Theoretical MLB expansion and realignment
Oct 20, 2017 4:42:48 GMT -5
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Post by pedrofanforever45 on Oct 20, 2017 4:42:48 GMT -5
www.baseballamerica.com/columnists/expansion-trigger-realignment-longer-postseason/#UCLKsmyhm4HQflw0.97
MLB just revealed it's future plans yesterday (MOD. NOTE: THIS IS NOT AN ACTUAL PLAN, BUT RATHER A THEORETICAL PROPOSAL BY THE ARTICLE'S WRITER - CH) when a reporter by the name of Tracy Ringolsby released a story in baseball america. Story featured a number of huge topics-
Realignment
Expansion
Schedule
I'll give a summary to all the important topics that is both a part of this story that was mentioned and the part of the story that wasn't mentioned-
-MLB would be getting rid of both leagues for the first time since both there inceptions over 100 years ago. Yeap, no NL or AL anymore. This is huge in terms of history and in terms of my next bulletin-
-Since there's only one league, there can only be one rule for the DH. Meaning the DH rule is probably coming for all teams coming in the near future with this realignment.
-I mentioned in the CBA negotiations thread a year ago to James Dunne that I heard expansion is coming from Rob Manfred after they found ballparks for Tampa Bay and Oakland. Well now MLB has revealed where they want these two expansion teams located, Portland Oregon and Montreal. There would need to be a team expanded to the west as mentioned in this article. Portland has a 150 million dollar grant to build a new ballpark at any point. There's also a ownership group waiting in Portland to own a franchise.
-Since there's no more NL or AL, there will be 4 divisions in MLB. The north, the east, the midwest, and the west. Our beloved Red Sox would be in the north which would also be featuring the following teams-
North: Boston, Cleveland, Detroit, Minnesota, Montreal, New York Mets, New York Yankees (MFY), and Toronto.
- The Red Sox in this case would lose out on two natural rivals with this realignment, Baltimore and Tampa Bay. This scheduling would reduce travel time between cities and save money for this next topic-
-Reduction of schedule. The season would reduce to 156 games in a season from the 162 format it has now. There will be one scheduled off day a week during the whole course of a season and this day will be consistent throughout the year (if the off days fall on Monday's, then every team will get off days on Monday's no matter what during the season). This is similar to what Japan does over in their professional leagues.
-Now onto the playoff format. MLB wants one division winner with each of the four divisions. MLB wants 8 wild card teams for teams that fall short of the division crown.
-For those of you who want to see the one game wild card game eliminated, well today isn't your lucky day. Not only does MLB not want to get rid of it, they want to expand it. With this format, there would be 4 wild card play in games. Each of those 4 winning teams would go on to face the 4 division winners into the Divison Series. Then the winners of those series face off in the championship series and then the world series.
This is all still being talked about, but this is the direction that MLB wants to go. I personally like the DH rule coming into affect for all teams and enforcing one rule throughout the game. It's good for players safety and it makes for a more competitive game. This is also good for the players because it creates more jobs with the DH rule in affect. What's also great for players safety is the guaranteed one off day a week every week on a certain day. It'll give starting pitchers more rest which could lead to less Tommy John surgeries in the future.
It stinks a little that the league wants to get rid of both leagues because of the history, but I'm all for modernizing baseball today in a format more recognizable compared to other sports like basketball and football. It also stinks that we won't get to root against Baltimore and Tampa Bay as much, but I can see myself hating Cleveland and the Mets really quickly. In fact, I wasn't even born in 1986, and it makes me mad just thinking about losing to the Mets that year.
I also hate the fact that it's almost twice as hard to win the division if this were to come into affect. You would have to build an absolute force of a team to win back to back division titles in this format. I guess MLB would win though with them wanting to create yet even more parity throughout the game. This format would certainly do just that, create a ton of parity.
I love the expansion part, I have never been a part of a expansion off-season before. I started watching baseball in the middle of 1998 and Tampa Bay was already in the league by then. That part will be especially fun from my perspective. I wonder how MLB would allow the expansion teams to acquire players and maybe even prospects from other organizations in this day and age.
