Why MLB should go to 28 teams

[abefrohman]

MLB expanded to 28 teams in 1993 putting 14 teams in the AL, 14 teams in the NL. Both leagues divisions were even and attendance was good in Colorado and Florida. Then, MLB decided to expand to 2 MORE teams just 5 years later in 1998 in Tampa Bay and Arizona. It has been suggested that one of the reasons why MLB expanded to two more teams was to make up for money lost during the 1994 strike. Tampa Bay also had been led to believe that they were going to have the Chicago White Sox during the late 1980s and the San Francisco Giants during the early 1990s, but neither was meant to be.


Tampa Bay has been one of the best teams in baseball since 2008 and yet their attendance is consistently one of the worst every year. They've also been trying, unsuccessfully, to get a new stadium as are the Oakland Athletics. Neither appears to be happening anytime soon. One possibility is that both Tampa Bay and Oakland relocate to new cities which I wouldn't mind, but another is contraction. Hypothetically, if Tampa Bay and Oakland were to both get eliminated, this would bring the balance back to 28 teams as it was in 1993. This works for me. So what would the new divisional alignments look like? Here would be my proposal:


AL East
Baltimore Orioles
Boston Red Sox
New York Yankees
Toronto Blue Jays
Washington Nationals (the Senators played in the AL and now the Nationals go there as well, creating a natural rivalry with the Baltimore Orioles)


AL Central
Chicago White Sox
Cleveland Indians
Detroit Tigers
Kansas City Royals
Minnesota Twins (this division stays the same)


AL West
Houston Astros
Los Angeles Angels
Seattle Mariners
Texas Rangers


NL East
Atlanta Braves
Miami Marlins
New York Mets
Philadelphia Phillies
Pittsburgh Pirates (Pittsburgh goes back to the NL East, renewing their PA rivalry with Philadelphia)


NL Central
Chicago Cubs
Cincinnati Reds
Colorado Rockies
Milwaukee Brewers
St. Louis Cardinals (Colorado moves from the NL West)


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


Thoughts?

[Le Grande Orange]

Originally Posted by abefrohman

Thoughts?

It's not going to happen. The contraction ship sailed back in 2002 and it isn't coming back. (It's interesting to recall the two teams targetted back then for contraction: Minnesota and Montreal [now Washington].)

[Déjà Bru]

Good proposals. The only things that I don't like are the 4-team Western Divisions.

[rudel.dietrich]

The Athletics are one of the oldest franchises in professional baseball. Why get rid of them just to have 14 teams per league?

It is really easy to talk about contraction when it's not your favorite franchise on the chopping block.

[Green & Gold Heart]

Works for you, but you'd be taking away the only thing outside of my family that I've loved for most of my life.

DON'T CONTRACT MY A'S

[canadiancreed]

I rather not befoul the AL East with the Natinals thanks.

[David Watts]

If anything like this were to happen, I really hope the Astros go back the NL where they belong.

[Lukas Berger]

Sure, get rid of my second and third favorite teams so I no longer have even occasional solace from the pains of being a Mets fan

[rudel.dietrich]

Originally Posted by lukasberger

Sure, get rid of my second and third favorite teams so I no longer have even occasional solace from the pains of being a Mets fan

We could contract the 29 other teams to let the Mets have a shot at being World Series runners up

[Questdog]

Instead of contracting, they should be expanding by two teams and realigning to two 8-team divisions per league and eliminating the wildcards.

But I am against the expansion because they would go to 4 4-team divisions with a couple of wildcards thrown in to boot.....

[The Game]

Originally Posted by abefrohman

MLB expanded to 28 teams in 1993 putting 14 teams in the AL, 14 teams in the NL. Both leagues divisions were even and attendance was good in Colorado and Florida. Then, MLB decided to expand to 2 MORE teams just 5 years later in 1998 in Tampa Bay and Arizona. It has been suggested that one of the reasons why MLB expanded to two more teams was to make up for money lost during the 1994 strike. Tampa Bay also had been led to believe that they were going to have the Chicago White Sox during the late 1980s and the San Francisco Giants during the early 1990s, but neither was meant to be.


