Episode 2: How to Fix the...MLB

[MorseMoose]

Originally Posted by norva13x

Also, move Colorado to the AL West, and Milwaukee to the AL Central, Milwaukee belongs in the American League.
I was going to move Arizona as they are the youngest NL team but I feel they fit there better then they would in the AL.

Only if the Twins move to the NL.

[MorseMoose]

Originally Posted by mlyons

It's more like the MPAA, which sets guidelines and performs public advocacy for the film industry, but doesn't have control over the different studios (which are competing against each other directly, but still benefit by having an umbrella organization trying to improve the health of the industry as a whole).

I may be wrong, but I don't think it's anything like the MPAA. A team couldn't just say "F You" to the MLB and leave to play in another league. A studio could definitely do that.

The MPAA also probably has little to no control over when a movie is scheduled for release, how it is distributed, how it is advertised, who is in the movie.

Unless I don't know what the MPAA is.

[actionjackson]

Originally Posted by norva13x

I like that for the most part, however my only issue is that a balanced schedule pretty much makes divisions useless. I like number 3, I think that would be a great alternative to any type of salary cap to increase parity. Great suggestion!

Thanks.

However, a balanced schedule does not render divisions useless. The Orioles, Rays, and Jays still have to beat out at least one of the Red Sox and Yankees, they just don't have to play them 18 or 19 freakin' times a year. Your argument makes sense sans Wild Card. With the addition of the Wild Card though the Orioles, Rays, and Jays deserve the same shot as the teams in the Central and the teams in the West have to lay claim to it. There is no way you can claim that they have that right now. Not even close.

Now, if you want to add two more teams to the AL, dump the Wild Card, and have four 4 team divisions in each league with an unbalanced schedule, I'd be down with that. I'm not sure MLB would though because it would mean, assuming the Yankees and Red Sox were in the same division (and why wouldn't they be? FOX would demand it), that either one or the other would be in the playoffs at the most, but not both. Of course at that point MLB would expand the playoffs in a desperate attempt to get FOX's, I mean, their beloved rivals into the playoffs together as often as possible. It's a bit of a farce really and I don't see much of a way around it, until baseball fans get fed up with Yankees/Red Sox, Red Sox/Yankees, Yankees/Red Sox and on and on ad nauseam and start tuning out...I'm pretty bored with it, but I'm not stupid enough to claim that I represent any more than 1% of MLB fandom (if that) though. I'm sure it'll take a long while for people to get as sick of it as I am. "The Rivalry" is just far too "compelling".

[mlyons]

Originally Posted by MorseMoose

If I was working for Best Buy, I sure as hell could be moved states.

But Best Buy is a single corporate entity. You couldn't be moved between different franchises of McDonalds.

I don't agree with that though. Sure, I know next to nothing about the details, just my cursory thoughts.

It doesn't matter in the slightest whether or not you agree with it. That's just the way it is.

[Erik W.]

(Edit: This part was aimed at actionjackson.)

As a Cardinals fan, why would I want to see them play the Nats the same number of times they play the Cubs?

Having interesting match-ups during an interminable season trumps whatever competitive balance you're aiming for.

If we're going to mess around with the schedule:

- Get rid of inter-league play.

- Fire whoever has been doing the schedules for the last couple of seasons. They seem to have no concept of when match-ups should take place. For example, the Cardinals and Cubs met once after the All Star break. Once. Ridiculous.

[actionjackson]

Originally Posted by MorseMoose

Right...cause being paid MILLIONS of dollars is servitude.

If I'm working in any business, I'm subject to be forced to move stores/schools/locations. If I don't want to, I can find a different job.

I think the biggest problem that I have with the MLB is that I see the MLB as the business and the (capital T) Team as stores. The team as the product.

I think the MLB sees it as (capital T) Team as an individual business that competes against other business.

Curt Flood said it was servitude, and he was a pretty smart, courageous man, but I'm sure half the gazillionaires in today's game don't even know who the man is.

Baseball is not any business, it is a huge business, where owners make hundreds of millions of dollars and the slaves who toil for them only see mere tens of millions of dollars.

I wholeheartedly agree on your last point. MLB is the business. The teams are parts of the whole. Kind of like different departments within one business. The best thing for the business is to have each department functioning at an optimum/efficient level. If one department isn't functioning well, the others are going to suffer for it. But what do I know? I'm just a bitter Jays fan.

[mlyons]

Originally Posted by MorseMoose

I may be wrong, but I don't think it's anything like the MPAA. A team couldn't just say "F You" to the MLB and leave to play in another league. A studio could definitely do that.

Why couldn't they? It's never been in their best business to do so, but there is nothing to keep the Yankees and Red Sox from packing up their things and starting up their own league. They'd have trouble retaining their players, probably, because the MLBPA has a collective bargaining agreement in place with MLB, but if they could convince all their players to leave the union, there wouldn't be a damn thing Bud Selig could do about it.

This has actually happened in Europe a few times already in soccer -- when teams don't feel their current leagues are serving their best interests, they just start new ones. It's a little easier to do over there, though, because the player unions aren't generally as strong.

[MorseMoose]

Originally Posted by mlyons

Why couldn't they? It's never been in their best business to do so, but there is nothing to keep the Yankees and Red Sox from packing up their things and starting up their own league. They'd have trouble retaining their players, probably, because the MLBPA has a collective bargaining agreement in place with MLB, but if they could convince all their players to leave the union, there wouldn't be a damn thing Bud Selig could do about it.

