Many ideas have been floated in regards to how a 2020 Major League Baseball season might work. We’ve seen two-, three-, five-, 10- and 12-state plans come to the fore. The possibility of every major league team playing in its home stadium without spectators has also been mentioned. The latest unconventional suggestion became public Tuesday, when Bob Nightengale of USA Today reported MLB could start sometime in late June or early July and scrap the traditional American and National Leagues for a season and shift to a three-division plan consisting of 10 teams apiece. Here’s how it would shake out…
East:
- Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, Nationals, Orioles, Phillies, Pirates, Blue Jays, Rays, Marlins
West:
- Dodgers, Angels, Giants, Athletics, Padres, Diamondbacks, Rockies, Rangers, Astros, Mariners
Central:
- Cubs, White Sox, Brewers, Cardinals, Royals, Reds, Indians, Twins, Braves, Tigers
The 10 teams in each division would only play one another during the regular season, so you wouldn’t see, say, the rival Mets and Braves match up. It’s a bizarre setup for those accustomed to a six-division league, but everybody’s health permitting, wouldn’t a weird baseball season be better than no baseball season at all? What do you think about this idea? (Poll link for app users)
I’m all for baseball retuning but at certain point it feels kind of like watering it down to just do it
…and I’m fine with that, this year.
Me too! Let’s just get a plan together and make it happen
I would prefer the same six divisions but you play only the other four teams in your division. We don’t know how many games will be played but I’m assuming no more than 60 to 80. I’d rather have a large number of rivalry games as a fan. Yes it could get tiring but nothing will get my juices flowing more than Sox games against the Yankees.
Sox and Yankees and still in the same division
But the number of games played would be far less. For this year to matter after the first week, rivalries are needed with many games. To have The Pirates knock out the Yankees just won’t mean the same as Boston doing it.
They’re planning on 100 to 120 games
My thought is keep the 6 divisions the same, play the 4 teams in your division and nterleague games with your counterpart (ex. A.L. East vs N.L. East) to a certain date–let’s say Aug 1 (or maybe Aug 15, depending on start of the season). This date is the fork in the road.
If the U.S. is deemed safe enough for the teams to travel cross-country, play a 3-game series with each non-division league opponent (that’s 30 games there). Of course you would have to save a few interleague series for this (odd number of teams in each league). I don’t think there would be enough time for 3 home, 3 away for each non-division league opponent, but that’s a possibility also. Finish the season with division games.
If the U.S. is still not deemed safe by that date, have the division and interleague games continue until season’s end. You would obviously need two schedules created for this, but it doesn’t need to be anything fancy. And it would only change after the “fork in the road” date.
I’ve already suggested a similar plan several times here. My impression is hardly anybody seems to appreciate the advantages of not blowing up the divisions. Kind of shocking but true.
@BlueSkyLA
They’re overthinking it. Instead of smaller, common sense changes, they want to make unnecessary massive overhauls to the league. I guess whatever it ultimately takes to get MLB playing again, but it seems like a massive undertaking when there’s a far simpler solution.
Either that or they are using this opportunity to resuscitate the old Selig plan to do away with the leagues and move to regional divisions.
This year is special. I’m fine with just having baseball again
No, in my opinion, a weird baseball season would not be better than no baseball season at all. If my grocer is out of chicken, I’m not going eat a rat sandwich because it’s better than nothing. I’ll just skip lunch instead.
But if they’re out of fresh sliced Boar’s Head Bold Chipotle Chicken I can settle for a 75¢ pack of Buddig chicken as an alternative to starving until dinner.
This a closer analogy than rat sandwich.
Much closer.
rat sandwich is pretty accurate. Mixing AL and NL teams is a joke of a season and would be even more of a joke in the postseason
Are you familiar with interleague play? It’s only been around since 1997.
How on earth would playoffs work with 3 divisions?
Probably an expanded version of how they do now in each league, with three division winners and some number of wild-card teams. MLB already has proposed increasing the number of teams in the postseason to 14 instead of 10; maybe you would have 11 wild-cards along with the three division winners, with the two division winners with the best records getting byes into round two. That would require five rounds to get down to the final two teams, so it would be a balance between how many games you would want in each series vs. how deep into the year you would want to go. Nightengale’s piece only refers to an “expanded playoff format”; in The Athletic, Ken Rosenthal talked about “an 80- to 100-game regular season, with the schedule running through October. An expanded postseason at neutral sites might follow, with the World Series ending in late November or early December.”
