Will anyone else grow tired of the Cubs playing the Reds 18 times in 2011? How about playing the Pirates 16 times? As Bud Selig and his minions discuss how to add more wild card teams, making the regular season less meaningful, I have decided to do my own reorganization.
Lets go back to 4 divisions, two in the A.L. and two in the N.L. Each division will have a regular season winner, and each league will have two wildcard winners. Both wild card winners in the N.L. could come out of the same division. I like this, because it gets rid of the three division format which often leaves an outstanding team out of the playoffs. The other advantage of the two division format is seeing more teams in your division, thus more games with different teams. My format will call for only a slightly unbalanced schedule. Here's how the N.L would work:
N.L. East: N.L. West:
Reds* Cubs*
Pirates Astros#
Mets Rockies#
Phillies Padres
Nationals Giants
Marlins Cardinals
Braves Dodgers
Brewers DiamondBacks
The Cubs would play each team in their division 11 times and each team in the west 8 times. Additionally, they would play a 3 game series against each team from one of the A.L. divisions. The A.L. would look like this:
A.L West: A.L. East:
Angels* Yanks*
Mariners# Red Sox#
A's Toronto
Royals Baltimore
Rangers Cleveland
Twins Rays
White Sox Tigers
As far as the playoffs go, I'm all for the 7 game series in the NLDS/ALDS. Lets squeeze in this 7 game series with less days off for these teams. No more days off during series play. Make these teams use all 5 starters like they had to in the regular season.
By the way, in the above scenario, the Cubs and Reds won their divisions with Houston and Colorado winning the wild card spots. In the A.L, the Yanks and Angels won their divisions, with the Red Sox and Mariners winning the wild cards. Cubs go on to beat the Yanks in a 7 game World Series. Sounds like a good 2012 to me!!
You have the A.L West labeled N.L. West and you need to switch the labels for the west and east in the AL. My only problem with the divisions is it would be hard on the Cubs because most of their games would be on the west coast which seems like a lot more traveling. It's also interesting that the brew crew would be in the east and the cubs in the west. What about cubs go to the east, do the leagues have to have the same number of teams?
ReplyDeleteThanks Dreaw, I made the changes. I kept the cards and cubs in the west, because of that rivalry. I don't think traveling should be a big issue for people whose full time job it is to play baseball. Milwaukee is the one team in all of this I struggled with, but I don't think it is a big deal to have them in the east, and with this setup, we are only talking about 3 more games against teams in your own division.
ReplyDeleteI looked at the post again and because it's pretty balanced between east and west, the traveling probable isn't that big of a deal. I agree with the playoff format, I don't see why all the days off are necessary.
ReplyDeleteCubs will trade for Brian Wilson at the end of 2011 and will beat the Yankees in 2012.
ReplyDeleteI like this approach. I gag at the prospect of additional MLB playoff teams. Baseball is a long term game meant to measure the consistencies. I iike this approach you outline and it has to be 7 game playoff series. I've long had the idea of each team scheduling one Sunday double header a month (or whatever number would allow to shorten the season). They could sell tickets for the games separately so it wouldn't hurt revenue. It would be great to enjoy a SUnday now and then watching the Cubs play two at Wrigley.
ReplyDeleteIf more teams are put in the playoffs and the first round 5 game format is kept, I honestly may not be an MLB fan anymore. I'd like a 9 game world series if that was possible.
How about another post what's up?
ReplyDelete