MLB Expansion Plan

[PSUColonel]

Originally Posted by Klew1986

Interesting setup, but not sure how I feel about Baltimore moving to NL

That was the one I didn't like either, but it does set up a Baltimore-Washington rivalry

[Klew1986]

I like that set up, but I was hoping to have one of the teams in the NL, so I could be them. I'm not a fan of the DH.

[PSUColonel]

Here's a second tale:
American League

East
New York Yankees
Boston Red Sox
Toronto Blue Jays
Baltimore Orioles

North
Chicago White Sox
Detroit Tigers
Minnesota Twins
Cleveland Indians

South
Texas Rangers
Houston Astros
Kansas City Royals
Mexico City / Austin / Nashville (expansion)

West
Los Angeles Angels
Oakland Athletics
Seattle Mariners
Colorado Rockies (switch)
National League

East
New York Mets
Philadelphia Phillies
Pittsburgh Pirates
Montreal Expos (expansion)

Atlantic
Atlanta Braves
Washington Nationals
Miami Marlins
Tampa Bay Rays (switch)

North
Chicago Cubs
St. Louis Cardinals
Cincinnati Reds
Milwaukee Brewers

West
Los Angeles Dodgers
San Francisco Giants
San Diego Padres
Arizona Diamondbacks

[Klew1986]

I'm going with that one.

[jpeters1734]

Can I get in your draft

[iverbure]

Mexico City... ugh. as if Colorado isn't bad enough.

[iverbure]

I would go with 4 divisions, well if it was up to me I'd do a away with all divisions and everyone plays under the same rules and the top 8 best teams make the playoffs regardless of geography. what I think they will end up doing is going back to 4 divisions.

AL EAST
New York
Boston
Toronto
Baltimore
Detroit
Cleveland
Tampa Bay
Milwaukee

AL West
Angels
Oakland
Texas
Seattle
Minnesota
Chicago
Kansas City
Houston

NL East
New York
Washington
Philadelphia
Miami
Atlanta
Pittsburgh
Montreal
Cincinnati

NL West
Dodgers
Giants
Arizona
Colorado
San Diego
St Louis
New Mexico City
Cubs
why was Cincinnati in the nl west before and the cubs in the east?

could also do new mexico city in the al west and Houston in the nl west.

[Matt Arnold]

When I re-align, I tend to do big re-alignments personally. I'll often create a google map, throw a pin for each city, and just start drawing lines until I have equal(ish) divisions. I find it's the best way to visualize things, and teach you a little about geography. Of course, whenever I do that, I'm always shocked by how far East things are shifted, and how much in the middle of nowhere Colorado and Seattle truly are.

*Of course, to each their own, which is why this game is awesome

[Padreman]

Originally Posted by Matt Arnold

When I re-align, I tend to do big re-alignments personally. I'll often create a google map, throw a pin for each city, and just start drawing lines until I have equal(ish) divisions. I find it's the best way to visualize things, and teach you a little about geography. Of course, whenever I do that, I'm always shocked by how far East things are shifted, and how much in the middle of nowhere Colorado and Seattle truly are.

*Of course, to each their own, which is why this game is awesome

I do the exact same thing with Google maps and the pe I do the exact same thing with Google maps and the pins

[kq76]

Originally Posted by iverbure

what I think they will end up doing is going back to 4 divisions.

I agree. I just can't see them going to 4 team divisions. I think 5-6 team divisions is probably the sweet spot though considering you don't want teams to look too far out of it which you get with large divisions and you don't want the less divisional games that you get with small divisions.

The more interesting question I think is: what do they do with the playoffs? They might expand them, but I can't see them contracting them. So if you go to 2 divisions per league you're probably going to have the division winners plus 3 or 4 wild cards per league. Probably have 4 WCs play and give the div winners byes in the first round, which I'm sure some people will say is unwise, the go from there. If you go with 4 divisions per league then obviously the div winners make it, but since they won't contract the playoffs they'll probably have 2 WCs, then the 2 best div winners get byes and the rest start the first round. However you expand though, I'm not sure you can get away without byes. Are we really going to have all 4 WCs play 1 game series, or worse, 2 div winners play 1 game series? I doubt it.