Rats have plenty of Vitamin C, FYI.
😉
I am not a fan of it, but if it is the only way to get baseball this year. Then fine lets do it.
What in the world is the point of this plan if the games are played in empty home stadiums?
Assuming that progress continues virus-wise, the idea is for players to live at their regular-season homes with their families instead of being quarantined en masse somewhere, which will be much more appealing to them. Plus games would be played in real MLB stadiums instead of spring training parks, which would help make things a little more legit. And owners still hope to have limited attendance for games later in the schedule, so this ramps up to that. The season still may need to start in Arizona/Florida/etc., though, depending on how things are going.
Then what’s the point of the bizarre realignment? That was my question. If travel is the issue (and I don’t see why it should be) then simply play most of the remaining games within the existing divisions (as most of them already are anyway) and forget making up crazy divisions and the utterly meaningless postseason they imply.
Yes, reducing travel is a big piece of the plan, to limit both cost and health risks (like it was for the Arizona/Florida concepts). As Nightengale says in the article linked above (which it might be helpful to read), “The plan, pending approval of medical experts and providing that COVID-19 testing is available to the public, would eliminate the need for players to be in isolation and allow them to still play at their home ballparks while severely reducing travel.”
None of this requires realignment, at all, as I have already pointed out.
I agree with you. Not sure why you would need to realign anything except who plays whom. The MLB schedule is already weighted toward intra-division games, and rightfully so.
Maybe make 3/5 – 2/3 games intra-division (i.e. NL East vs. NL East) with the remainder against geographically close opponents (Presumably intraleague, but the Braves are technically closer to the Mets than the Marlins).
To have some element of normalcy. If the Dodgers playoff games are in an empty Dodger Stadium thats still better than some spring training site.
This could be accomplished easily with no realignment at all.
Without realignment the Dodgers would have games scheduled in NY. So the realignment prevents cross-country travel. Seems pretty straightforward.
Okay, go ahead and make me say this a third time. My suggestion is for the teams play a normal number of games within their own divisions, and any additional games with teams in the same division, other league. Travel is minimized (more than the three-division plan for most teams), the divisions don’t have to get blown up, and the postseason can be played in the normal way. Now that seems pretty straightforward to me. Maybe it’s too straightforward?
There are not enough teams in each division to keep the regular alignment. The NL West can’t just play the NL West all year. That would be extremely boring with the same teams playing each other every week.
Now I think what you’re saying is you would keep the divisions but have one division’s NL teams play that AL division teams as well (NL West for AL West for example)? If so, that’s not really much different from what this proposed plan is.
You skipped over some essential parts of my suggestion. Start with some arithmetic. The first number to consider is how many games can realistically be played this year. About half (81) is probably a good place to start. That is the definition of “all year” this year. The second number is how many games teams normally play against teams in their divisions (18-20, adding up to more than half of the schedule). So if teams play a half season each and each team within their existing division 12 times, that leaves 21 games to be played against teams not in their division, a proportion not much different than what it is normally. Those games could include the traditional cross-town rivalry matches and other nearby teams. Why anyone would consider this format to be extremely boring stupefies me, honestly.
This plan is far different from the proposal being discussed. It preserves the existing divisions, results in meaningful division winners, and doesn’t require the creation of a bizarre one-time playoffs format that will produce results that nobody will care about.
It would leave 33 extra games since you don’t play yourself. Or you add to the 12 you suggested. 4 other divisional teams, so 4*12 is 48, leaving 33 remaining of the 81
Please explain.
You’re right, I was originally thinking 15 games within the division so if it’s only 12 that leaves 33 games outside of the division, pretty close to the balance in a normal season. No matter how the balance of intra-and-inter division games is adjusted, keeping the divisions intact is still far preferable to creating these phony divisions. That would be like a season of nothing but exhibition games.
The 33 games outside of the division is the problem and the main reason for the realignment.
Read all the reporting on this (it isn’t much) and feel free to point out where this has been identified as a problem, let alone, the problem, the reason, or even a reason. If you can’t come up with that (and I’m pretty sure you won’t, because it isn’t there), then please feel free to explain in your own words why you believe it’s the problem, or the reason.