Tampa Bay has been one of the best teams in baseball since 2008 and yet their attendance is consistently one of the worst every year. They've also been trying, unsuccessfully, to get a new stadium as are the Oakland Athletics. Neither appears to be happening anytime soon. One possibility is that both Tampa Bay and Oakland relocate to new cities which I wouldn't mind, but another is contraction. Hypothetically, if Tampa Bay and Oakland were to both get eliminated, this would bring the balance back to 28 teams as it was in 1993. This works for me. So what would the new divisional alignments look like? Here would be my proposal:


AL East
Baltimore Orioles
Boston Red Sox
New York Yankees
Toronto Blue Jays
Washington Nationals (the Senators played in the AL and now the Nationals go there as well, creating a natural rivalry with the Baltimore Orioles)


AL Central
Chicago White Sox
Cleveland Indians
Detroit Tigers
Kansas City Royals
Minnesota Twins (this division stays the same)


AL West
Houston Astros
Los Angeles Angels
Seattle Mariners
Texas Rangers


NL East
Atlanta Braves
Miami Marlins
New York Mets
Philadelphia Phillies
Pittsburgh Pirates (Pittsburgh goes back to the NL East, renewing their PA rivalry with Philadelphia)


NL Central
Chicago Cubs
Cincinnati Reds
Colorado Rockies
Milwaukee Brewers
St. Louis Cardinals (Colorado moves from the NL West)


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


Thoughts?

Let's contract the Cubs & Brewers. God knows the Cubs will never win anything in my lifetime and I hate the Brewers.

[Questdog]

One thing I hate about this proposal is that teams in 5 team divisions have a tougher road to the playoffs than the teams in 4-team divisions. One of the most basic reasons the National League formed in the first place was to create schedule equality among the combatants. From 1994 to 2012, MLB failed at that (and didn't seem to give a hoot)....

[BaseballMan]

MLB would relocate the A's before eliminating them. The team has had its drought years but they do have a 9 world titles. If any team should go it should be one that's never won a title. He'll even the cubs accomplished that.

[Questdog]

I wouldn't mind seeing Denver relocate. The stats there are too out of line with the rest of the league. Think how low the NL's batting average would be without them! It would prompt some action to get some action back into the game.....

[wireman]

Originally Posted by canadiancreed

I rather not befoul the AL East with the Natinals thanks.

Still bitter. I'm sorry about the Expos.

[mirrf]

Originally Posted by Green & Gold Heart

Works for you, but you'd be taking away the only thing outside of my family that I've loved for most of my life.

DON'T CONTRACT MY A'S

You don't need to contract the A's. Just wait 4 years and their good players will become available for any team.

Originally Posted by The Game

Let's contract the Cubs & Brewers. God knows the Cubs will never win anything in my lifetime and I hate the Brewers.

Cleveland and the Chicago White Sox have the lowest attendance this year. Get rid of them. Thats as good of measure as any.

But no, we shouldn't contract any team. That would be very bad for MLB, alienating fans (and potential ones) for a very long time.

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by Green & Gold Heart

Works for you, but you'd be taking away the only thing outside of my family that I've loved for most of my life.

DON'T CONTRACT MY A'S

Originally Posted by mirrf

You don't need to contract the A's. Just wait 4 years and their good players will become available for any team.

Smiles. I do root for you guys - you're in a tough situation. And, yes, people forget about how long the A's have been around. Maybe it's the memory of those 1970's uniforms?

Anyway, I was on the lookout for this and I was not disappointed:

[Jason Moyer]

Originally Posted by Questdog

Instead of contracting, they should be expanding by two teams and realigning to two 8-team divisions per league and eliminating the wildcards.

Give this man a prize.

Baseball should add a third team to NY and a second team to Philly. Would never happen, but they have the markets to handle it.

Interestingly, looking at metropolitan size, the biggest unserved markets right now for baseball are Puerto Rico and Portland (with metro sizes in the same ballpark as Denver and Pittsburgh).. Is there any doubt an expansion team in San Juan would do well?

[BaseballMan]

Originally Posted by Questdog

I wouldn't mind seeing Denver relocate. The stats there are too out of line with the rest of the league. Think how low the NL's batting average would be without them! It would prompt some action to get some action back into the game.....

Ballparks have nothing to do with the stats. It's all steroids.

[Westheim]

How somebody can call four 5-team and two 4-team divisions "balanced" is beyond me. Frankly, you have no argument here.

They may have hit the sweet spot with the current setup. Expanding to 32 would only leed to either unbalanced divisions or 4-team divisions, both of which I despise.