I don't know. I'd love to see expansion, but something tells me they don't hate 30 teams and would rather teams relocate than them expand. Besides, at some point you're diluting your revenue per team. For every team you expand by you're decreasing the chances that a team in a larger market will make the playoffs which increases the revenue for everyone I think. The only 2 probable exceptions to this, however, are Montreal and Mexico since putting teams there probably does markedly increase MLB revenue. Think about it, baseball fans in Charlotte, Portland, Austin, or even my home town, Vancouver, are probably fans of some existing MLB team. Montreal and Mexico, not so much I think. It should be no surprise that they are the two locations MLB has been talking up lately.

Originally Posted by Matt Arnold

When I re-align, I tend to do big re-alignments personally. I'll often create a google map, throw a pin for each city, and just start drawing lines until I have equal(ish) divisions. I find it's the best way to visualize things, and teach you a little about geography. Of course, whenever I do that, I'm always shocked by how far East things are shifted, and how much in the middle of nowhere Colorado and Seattle truly are.

*Of course, to each their own, which is why this game is awesome

Heh, I do something similar. Well, I don't put pins in, but I do eyeball it from google maps.

I'm not afraid to mix it up with re-alignment either. Yeah, you might lose the odd rivalry, but new rivalries will be made and old ones may have died anyway.

I'm over the predominance of teams being in the east, but it does lead me to favour re-alignment based on geography rather than tradition. Forget AL/NL history, I'd rather have geographically-based divisions.

[cheo25]

I always move Pittsburgh to the NL East to revive the Phillies-Pirates rivalry that was an intense one a long time ago. I move the Astros back to the NL where they belong and the Brewers to the AL. Sometimes I put the Astros back in the West to renew hostilities with the Dodgers, Padres and Giants. It just depends on which cities I add in expansion. I've also done an Atlanta/Cubs/Houston/St. Louis division.

And I've put Washington in the American League. DC has some history there and also it sets up a Baltimore-Washington rivalry, though that rivalry was usually a snoozer because both teams weren't good at the same time.

[BigRed75]

Originally Posted by iverbure

why was Cincinnati in the nl west before and the cubs in the east?

Cubs and Cardinals were originally in the West, but they didn't want all those games in the Pacific time zone. So the Cubs and Cards lobbied successfully for the East together (the perks of having strong owners in Wm. Wrigley and Gussie Busch) and stuck the next two "Westernmost" teams, Reds and Braves, in the NL West.

[PSUColonel]

if you do this, would you be kind enough to document how to go about expansion step by step? It's something I've considered, but don't trust myself to do it correctly.

[rjl518]

Originally Posted by Charley575

This alignment makes good geographical sense, but as a native South Floridian I'll jump in just to note that there is a reason why both in MLB and the NFL the league goes out of its way to put the South Florida team in the same division with a New York team. There are a lot of New York transplants in South Florida.

Side Story!
When I was growing up in Broward County in the 80s it was extremely common to see "I (heart) NY" bumper stickers on cars driving around town. This spawned a response from native Floridians "If you (heart) NY, GO BACK".

I digress... Florida-New York is sort of a natural rivalry because of the number of New Yorkers living down there and the sports leagues seem to recognize it. Consider the NFL. Really, Miami should be in the AFC South and Indianapolis should be in the AFC East, but the NFL decided that Dolphins-Jets was too good a rivalry to break up. If you are ever in SoFLa during football season wen the Jets are in town, go. You'll see what I mean. Don't wear Jets gear unless you know you will be sitting around a lot of Jets fans, in which case, don't wear Dolphins gear. Could get ugly.

I am a MIA Dolphins fan living in SoFla.
Every word you said was very very true!

[1994WSChamps]

As a lifelong Expos when I'm obsessed with the MLB's expansion, I hang on Manfred's every word... I say this in reference to the 8 team divisions b's the 4 team divisions. I think most people would prefer 8 teams. But Manfred has said 4's work better than the current 5's. I guess that could could also means 8's but I take to mean 4 divisions of 4. I think Playoffs fall more inline with the current system, 4 division winners and 2 WC, as opposed to 2 division winners and potentially 4 WCs. I have a hard time seeing baseball allowed 3rd places teams into the playoffs (I realize it's could happen now, the current system is horrible imho).