Your plan, which I don’t dislike by the way, leaves 33 games outside of the division, but with travel restrictions who are those games going to be played against? Interleague teams? If so isn’t your plan just another form of realignment? I have issue with either method, but the original realignment does allow for more variety of schedule.
They play the teams in the same division in the other league. Assuming 81 games in the season, teams play four, three-game series against every team in their division, two home, two away. This accounts for 48 games. They play two series against every team in the same division in the other league, one home, one away. This accounts for 24 games. The remaining 9 games can be cross-town rivalry matchups (one home, one away), and an additional game added to three of the series. Everyone plays exactly as many teams as in the realignment (9). And since the divisions aren’t changed, it involves no realignment whatsoever. The division winners are still the division winners and the playoffs proceed as they normally would, including a World Series of the NL vs. the AL.
It’s simple, really, and can easily be expanded if more games can be played. Much simpler than the realignment plan currently being floated. It’s so much simpler in fact it raises the question of why MLB is even considering a much more disruptive plan that is so clearly unnecessary. I believe there’s ulterior motive, which is seeing if fans will go for the elimination of the traditional leagues, a setup that costs ownership a lot of money in travel costs that they’d rather not be spending this year, or any other, if they can help it.
I meant to say I have no issue with either plan. I just think your plan is keeping the divisions in name only because essentially the AL West and NL West for example would really be the same league. Some NL and AL teams would still never play each other. So while I don’t dislike it, it’s just another form of realignment, no? And some of the divisions don’t exactly match up location wise.
That being said, I think your plan is fine. I see arguments for both.
It’s kind of puzzling why you continue to think if this as a realignment when nothing would be realigned. All the of teams remain in their divisions, and the proportion of games played inside and outside of the divisions would be essentially the same as a normal season. Anyway, I think I’ve explained it enough now. I will only reiterate the belief that MLB is using this crisis as a way to test whether fans will stand for the destruction of the league system and the World Series as we’ve known them for over 1oo years, and this in fact is the only argument for it, since it addresses no other problem that can’t be addressed by less disruptive means. Remember where you heard it first.
Television. Check it out.
I would flip Braves to the East and blue jays to the central but other than that I think this would work.
Agreed. This was an odd standout for me as well.
Why, in this list, are the pirates in the east and braves in the central?
Atlanta is almost 300 hundred miles west of Pittsburgh, it’s pretty much due south of Cincinnati.
if that’s the case then permanently move the pirates to the east and braves to the central for 2021. Otherwise keep them in their only divisions
it is the case
Houston in the AL West is ridiculous. That fast to chamge at some point.
Reminiscent of Cincinnati & Atlanta in the old NL West and Chicago & St. Louis in the East.
I had the same thought. After thinking for a bit came to the conclusion the existence of the Marlins down South creates the need for another team in the area and it’s not like Pitt is miss placed where they are.
This is my least favorite plan so far. I don’t really mind mixing up the divisions or whatever, but how would you make this work with the DH? I’m guessing everyone would just use a DH which would be a penalty for all NL teams who weren’t prepared.
It’s one season and everyone knows the DH is coming. Teams should’ve been planning for the DH. Rosters are likely to expand anyways and a lot of AL teams don’t have a true DH and rotate players anyways. It won’t effect anything.
Use the home stadiums rules could work. Balance out the fairness.
Hate the DH but how prepared do you have to be?
If you’ve been following the social cues and politics of the pandemic, you know that theres a snowball’s chance in he1l that large entertainment / sports gatherings will be allowed in all baseball states by July. Therefore, no fans in the stands is a guarantee.
…
Then take into account the Mike Trout scenario (as an example) where he said theres zero chance hes staying away from his pregnant wife for 4-5 straight months. Players should have access to their families. To do that, games need to be geographically close.
…
To that end, I’m struggling why this (or any realistic scenario) would not be acceptable to a baseball fan.
Because nothing that it purports to accomplish can’t be accomplished without the realignment. I am struggling with understanding why that isn’t clear to everyone who looks at it.