This has actually happened in Europe a few times already in soccer -- when teams don't feel their current leagues are serving their best interests, they just start new ones. It's a little easier to do over there, though, because the player unions aren't generally as strong.

OK, we'll have to agree to disagree on what the MLB is (or isn't) - court ruling be damned.

All I'm saying is I think it'd make the MLB better if there wasn't a no-trade clause.

[actionjackson]

Originally Posted by Erik W.

(Edit: This part was aimed at actionjackson.)

As a Cardinals fan, why would I want to see them play the Nats the same number of times they play the Cubs?

Having interesting match-ups during an interminable season trumps whatever competitive balance you're aiming for.

If we're going to mess around with the schedule:

- Get rid of inter-league play.

- Fire whoever has been doing the schedules for the last couple of seasons. They seem to have no concept of when match-ups should take place. For example, the Cardinals and Cubs met once after the All Star break. Once. Ridiculous.

The bolded part is the fault of the silly computer scheduling system.

You'd still get to see the Cubs play, it just wouldn't comprise one ninth of the schedule or whatever it is. You know, it makes it more of an event. Interleague has destroyed the mystery and intrigue that used to happen when AL met NL in the World Series. In the same way so many games within a division kind of takes the mickey out of a rivalry.

A really good example of the destruction of a rivalry due to the lack of games outside the division is the rivalry between the Tigers and Jays in the mid-'80's. A lot of Tiger fans live up this way. It was a huge rivalry. They now play six, and if you're lucky seven and sometimes nine or ten games a year. Phhht! There goes that rivalry. It really lacks the intensity it used to have. It's just another game in the schedule against a non-divisional opponent, so that 18 or 19 can be played against opponents within your own division. Meh...Bah humbug...Phooey!

[norva13x]

Originally Posted by MorseMoose

Only if the Twins move to the NL.

lol, why?

[MorseMoose]

Originally Posted by norva13x

lol, why?

I want the Twins in the NL. They dominate the NL every year and are just built for the NL, imo.

[William Foster]

Originally Posted by MorseMoose

I want the Twins in the NL. They dominate the NL every year and are just built for the NL, imo.

Technically their one of the original 8 AL Teams though. If we start moving teams around like that we might as well abandon the "League" system.

[jaxmagicman]

Originally Posted by Erik W.

(Edit: This part was aimed at actionjackson.)

As a Cardinals fan, why would I want to see them play the Nats the same number of times they play the Cubs?

Having interesting match-ups during an interminable season trumps whatever competitive balance you're aiming for.

If we're going to mess around with the schedule:

- Get rid of inter-league play.

- Fire whoever has been doing the schedules for the last couple of seasons. They seem to have no concept of when match-ups should take place. For example, the Cardinals and Cubs met once after the All Star break. Once. Ridiculous.

Why does it matter when they meet? A game in April=A game in September.

[Erik W.]

Originally Posted by jaxmagicman

Why does it matter when they meet? A game in April=A game in September.

Because drama is fun? Because wrapping up the division race against your rival of over a century is cool? Because not all of us are robots who look only at numbers and equations to determine their enjoyment of a sport?

Crazy, I know.

The bolded part is the fault of the silly computer scheduling system.

There's still a human element to it. The schedule has been noticeably different since the married couple that had been doing it was replaced.

That said, the Cards' 2010 September schedule looks better, with the exception of wrapping up the season against the Rockies.

[jbergey22]

Originally Posted by MorseMoose

I may be wrong, but I don't think it's anything like the MPAA. A team couldn't just say "F You" to the MLB and leave to play in another league. A studio could definitely do that.

The MPAA also probably has little to no control over when a movie is scheduled for release, how it is distributed, how it is advertised, who is in the movie.

Unless I don't know what the MPAA is.

The Yankees COULD go around barnstormin if they wanted kind of like the Harlem Globetrotters do in basketball.

It really wouldnt be a smart business decision at this point but if the league got too harsh with them they certainly COULD do it.

The league cant force them to to do anything. It would be like you going out and buying a McDonalds franchise. As long as you are using their their supplies and advertising you have to follow their rules. If you decided to get rid of their franchise label and start your own fast food chain you can do whatever you want.

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by actionjackson

However, a balanced schedule does not render divisions useless.

Uh, yes it does, for a very simple reason. With a balanced schedule, each club plays every other club in the league the same (or nearly the same) number of times. That means you could rearrange the divisions in any way you want—since divisional rivals will be played just as often as teams out of the divisions, then any given divisional alignment is just as fair as any other. The result is that the divisions are arbitrary and meaningless.

Originally Posted by actionjackson

The bolded part is the fault of the silly computer scheduling system.

No, it has to do with the complicated and interconnected nature of the schedule format, stadium availability, travel requirements, and club preferences. Sometimes the gigantic jigsaw puzzle that is a Major League schedule leaves few good schedule options.

[Tom the Fish]

Get rid of the DH, Wild Card and Interleague play.

Bring the Braves back to Boston and the Dodgers back to Brooklyn. Contract the Red Sox and Yankees.

Tom

[bwburke94]

Add extra interleague series. AL teams play 8 series, NL teams play 7.

[Tony M]

Say it ain't so, MM?

[MorseMoose]

Originally Posted by Tony M

Say it ain't so, MM?

edit: because it doesn't make sense to say "How to Fix the Major League Baseball". Got it.