I'm probably one of the few Expos fans that is hoping they get put in the NL East. Obviously the potential rivalry with NYY, Bos & Tor probably are best for ticket sales, but I'm a traditionalist, our rivals are NYM, Philly, Atlanta etc..., for those who don't live up here, Toronto/Boston vs Montreal are big deals, they would be instant rivalries and the Yankees are the Yankees, everyone hates them. Not to mention NYY and Sox fans travel well.

[Klew1986]

Originally Posted by Klew1986

Hey everyone. I just simulated the 2016 season and am planning to expand to 32 teams. My plan is to bring back the Montreal Expos and have a team in Mexico City. Here is what I have planned for the re-alignment. I would appreciate any feedback/ideas.

AL East: Baltimore, Boston, New York, (Montreal)
AL Central: Chicago, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Texas
AL North: Cleveland, Detroit, Minnesota, Toronto
AL West: Los Angeles (A), Oakland, Seattle, San Diego

NL East: New York (N), Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington
NL Central: Atlanta, Chicago, Cincinnati, St. Louis
NL South: Houston, Miami, Tampa Bay, (Mexico City)
NL West: Arizona, Colorado, Los Angeles (N), San Francisco

Would you guys change anything about this? I would love to have Toronto and Montreal in same division, but I can't see Baltimore switching to NL.

[kq76]

I figure this is the easiest way to do it keeping the existing alignments intact as much as possible with going back to 8 team divisions:

NL West	NL East	AL West	AL East
Giants	Mets	Mariners	Yankees
Dodgers	Nationals	As	Red Sox
Padres	Expos	Angels	Orioles
Diamondbacks	Phillies	Astros	Blue Jays
Rockies	Pirates	Rangers	White Sox
Brewers	Braves	Royals	Indians
Cardinals	Reds	Twins	Tigers
Cubs	Marlins	Toros	Rays

This is what I'd prefer:

Pacific	Atlantic	South	Central
Mariners	Yankees	Marlins	Pirates
Giants	Red Sox	Rays	White Sox
Dodgers	Expos	Astros	Cubs
Padres	Mets	Rangers	Indians
Diamondbacks	Phillies	Toros	Tigers
Angels	Nationals	Braves	Brewers
As	Orioles	Royals	Twins
Rockies	Blue Jays	Cardinals	Reds

[captaincoop17]

My league expanded to Montreal and Portland and did this...

MLB Alignment
AL East: NYY BOS BAL TB
AL Central: CWS DET CLE TOR
AL Midwest: HOU TEX KC MIN
AL Pacific: LAA OAK SEA POR

NL East: NYM WAS PHI MON
NL Central: ATL CIN PIT MIA
NL Midwest: CHC STL MIL COL
NL Pacific: LAD SF SD ARI

[Kronos]

I went with a six team expansion, go all the way.

AL East: NYY, Boston, Baltimore, Montreal (E), Detroit, Toronto
AL Cent: Chicago, Minnesota, Kansas City, Texas, Houston, San Antonio (E)
AL West: Seattle, Portland (E), San Jose, Los Angeles, Sacramento (E), Colorado

NL East: NYM, Philadelphia, Washington, Atlanta, Florida, Carolina(moved TB)
NL Cent: Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, St.Louis, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh
NL West: Arizona, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Mexico City (E), Monterrey (E).

[BigRed75]

Originally Posted by kq76

I'm over the predominance of teams being in the east, but it does lead me to favour re-alignment based on geography rather than tradition. Forget AL/NL history, I'd rather have geographically-based divisions.

I hate geographically based divisions. One of the best things about baseball is that you can have a Subway Series, Battle of the Bay, or the L.A. or Chicago teams battle it out in the World Series. That's impossible with geographical divisions. It's one thing MLB and the NFL get right and the NBA, NHL and MLS get wrong.