the disparity means that in order for each team to have 81 home and 81 away games, most NL teams have to play more away games vs the AL than home games, something like 50 games overall IIRC. That’s one of the reasons the AL has been so dominant in interleague play.

I’d like to see an NL team in vegas, myself. That way I’d have an excuse to go there at least once a year ;)

I like the idea of adding a couple more teams but the last thing the National League needs is to get killed in All Star Games and World Series even more than they already do.

I just read a pretty expansive article on this very point.

The main point the author makes is that baseball was the last major sport to expand, however, they also seem like the least likely to expand soon: Nothing is in the works.

He also talks about a few foreign cities, which I think would be great, if the distance could be dealt with:

http://www.bizofbaseball.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2387&Itemid=1

Also, a team could be added to the NL as long as one team was displaced to the AL. I’m imagining an NL west team getting displaced and replaced by Vegas.

MLB would have to figure out what to do with the Marlins first since they are being booted from Dolphins Stadium.

So just for fun lets say they Marlins move to Las Vegas. I would then reallign the NL this way:

NL East
NYM
PHI
WAS
Atl

NL Mid East
Pit
Chi
Stl
CIN

NL Mid West
Hou
MIL
Las Veges
COL

NL West
ARI
LAD
SFG
SDP

and the Al this way:
AL East
NYY
BOS
BAL
Tam

AL Mid East
Tor
Det
Cle
Chi

AL Mid West
Min
KC
Tex
(San Antonio)

AL West
SEA
OAK
LAA
(Portland)

us who live away from our favorite team? Please don’t limit each team to only 6 games against out-of-division opponents, as you propose, and as is already done. As it is now, the Birds come to Washington ONCE per year, meaning I get at most 3 shots at seeing them live unless I make a trip to STL. I’d much rather give up interleague play, or cut down on intra-division play, if it meant 2 trips east each season for the Cardinals.

I have always thought that the MLB should expand to Monterrey, Mexico. 3.8M folks live there. It’s been ranked as the most secure Latin American city, although it does have drug cartels in it. It has two professional [soccer] clubs. Even so, baseball has been played there since the 1800’s. The city has produced three Little League World Series teams. Their Mexican League team is the Sultanes. I really believe that a franchise there would take off (even if the peso puts them at a monetary disadvtange).

Also, once Cuba has another revolution, reforms its communist ways, accepts democracy, accepts capitalism, and the embargo is lifted, there has to be a MLB club there.

Also, what about Puerto Rico? Could it support a club?

I got my population data from here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_metropolitan_areas

no way we can support an mlb team. not enough people. the minor league team barely get 3,000 people in each game. it’s a big town but it’s not a huge sports town. basketball is different because there are half the amount of games.

we’ll see the destruction of the marlins FAR before we see the addition of two new teams. i think there are enough teams as it is already.

just switch colorado or san diego to the AL west. and switch pittsburgh with atlanta for nl central and east, just to be politically correct.

I have thought about this a lot in the past as well. I think that a radical realignment would work much better. It would never happen because of the whole DH thing, but here goes:

Southwest Division
Angels
Diamondbacks
Dodgers
Padres

Western Division
Athletics
Giants
Mariners
New Portland Team

Southern Division
Astros
Rangers
Rockies
New Las Vegas team (from Florida Marlins)

Midwest Division
Cardinals
Cubs
Royals
White Sox

Great Lakes Division
Blue Jays
Brewers
Tigers
Twins

Mideast Division
Indians
Pirates
Reds
New Indianapolis Team

Southeast Division
Braves
Nationals
Orioles
Rays

Northeast Division
Mets
Phillies
Red Sox
Yankees

This keeps in tact nearly all of the geographical rivalries and MOST of the historical ones. One that would be severely lacking would be the Giants/Dodgers rivalry.

In any case. I like it a whole lot better. I would hate to not see the Astros as much as we usually do, but that’s okay. We’d live with it and get to see KC and CHW more, which are easier to get to for road games (for those of us living in the Midwest.)

I’d like to see the schedule worked out this way.

- You play the three teams in your own division 22 times each. You play 1 three-game series and 2 four-game series at home and on the road against each. That’s 66 games.
- You play the 12 teams in your own league (but not in your division) 6 times each. You play them one home and away series of 3 games apiece. That’s a total of 72 games.
- You play all four teams in one division (per season – rotated annually – for real this time, Bud!) 6 times. That is 1 three-game series at home and on the road, the same as any other division in your league besides your own. That’s a total of 24 games.
- The grand total (66+72+24) adds back up to 162 games.