Sorry for the long post, but it was worth the long write up. All of this is interesting and cool stuff. I don't think we are close to all of this happening. I think it might be at least 5-10 years away, but it's interesting to see what MLB will look like in 10 years in terms of this format.
Realignment
Expansion
Schedule
I'll give a summary to all the important topics that is both a part of this story that was mentioned and the part of the story that wasn't mentioned-
-MLB would be getting rid of both leagues for the first time since both there inceptions over 100 years ago. Yeap, no NL or AL anymore. This is huge in terms of history and in terms of my next bulletin-
-Since there's only one league, there can only be one rule for the DH. Meaning the DH rule is probably coming for all teams coming in the near future with this realignment.
-I mentioned in the CBA negotiations thread a year ago to James Dunne that I heard expansion is coming from Rob Manfred after they found ballparks for Tampa Bay and Oakland. Well now MLB has revealed where they want these two expansion teams located, Portland Oregon and Montreal. There would need to be a team expanded to the west as mentioned in this article. Portland has a 150 million dollar grant to build a new ballpark at any point. There's also a ownership group waiting in Portland to own a franchise.
-Since there's no more NL or AL, there will be 4 divisions in MLB. The north, the east, the midwest, and the west. Our beloved Red Sox would be in the north which would also be featuring the following teams-
North: Boston, Cleveland, Detroit, Minnesota, Montreal, New York Mets, New York Yankees (MFY), and Toronto.
- The Red Sox in this case would lose out on two natural rivals with this realignment, Baltimore and Tampa Bay. This scheduling would reduce travel time between cities and save money for this next topic-
-Reduction of schedule. The season would reduce to 156 games in a season from the 162 format it has now. There will be one scheduled off day a week during the whole course of a season and this day will be consistent throughout the year (if the off days fall on Monday's, then every team will get off days on Monday's no matter what during the season). This is similar to what Japan does over in their professional leagues.
-Now onto the playoff format. MLB wants one division winner with each of the four divisions. MLB wants 8 wild card teams for teams that fall short of the division crown.
-For those of you who want to see the one game wild card game eliminated, well today isn't your lucky day. Not only does MLB not want to get rid of it, they want to expand it. With this format, there would be 4 wild card play in games. Each of those 4 winning teams would go on to face the 4 division winners into the Divison Series. Then the winners of those series face off in the championship series and then the world series.
This is all still being talked about, but this is the direction that MLB wants to go. I personally like the DH rule coming into affect for all teams and enforcing one rule throughout the game. It's good for players safety and it makes for a more competitive game. This is also good for the players because it creates more jobs with the DH rule in affect. What's also great for players safety is the guaranteed one off day a week every week on a certain day. It'll give starting pitchers more rest which could lead to less Tommy John surgeries in the future.
It stinks a little that the league wants to get rid of both leagues because of the history, but I'm all for modernizing baseball today in a format more recognizable compared to other sports like basketball and football. It also stinks that we won't get to root against Baltimore and Tampa Bay as much, but I can see myself hating Cleveland and the Mets really quickly. In fact, I wasn't even born in 1986, and it makes me mad just thinking about losing to the Mets that year.
I also hate the fact that it's almost twice as hard to win the division if this were to come into affect. You would have to build an absolute force of a team to win back to back division titles in this format. I guess MLB would win though with them wanting to create yet even more parity throughout the game. This format would certainly do just that, create a ton of parity.
I love the expansion part, I have never been a part of a expansion off-season before. I started watching baseball in the middle of 1998 and Tampa Bay was already in the league by then. That part will be especially fun from my perspective. I wonder how MLB would allow the expansion teams to acquire players and maybe even prospects from other organizations in this day and age.
Sorry for the long post, but it was worth the long write up. All of this is interesting and cool stuff. I don't think we are close to all of this happening. I think it might be at least 5-10 years away, but it's interesting to see what MLB will look like in 10 years in terms of this format.