The realignment is necessary to limit travel, which will help teams save some of the money they’re losing from not haviing fans in the stands,
No, it is not necessary. At all. Less travel would be required if the teams simply played out the remaining games within the existing divisions. This at least creates the possibility of a meaningful postseason, which is totally obliterated by the realignment. Notice how the postseason isn’t even mentioned in the reporting? Might be a good reason for that.
What you are missing is that by limiting travel, which is necessary, you are limiting the opponents that you play. It’s either going to be only 5 teams or 10. At least this way a team isnt playing the same 4 opponents all season long. Realignment is needed because to be blunt, reducing travel is more important than the status quo. There is less travel if you swap the Braves and Pirates. Is there an argument for keeping 6 divisions but just swapping the two teams? I suppose. But if you’re going to have each team play the other 9 opponents equally for the sake of TV not getting boring, the “weight” of the 2 eastern divisions is gone anyway.
Very well-put, thanks! (And Nightengale does reference the posteason, in terms of an “expanded playoff format” that “promises to be radically different”; those details likely haven’t been finalized yet.)
No, I am not missing that at all, but I can see what you are missing. Pick a team, any team. Make it Arizona. The farthest opponent within their own division is San Francisco, about 600 miles away. Put them in a division with Seattle and Houston, and now they are flying twice as far to play them. This is the result for every team in the western divisions, in fact. See how this plan doesn’t actually accomplish what it supposed to accomplish? It would make far more sense to have the teams play a normal number of games with teams within their own division (12) and the remaining games (assuming they can play a half season’s worth) with teams in same division of the other league. No blow up required.
So you would have Arizona play San Francisco every week? I’m not being sarcastic with that. Just trying to understand what you mean here. I think the idea of realignment is to create diversity of schedule without adding too much travel.
Anyway, I don’t disagree with your plan per se, but if you’re adding in the interleague division games I don’t really see much difference from this realignment plan. For example, the NL East would never play the NL West, so there’s really no need to separate the NL and the AL. So why not realign to create diversity of schedule?
For the reasons I’ve already described several times. The proportion of games inside and outside the divisions would not change much from a normal season.
Completely agree.
Changing division alignment is not necessary to change a team’s schedule to be closer to home.
Players like Trout should be allowed to not work. It’s really pretty simple. There’s no reason to allow a few superstars to effectively create a strike.
yes but pirates and Atlanta stay in the central and west. No reason to change that
Seriously why would Atlanta move to the central and Pittsburgh go to the west. That makes no sense
by west you mean east, and yes it makes sense geographically
Yeah. Days all blend together. Extremely tired.
Thank you
Days, weeks, months. It’s all very similar.
they could play in 3 states as in idaho, montana and wyoming!
Or, three states as in confusion, apathy and disbelief.
I don’t like the idea of doing something just because it’s possible and might resemble a season. I think that if you can’t have a season with the structure of MLB, then you cancel the season. I’m ok with a shortened season, but to try to throw together a league because it’s “the only way it can work” that’s just crazy to me. Maybe if it isn’t safe enough to travel to your normal scheduled games, you shouldn’t be playing. We will be here next year and itching for baseball.
The problem with that line of thinking is that hundreds if not thousands of non-athletes that work for the teams will lose their jobs and eventually their income if there is no baseball this year. The Phillies president literally made the comment that they haven’t started layoffs/furloughs because they expect to generate revenue from games this year. Being safe is the number one concern of course, but keeping the economy moving is also important.
I am all for any sort of a season we can manage out of this, however, I am sure that under this no-fans scenario most of the employees that would normally be employed by MLB would still be laid off/furloughed, and they would not be making much money on a season happening.
The TV crew, announcers, and sports writers would have jobs. Probably some security crew. Basically everyone else who works at the ballpark would still be unneeded Sure a lot of the coaches and training staff would be working, but they don’t seem to be advocating for MiLB to come back so that still means all those coaches/players and ballpark employees are out of work, and teams wouldn’t need scouts much either. Additionally MLB will not make much additional revenue unless they break their TV contracts and make people pay to watch their quarantine games on some streaming service or something. That would be seen as greedy in the face of a pandemic.
The one certainty is that it will not be a “normal” season.
But wouldn’t 40% employment still be better than 0%?