I think that is all that I wanted to put into this. If the Marlins are hell-bent on staying in the league, or Puerto Rico wants in…then I’d have to figure something else out with aligning, but other than that, I love this idea.

no matter what though, MLB needs to get the Fish out of south beach. their stadium deal is not a sure thing, and no one bothers even going to watch them. they didnt even sell out their world series games. that franchise is a joke & if Bud’s boy didn’t own it, they’d be gone a long time ago.

Vegas needs a team & so does Portland. they’ve both been trying to get one for years. living in columbus, i can tell you MLB will never be here. the city is building a new park next to the hockey rink for the AAA Clippers. and there’s no way they’d build an even bigger park for an MLB club. people here care way to much about the Buckeyes any way, every other sport is an after thought. it’s a college football town,.it always has been & it always will be.

San Antonio is a town i’ve never thought about having a club. my question about them is, is Texas big enough to support another MLB club? Charlotte has been pushing for a club for years. if you move the Fish there, put a team in SA & Portland or Vegas, i prefer Vegas, MLB should be very good shape.

another question has to be, where to the players come from? are there enough players in the world to support two more MLB clubs? and have those clubs not be laughing stocks for their first 20 years of their lives?

is move one national league team to american league and balance both leagues. Then have 2 teams playing interleague games at all times. That way you could have interleague play for all that like it and you could also have teams in same division in each league playing a more balanced schedule. I, personally would like it better than present interleague play.

excuse me, this has already been discussed. I scanned down and missed it then posted. Pardon me.

poster mentioning they have a AAA team, but I have heard local radio shows in Portland pining for a Major League team. I seriously doubt it could happen

If we’re going for radical realignment, we should drop the number of regular season games to 154. Then we can move up playoffs or get more creative with playoff scheduling. Say… in a 4 division league, the 4th division winner faces off against the top 2nd-place team in a 1-game play-in game (akin to the 2 wild cards per league idea I’ve seen floated about).

there are all ready too many teams

Nobody here has an issue with the proposed schedule of 27 games against each of three opponents? 81 games against only three other teams? How’d you like to be a season ticket holder and have to go see Cards -Rockies 14 times a year?

Also, have fun telling Tampa the Yankees are only coming there for 3 games a year.

Seriously, we get rid of our division fodder (Pirates, Astros, Reds) and get a tougher team in the Rockies?

Screw that! Put us in a division with the Bucs, Padres, Giants and Reds :)

but the Brewers will jump ship back to the AL if this kind of proposition is set up. Which would actually make a lot of sense. That way there would essentially be one expansion team in both leagues, and the AL would get a “traitor” team.

The most simple way to fix the problem. Move the Florida Marlins to San Antonio and Have them switch leagues to AL West. Move the Pirates to the NL East. That way we have 6 5-team divisions

Free Max Lanier.

 I like the Wild Card and I would want to manage to keep it in play, as it were. I think the best thing to maintain the Wild Card option is to keep 3 divisions of 5 teams each. As it stands, the AL west has but 4 teams, giving those clubs a statistical advantage of 25% to win the division. Compare this to the >17% chance a team in the NL Central has and I think you’ll agree that the numbers are in need of realignment.

I do not think expansion is the best option for two reasons: 1) It continues to dilute the level of play on the field and 2) It would hamper the "Give me a new stadium or a tax credit or a what-have-you or else I’m moving to city X" leverage currently enjoyed by the owners. Also, expansion would need to consider the markets of minor league teams, too, which complicates most other potential big markets.

Contraction just isn’t an option any more. I mean, if the Expos could be salvaged (though the Nationals are far, far away from a model franchise on or off the field), any team can be put into a trust and flipped for a profit by the owners.

So, to keep the Wild Card and give proper symmetry to every division, one team has to move out of the NL Central, one team needs to be added to the AL west, and one team needs to be moved from the NL to the AL. It could work this way: Move the Rockies to the AL West. Colorado already plays in a "western" division, so they wouldn’t be affected (travel, game start times on the road, etc) other than switching to a new league. Then, move the Astros to the NL west. Geographically, it’s the best option available.

Now, if Mr. Redbird does get his way, may I make one suggestion: Instead of naming the divisions in terms of rough geography, do the old-school NHL thing and give the divisions proper names (e.g.: how the St. Louis Blues would play the Chicago Blackhawks in the Norris Division). It would be a very cool way of incorporating baseball greats into the everyday play (e.g.: the Cardinals would face off against Brock Division opponents the Cubs, while the Yankees and Red Sox battled it out for the Ruth Division lead, etc).