Does MLB need to address the divisional setups? Credit to 007

[Bleacher Creature]

007 mentioned this on another thread "My main beef with this whole thing is how divisions are aligned in terms of how each division is composed in number...that, however, is a topic for another day..."

I agree, something needs to be done about how these divisions are set up. Not only that, I'm not going to be a happy camper if the winner of the NL West is under 500 and the Cards finish well above 500, yet they miss the postseason.

[Schwahalala]

Major League baseball is happy with its set-up. The goal is not for the best teams to play for the title. The goal is for the most fans to come to the games.

[chazzz]

What's going on in the West is an anomaly. If you don't want the chance of that happening - only solution is go hockey style and seed the entire league as a whole. If you did that you would need to balance the schedule based on the entire league, not on divisions, right?

[Iowa_Card]

It can't be a coincidence that all 5 NL West teams happen to suck during the same season.

[Bleacher Creature]

What's going on in the West is an anomaly. If you don't want the chance of that happening - only solution is go hockey style and seed the entire league as a whole. If you did that you would need to balance the schedule based on the entire league, not on divisions, right?

That's what I'd do. Take the top four records from each league.

[Tazlaz]

What to do

They should also realign so every division is 5 teams and therefore each league is 15. This would make it easy for matching up NL and AL divisions for interleague play - each team plays each of the teams from that years assigned division. There would just be one interleague matchup at all times during the season, rather than just a 2 or 3 week period.

How

MLB should have forced the Diamondbacks to move to the AL West when they had the power to do so.

Now the 'easiest' way may be the Royals to the AL West and Milwaukee returning to the AL - in the Central. At least that would solve the 'Where does Ryan Braun play' debate.

[Jeffro]

They need to move an NL team to the AL (hey, Pittsburgh) and balance the divisions.

NL East:
Atlanta
Florida
Philadelphia
Mets
Washington

NL Central:
St. Louis
Houston
Cubs
Cincinnati
Milwaukee

NL West:
San Diego
Dodgers
Arizona
San Francisco
Colorado

AL East:
Tampa
Boston
Yankees
Toronto
Baltimore

AL Central:
White Sox
Minnesota
Pittsburgh
Detroit
Cleveland

AL West:
Kansas City
Angels
Oakland
Seattle
Texas

[chazzz]

They need to move an NL team to the AL (hey, Pittsburgh) and balance the divisions.

NL East:
Atlanta
Florida
Philadelphia
Mets
Washington

NL Central:
St. Louis
Houston
Cubs
Cincinnati
Milwaukee

NL West:
San Diego
Dodgers
Arizona
San Francisco
Colorado

AL East:
Tampa
Boston
Yankees
Toronto
Baltimore

AL Central:
White Sox
Minnesota
Pittsburgh
Detroit
Cleveland

AL West:
Kansas City
Angels
Oakland
Seattle
Texas

Pittsburgh in the AL...holy smokes...they suck enough in the NL.

[Jonas]

They need to move an NL team to the AL (hey, Pittsburgh) and balance the divisions.

NL East:
Atlanta
Florida
Philadelphia
Mets
Washington

NL Central:
St. Louis
Houston
Cubs
Cincinnati
Milwaukee

NL West:
San Diego
Dodgers
Arizona
San Francisco
Colorado

AL East:
Tampa
Boston
Yankees
Toronto
Baltimore

AL Central:
White Sox
Minnesota
Pittsburgh
Detroit
Cleveland

AL West:
Kansas City
Angels
Oakland
Seattle
Texas

So, interleague every night or someone always has a night off in each league?

[Jeffro]

So, interleague every night or someone always has a night off in each league?

I'd be interested to experiment with reducing to 154 games and letting teams take a full series off. The bye week for baseball, if you will.

[Iowa_Card]

This is what I'd do:

Each division would have 5 teams.
A team would play the other 4 teams in their division 18 times. I think they should play the most games against their division rivals.

A team would play the other 10 teams in the other two divisions 7 times.

A team would play against 4 teams from the other league five times.

That gives you 162 games. Let someone else worry about off-days and some such.

[kjoe]

So, interleague every night or someone always has a night off in each league?

I remember asking Hummel about this 2 years ago, and that was his explanation about why it cannot be done.

But I think if at least one interleague series, (3 or 4 games, depending on who will be off on the Wednesday before, or the Monday after) could be played each weekend, the other days could be handled.

[chazzz]

Can interleague play. That ship has sailed.

[backstop]

It is pretty obviously unfair to have one division with six teams and another with four. But that's life.

[CD]

The solution is to either contract two teams or add two teams, making each league either 14 or 16 teams, and scrapping interleague play.