Division alignment question

[Alloutwar]

Can I ask something that may be stupid; why are the divisions all out of whack?

To rise to be the champion of the NL Central, you are competing directly with 5 other teams.

To be the champion of the AL West, you need to beat 3 other team's records. This includes Texas. The Rangers! And Seattle, which has been poor lately. Not like the Reds and Pirates are termendous or anything...just sayin.

Overall, with 16 teams in the NL and 14 in the AL, the plain old percentage chance of getting a playoff spot in the NL is worse:

NL - 4/16 = 25% chance
AL - 4/14 = 28.6% chance

Shouldn't this start out equal, and even and all that? Just as a starting point? It seems awful unfair to the one 6-team division, and awful light on the 4-team division (despite only one WS win in recent memory). Is this why the A's can always compete?

It seems fairly simple to me: 30 teams, divided by two leagues = 15 teams per league. 15 teams in a league / 3 divisions = 5 teams per division. then it's all neat and even. Right? The only legitimate complaints I can see on this are scheduling, and one team having to change leagues. I think an NL team would oblige.

Solution:

One team from the NL moves to the AL. All divisions realign to 5 teams. I'm thinking the Padres or Giants come over to the AL West, and on NL central team moves into the West division - Houston? Milwaukee?

To resolve the scheduling conflict, here is one potential solution: currently, when interleague play takes place, two NL teams have to play each other, because there are no AL counterparts left to play. I am thinking, instead of interleague play being a three-week stretch in the middle of the season for everyone, there is one interleague matchup every day. That way interleague is spaced out - less of a hype-able event, but more integrated into the season. And then everyone is affected equally - every team plays two interleague series (or more, if we really want), and no NL teams are left playing a boring NL series while everyone else parties WS style.

Does this sound silly? Farfetched? I just find it odd that it's been like this for going on 10+ years. Seems unfair to some teams.

[HoustonGM]

It seems fairly simple to me: 30 teams, divided by two leagues = 15 teams per league. 15 teams in a league / 3 divisions = 5 teams per division. then it's all neat and even. Right? The only legitimate complaints I can see on this are scheduling, and one team having to change leagues. I think an NL team would oblige.

If I understand correctly, each league needs an even number of teams in order to schedule properly.

Honestly, I think it's about time to do (one last) round of expansion, and add two teams to the American League. Since that might make the AL a lot easier for a year or more than the NL, perhaps switching one team from the NL to the AL and then adding one expansion team to each league would be a better plan.

I'm about to do that in my Mogul game for the 2011 season.

[RedsoxRockies]

I did that in my game in like 2035

[Alloutwar]

I know that you need an even number of teams to create the schedule in say, BBM, and other baseball games as well (I was re-doing divisions in MLB Power Pros, and I can't simply have 15 in each, which is annoying). And I know that if you have 15 teams, obviously the 15th team has no one to play, in that division.

I simply think that using interleague to solve this problem is a fine idea, until they do one more round of expansion. If they are sticking with 30, I'd rather have 15/15, and then have my team doing interleague one a month or something. Breaking it up along the season seemed like a possibility, right? Isn't that better than a big chunk in June?

[gRYFYN1]

Yea they could add 2 more teams ans simply make 4 Divs of 4 in each league, Ditch the WC and just have 4 Div winners. plays 18 games vs each div opponent and 9 vs every one else in the league, no more interleague play.

[beerchaser]

I'm all for adding two new teams and creating four 4-team divisions in each league, but I think there would be a huge amount of moaning and groaning about the alignments. Can you imagine the whining and hand-wringing coming out of Evil Empires 1 & 2 if they were put in one 4-team division together, while relatively weaker teams like Toronto, Baltimore and Tampa Bay (the Rays recent success notwithstanding) got put in another.

Edit: come to think of it though, I seriously doubt MLB would put the Yankers and Red Sux in the same division. No way.

[HoustonGM]

What exactly would the 4 divisons be then, to separate the Yankees and Red Sox? You can't divide it by region, because no matter how you slice it, Boston and New York are in the same region. I'd say just leave it 3 divisions and set up each league with 2 5-team divisons a 1 6-team division.

[asianinvasion]

What exactly would the 4 divisons be then, to separate the Yankees and Red Sox? You can't divide it by region, because no matter how you slice it, Boston and New York are in the same region. I'd say just leave it 3 divisions and set up each league with 2 5-team divisons a 1 6-team division.

Alphabetical?

[etothep]

I used to always realign my mogul leagues when I firsst started playing (KC to the AL West & Milwaukee to the Al Central)

[OldFatGuy]

I'm all for adding two new teams and creating four 4-team divisions in each league, but I think there would be a huge amount of moaning and groaning about the alignments. Can you imagine the whining and hand-wringing coming out of Evil Empires 1 & 2 if they were put in one 4-team division together, while relatively weaker teams like Toronto, Baltimore and Tampa Bay (the Rays recent success notwithstanding) got put in another.

Edit: come to think of it though, I seriously doubt MLB would put the Yankers and Red Sux in the same division. No way.

Actually, if MLB did realign, I don't think there's any chance whatsoever that they'd SEPERATE Boston and New York. Sort of like the NFL finally realigning and yet keeping the Cowboys in the East with the Redskins. Rivalries like the Cowboys/Redskins (believe me it used to be the biggest in football) and the Yankees/Red Sox (probably still the biggest in baseball) don't get broken up.

[RedsoxRockies]

Why, you don't want to see a Pittsburgh Boston rivalry, or a Giants/ Royals

[beerchaser]

I'm not sure how they would setup that alignment, to be honest. But I do know that money talks, and geography or no, I could see a deal being made to split those two up by MLB if it enhanced the chances of both making the playoffs. That's assuming of course that with 4 divisions there would be no wildcard team.

[ohms_law]

Alloutwar, the "solution" is balanced schedules...

Texas should be in the AL Central anyway, by the way. Two expansion teams in the AL West.

[grasshopper]

Texas should be in the AL Central anyway, by the way. Two expansion teams in the AL West.

In real life? Are you kidding? Where are you going to expand to? The Canadian project has proven to be useless. They like hockey. Las Vegas, Memphis, Portland, Indianapolis and Jacksonville (real life) have been reviewed and discarded. Those cities do not have the population to support a team. If the league does expand, it is going to be San Antonio or Mexico City.

Mexico City would be awesome. 100K people in the stadium and **** running down your leg.

[ohms_law]

Those cities do not have the population to support a team.

Bull****

The Canadian project has proven to be useless.

What in the world makes you think that? Montreal?
The only problem with Montreal was the ownership. Loria is doing the exact same **** in Miami right now... I suppose "baseball in southern Florida" is a failure as well?
Toronto is doing great!

If the league does expand, it is going to be San Antonio or Mexico City.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of..._by_population
San Antonio is #28 on the list. Portland is 23rd, Las Vegas is 30th, Sacramento 26th, Orlando 27th, Columbus, OH 32nd, Indianapolis 33rd, Norfolk 34th.
What exactly makes San Antonio so special? More importantly, Why add another Central (or Eastern) time zone team?

As for Mexico City... the Peso, security, fan interest, Players Union objections, individual player objections, travel time, etc... No thank you.