Mets and yanks in same division. Sounds like fun. Plus I’m tired of seeing acuna and soto
I don’t know why I wrote Soto I meant freeman… I’m still tired of seeing Soto but……
But have you seen him dance?
Why 3 divisions? How would playoffs work?
I don’t see what people are getting upset about. The divisions have nothing to do with how the games are played. It is still baseball. Besides, Atlanta, Cincinnati, and Houston a used to be in the NL West. Baseball had been around 80 years before divisional play started.
As a Rangers fan this plan blows. Travel not reduced at all for either Texas team, and this would have almost all road games starting at 9PM local time.
I’d much rather keep current division setup and play in empty stadiums. This plan doesn’t reduce travel all that much other than eliminating the East vs West games. Besides, the teams will be flying everywhere anyways, there’s no extra risk in flying 5 hours instead of 3.
Lol you do realize teams would all be sharing a stadium not using their home parks right?
I’m pretty sure you are mistaken. The article says that teams will be playing in their home stadiums, and living at home with their families. The plan is to reduce travel as much as possible by limiting the teams to play other teams nearby.
The article says there has been many plans thought of…only one idea is to play at home before fans. They are looking at 2,3-12 state options. No definite stadium plans….just ideas. Lots of options to look at.
This plan is just stupid and would make the season a joke. Keep the NL, the NL, and AL, the AL, otherwise cancel the season rather than turn it into a circus.
This circus would make it impossible to count 2020 stats toward individual, team and all time AL and NL history data and awards. The season as well as playoffs would go down in history as huge asterik and more like exhibition.
Baseball history is one of continuity, year by year logged league by league and for each player. That history must remain.
Amen.
Good point…agree.
Agree, but I also don’t understand why they would need to do that to begin with. Why would you realign divisions instead of having teams just play closer teams?
Among other things, this plan is a Trojan horse for NL DH.
And maybe robot umps.
And mass vaccination. /s
flip atlanta and pittsburgh
Pittsburgh is a shorter distance to every team in the East than Atlanta, and Atlanta is farther West geographically. Flipping them defeats the purpose.
Pittsburgh is a shorter distance to every team in the central than Atlanta, (except St Louis, but even that is ~50 miles difference). but last time I check Atlanta is a lot closer to Miami and Tampa than Pittsburg to Miami and Tampa. I know Atlanta is west of Pittsburgh, but the North/South thing kinda throws that for a loop
Well ideally they’d have a South division where you could put Atlanta, Miami, Tampa, and either the two Missouri teams, or Washington and Baltimore. I guess they don’t want odd numbers in the divisions, though.
There is no perfect placement in their proposed alignment. Pittsburgh is a stones throw from Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York, however. Atlanta is close to them too, but still further. Atlanta to Boston or Toronto is a bit of a trip.
I agree that it would be nice to do a north/south thing too. The split would be much easier if you did 5 team divisions, but then you’re playing very few.
Yes, Atlanta to Toronto is a hike. But it’s 200 miles closer than Atlanta to Minneapolis, which is what will be happening now. Not having Atlanta play the Florida teams makes no sense, especially when it also means Cleveland and Pittsburgh won’t play each other despite being less than 100 miles apart.
I don’t see any games being played in New York or Philadelphia in June or July. It doesn’t matter that there would be no fans. Those two places are still nightmares when it comes to the virus & they aren’t going to use any resources for a baseball stadium. That would kill each team using their own stadium.
Like Nightengale wrote, the plan is “pending approval of medical experts and providing that COVID-19 testing is available to the public,” and “it’s also not known whether teams would have to open the season in Arizona, Florida and Texas for several weeks before everyone could return to their home stadiums.” Cuomo did say on Sunday that he could envision baseball being played in NYC later this summer.
Please dont flip Atlanta and Pittsburgh! The East would then have four of the best eight teams in NYY, Tampa, Washington and Atlanta (my opinion). Not to mention Atlanta is more West then Pittsburgh as discussed above.
All for it. Find the right venue and let’s go. We will be thankful for baseball once it begins. We need something to look forward to during these times.
Obvious nobody wants to see any player get the virus and I hope precautions are taken. Baseball was meant to be a distraction from everyday life 162 games of entertainment. Any season of any form will be a nice distraction while we get through this.
