBA is up next winter the new CBA may lock down moves that require Union agreement for probably the next five years (e.g. playoff structure / revenue sharing, games per season, etc.)

Note: still trying to figure out how to structure (and get agreement) "relegation" into MLB ... tow 16 team leagues?

Quote from UKdude on June 4, 2021, 5:26 pm

Hi fenn,

While I completely appreciate your considered reply, I really don't want to go off topic from why I was considering San Diego switching to the AL.

I would be here all night writing about league structure, schedules, the joys of the MLB bylaws, how winning a division should mean something and how 2019 made the regular season look bad when a team that weren't even the best in their division, let alone their league, won the World Series.

I'm a nerd who annoys my wife at night by sitting in bed when I should be asleep (as I should be now) and plotting how the leagues would expand from 16 teams, potentially to 24! Planting affiliate leagues in Mexico, South America and Europe.... it's tragic!

Quote from fenn68 on June 4, 2021, 8:15 pm

So that leaves only 14 clubs in the east … not sure how to sort that into 4 divisions … and try to be fair to all the teams until expansion to 32 teams.

Since at the core don’t like 4 team divisions from a competitive standpoint … might go from a travel / scheduling standpoint with aligning the 10 West teams - 10 Central teams - 10 East teams and eliminate games outside those groupings …until the playoffs. 18 games vs. each opponent (9) … 162 game schedule. Much better chance that the best teams over the course of the season rise to the top of the standings making the playoffs better competition.

In the West SD adding LAA and OAK to a rivalry on a regular basis would be a big plus. Yes, still annoying TEX and HOU still in the West but not not really that long a trip and can easily do a both on one road trip (maybe buddy up with AZ).

AZ/SD … LAA/LAD … SF/OAK … TEX/HOU are easy pairings for scheduling road trips … COLO and SEA are a bit more problematic but I think going from SD to SEA is about the same as going to HOU.

Central: KC/STL… CWS/Cubs … MILW/MINN … DET/CLEV … CINN/PITT

East: MIA/TB … BALT/WASH … NYY/NYM … TOR/BOST … PHIL/ATL?

Quote from UKdude on June 5, 2021, 7:06 am

No this is part of the expansion to 32 teams. The other 16 teams, including the two new ball clubs, will be in the East. Probably in Montreal and Carolina/Tennessee.

 

I guess you like Divisional play. 162 games against the same 9 teams seems, erm... repetitive?

Thanks for the replies folks.