The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

For all baseball fans, this is an interesting subject for realignment. 

http://www.fannation.com/truth_and_rumors/view/289890-marlins-astros-candidates-for-al-realignment

I, personally, would love it because it would create a rivalry between Florida-Tampa Bay and Texas- Houston.  I also agree with the elminnating of divisions altogether.  That way, we can see the teams with the best records overall battle it out for the World Series.

It used to be that way, but they are not going to go back to no playoffs.  There's too much money involved.

I would be very upset if that happened. I like being about to root for my long loved Red Sox and my adopted Marlins. Put them in the same league and that makes my life difficult

They wouldn't change the playoff format.  It would still be three rounds in the playoffs, but the top four teams in each LEAGUE make the playoffs, not the top team in each division.   As it stands right now, the Yankees, Rays, and Red Sox are the best teams in the American League, but due to the divisions, one of them will be knocked out of the playoffs.  This way, ALL THREE can make the playoffs.

I still don't see it happening.

I dunno about getting rid of divisions...but they should move one team from the central NL to the west AL. 30 teams 6 divisions should have 5 teams each not one division of 6 and one division of 4.  Astros would make the most sense.  

They should put the Brewers back in the AL.

It would be a double-edged sword for the Marlins.

On the positive side, I think that the Yanks/Sox would both bring big attendance to the team, several times a year.  We have a lot of transplants here from both places.

On the other hand, though, it might be short-sided, because it would make people like Sportschick (and the hoards of Yankee fans) less likely to route for her team.

The Marlins will lose tons of fans if this happens.  This couldn't be worse.  Besides that, the DH rule is dumb. [nohijack]

I had heard that it was one team going to even out the leagues.  This is a dumb idea anyway.  Rather see them expand 2 teams into the AL, but there's tons of reasons why that'll never happen.

I agree, move the Brewers back.  They suck.

The Brewers are in first place.

Impossible.  In order to lose tons of fans, you need to have tons of fan to start.  If the Marlins loses half their fans over this it will still only be a handful. 

I'm so sick of people beating down my favorite teams.  Sorry all teams can't be the damn Red Sox.  Shit.

I read on Sunday Houston is the team that will go

I heard a loose based source (and by loose based, I mean talk radio) that it would be two divisions in the AL and two in the NL and it would be the top five teams out of the AL and NL.  I also heard about realignment and that the Rays were one of the teams spearheading it.

Houston to the AL West makes the most sense because the AL West only has 4 teams while the NL Central has 6 teams. The move would create a perfect 5 team division for everyone.

How can it be the top five teams out of each league?  One team gets a bye?  That doesn't sound likely.

He definitely said 5.  Probably misspoke.

No, probably not a mis-speak. Have you not all heard that they want to expand the playoffs? There would be two wildcards and they would play a three game series before the rest began - like a play in series

I found these through MLBtraderumors.com....

Bob Nightnegale mentions the Diamond backs move to the Al, moving the Astros to the NL west...
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/2011-06-13-major-league-baseball-realignment-arizona-diamondbacks_n.htm (http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/2011-06-13-major-league-baseball-realignment-arizona-diamondbacks_n.htm)

Then Steve Gilbert of MLB.com,says the Diamondbacks might be open to the a move to the AL
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20110613&content_id=20445572&vkey=news_ari&c_id=ari&partnerId=rss_ari (http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20110613&content_id=20445572&vkey=news_ari&c_id=ari&partnerId=rss_ari)

No one likes the Diamondbacks anyway, take them.

Seems like, essentially, there would be 6 teams out of 10 with first round byes.

With 5 teams...you can't have one team get a bye...3 teams would get a bye.

4 vs. 5 --- then 1 v 4/5 and 2 v 3. 

If you only give one team a bye than it is 2 v5, 4 v 3.  And in round 2 you have three teams unless you want to give the #1 seed two byes. 

There wouldn't be a bye

I'd be fine with any realignment for the most part as long as MLB gets rid of the unbalanced schedules that cause the Yankees and Red Sox to play seemingly every other series and get rid of the rule where the winner of the All Star Game gets home field advantage in the World Series.

Sorry for the hi-jack.  :)

Each league used to have just East and West, and then they had to go and do the stupid Central division thing.  So now they are talking about going back to just 2 divisions?  Maybe the Cardinals can be in the West this time so they can say they have been in all 3. ::)

I'll bite.  How should they determine who gets homefield adv?  Someone has to have it.  I think this method is better than all others tried. 

^^ How about which team has the better record?  Just a thought....

The point of the all-star game determining home feld adv was to make the game meaningful, not to accurately determine a home field adv for the 2 clubs in the series.

Take that away and the All-star game again becomes irrelevent and both sides go back to playing starters 2 or 3 innings.

I like it the way it is. I don't believe that home field advantage is much of an advantage anyway.

The all-star game is an exhibition.  Its supposed to be fun.  If it was serious, then most guys would never crack the lineup.  You'd only have 1 starting pitcher on each roster.  Fans of teams NOT named "Yankees" and "Red Sox" would likely never get to see their favorite players play.

But, who cares about the fans, right?

WS homefield should be determined by overall interleague record (between the leagues), with All-Star Game as a tiebreaker.

^^^ But then you end up having scheduling disparities and other minutia deciding things.

Alternate the home field advantage from one year to the next...

Voilla! Fairness.

Give me an example of a "schedule disparity."

^^^ Answer is obvious enough to make me wonder if you're being deadpan sarcastic...

NL team #1 plays an interleague schedule where the opponents' combined winning percentage is 60%.

AL team #2 plays an interleague schedule where the opponents' combined winning percentage is 48%

...That is a schedule disparity.

The other minutia I was referring to... Let's say that Team A has several top hitters and their staff ace on the DL during the interleague portion of their schedule. Your idea would penalize them in potential tiebreakers because they were at their weakest at some random point in the middle of the season?

Repetition be damned, the only fair way would be to alternate the WS home field advantage.

^^^ play the world series at 7 different neutral sites.  I like that idea.

That would be cool as hell.

But I don't think it can happen.  You can't really have TBD games, where you are expecting people to travel and get hotels.  The city would have to do too much infrastructure prep to risk not having a game at all.

or you could have a stadium build solely for the purpose of playing the world series and all star game. probably wouldn't be good money wise, but just an idea.

BTW, i think what should happen (although i may show a little bias), move the mets to the AL east, Toronto to the AL Central, Pittsburgh to NL east, and KC to AL west.

Home Field should be like it was forever until this silly rule change. Just switch every year,...NL, AL, NL, AL...it wasn't broke!! No need to change it. It was a unique way to do it. Neither league could complain.

That doesn't matter, since (as I understand it) all teams play the same number of interleague games.

To clarify, I am saying that the homefield should be based on the record of the leagues (i.e. AL vs. NL) in interleague play, so that will necessarily include the best and worst teams of each league.  And if it so happens that the NL happens to have the "good teams" this year?  Then NL gets homefield, as they should.

You mean like how they are already penalized if they happen to be injured while playing against divisional opponents?

Then why give teams homefield advantage (based on record) at all, in any sport?  The most fair way to do it is to flip a coin or use a rotating schedule (as they used to in the NFL playoffs).

I mean, if you are interested in fairness, which no one is.  The entire concept of giving homefield advantage to the superior team (which is standard postseason practice in most every sport) contradicts the entire idea of fairness.

What are you talking about?  Under the current system, you have no idea if you're going to be hosting games until the LCS ends.

Stability of scheduling is an argument IN FAVOR OF rotating neutral sites.

A right proper head-scratcher...I have no idea what that has to do with the schedule disparity issue I brought up.


Thanks for clarifying that, as it wasn't how I read your original comments. You still have the possibility of schedule disparities, but far fewer than if you went by the two WS teams' interleague records.


Unless they snuck "divisional record" into the WS home field advantage process, I don't see how this applies.



Please see my ongoing comment theme about alternating the home field edge. It's the fair way.



I can appreciate someone who is jaded, but I can assure you that there are people who are much more concerned with "all things being fair" than they are with "how can the teams I like gain an advantage with an unfair situation?" Case in point: Despite being a lifelong fanatical SF 49ers fan, I was pretty loud in my calling for the league to stop the rampant salary cap manipulation chaos that was going on back when SF was winning their first couple of Super Bowls...and my 49ers were arguably as guilty of those shenanigans as anyone.

If all teams play the same amount of interleague games, there's no such thing as a schedule disparity (at the league level).

A team being disproportionately penalized in tiebreakers based on exactly when they happened to have major injuries is nothing new, and is not a "problem" that needs fixing.

So what do you propose be done with every other round of the playoffs, where seeding (usually record) determines homefield?

I swear, Spidey...I agree with you on so many basic issues, but I often feel that some of your posts should be preceded by the following slogan/disclaimer...

"This Ain't Your Father's Filibuster."

That said, I do enjoy the smell of sawdust and the sound of carnival music, so I guess I'll have one more turn on the Spidey-go-round... Where the loop-de-loops are all semantic, and anything can spin at any time!


The amount of games was never an issue, the strength of opponents was. Not sure why you keep checking down to this.


Just to bring things back on track, we were talking about using interleague records to determine home field advantage in the world series...and since that isn't the system being used, OF COURSE it isn't a problem that needs fixing. At the moment, it's merely a hypothetical situation that bears chatting about. IF it became the system, THEN I'd consider it a problem, and we could talk more about fixing things.

(with humble apologies to MikeO for stealing his trademarked all-caps mojo...) ;)


Please insert your aforementioned "not a problem that needs fixing" here. Let it roll how it is now, by record, through the earlier rounds of the playoffs, but when you get to the World Series, the home field should (imo) alternate between the AL and the NL.

Given that I've already clarified that I'm talking about league vs. league, the only way there would be an actual scheduling disparity is if, say, good AL teams (e.g. Yankees) played more interleague games than good NL teams (e.g. Brewers), based on market draw or what have you.

...sigh...

You complained about poorly timed injuries having an impact on tiebreakers (in this case, WS homefield).
Poorly timed injuries already have an impact on many tiebreakers (e.g. division), and nobody (not even you!) wants to "fix" that.
Therefore, the impact of poorly timed injuries is not a problem that needs fixing (or it "needs fixing at every level," if you prefer?).

Why do you believe that homefield should be tied to performance through the first two rounds of the playoffs, but then arbitrarily switch to alternation for the World Series?

If you are making the argument for fairness, why doesn't fairness matter during the LDS and LCS?

^^^ Appreciate the ongoing banter, but without some dramamine, I have to get off this ride. My position's been expressed, ad nauseum, and my feet are too tired to dance any more.