Not in love with this plan, but it is better than the other plans currently being floated out there (especially the idiotic one with the divisions realigned to the AZ & FL ST sites). If this is what it takes to play baseball this year, I can live with it.
As this point I’m not concerned with how the Sox do (though I’m at least hoping they’ll make it above .500), I want to see guys like Robert, Madrigal, and Kopech get needed experience and Eloy, Cease, Lopez, etc. get another year under their belt and make drastic improvements so the Sox are ready to contend in ’21.
Theoretically the Sox could contend this year, but this is their transition year, so my expectations are tempered. I’m expecting around 85 wins in a 162 game season, or a .525 winning percentage depending on how many games are played. If they do better this season, great. If they somehow make the playoffs this year, even better. Right now, I’m just looking for drastic improvement in the win column and get the youngsters another year of much needed experience.
Is there some reason for the hodgepodge of teams?
Why not just take everyone in the NL East and merge to everyone in the AL East and throw them in one location.
Everyone in NL and AL central is the second division, NL and AL west the last.
Every time I see these reduced divisions it’s always this weird mix and match of teams. If the goal is to have them all head to one location and stay there I don’t see why you can’t group the division the same way.
Actually I just went and double checked on your teams and that’s exactly what you did except you swapped the Braves and put them in the Central and the Pirates in the East
Why exactly? Looks like everyone else is literally in the appropriate division. Very strange.
Should go by Time zone then Tigers,Reds,Induans in East Coast League. Also separate Teams so like Miami/Tampa Bay by them self’s in Florida Division. Atlanta in Southeast and could include if expand in the future Charlotte or New Orleans. Yes Mets/Yankees by themselves but if like Buffalo or Brooklyn gets a Team in the future joins them.
Wouldn’t work in OTP.
My first thought was why not have Toronto and Detroit be in the same division to spark interested fans living in Ontario between Toronto and Detroit? Then I thought, maybe this proposed setup is more balanced from top to bottom. Perhaps they put Atlanta in the Central to strengthen the division? That is my best guess.
I don’t even care. I would take any sports right now basically, even the ones I don’t traditionally watch.
UFC 249 might be the highest selling PPV for this very reason. I’m so happy they are getting things going again fairly early.
If they had a better price point, I’d buy it.
i like this plan, especially given we wolnt see those darn Braves this year!
Just play the season. If grown adults can have sex with someone who has aids, women can kill their own children and assisted suicide is okay then why can’t people risk going to baseball.
Because it’s not all about you. If you go & set next to someone else, who’s to say you aren’t asymptomatic? Who in their right mind would risk their children or loved one for a baseball game? Assisted suicide is not ok!
Women aren’t allowed to kill their own children. You’ll have to look up murder because that definition should fall underneath it.
Worst. Comment. Ever. There are more than a thousand reasons, but let’s just start with what about the athletes who’d have to be exposed to any fan even willing to take that risk?
BJ, please please tell us that was meant to be sarcastic
It’s not perfect but nothing will be this season… I can see how the Braves, Rangers and Rockies fans have a beef with how their divisionally aligned.
“PLAY BALL”
I understand the anticipation by many to watch baseball this season. As a baseball fan for over 60 years, I would certainly miss seeing games in 2020, but for me, this makeshift realignment and empty stadium games doesn’t really appeal to me. As a season ticket holder of the Rangers, I enjoy going to the games and watching live games and visiting with fans from around the country that I meet at the ballpark.
As a Ranger’s fan, this sucks – almost all games will be on West Coast and not start until 9 or 10 pm. unless they play them all in AZ or TX.
I say No until we get more details. How would playoffs work? Would the teams play in their home stadiums or some neutral site? And IMO, no to any plan to play MLB without addressing what will happen to the minor leagues this year as well.
I hate that Texas teams always get lumped in the West, which is 2 time zones away. So, if they are playing night games, it is typically a 930 pm start.
Put the west teams out in California. Put the central teams out in Texas. Put the east teams out in Florida.
No traveling except where they stage the games.
Alternate schedules so teams play at different times.
It’s so frustrating reading all the complaining. Nothing they do is going to please everyone, but they are trying to do something to salvage the season, believe it or not they know more about this than any of us do, the plan you are reading is an idea, details have not been worked out, bottom line is if you don’t like what they eventually decide then don’t watch, just wait until next season, if you are a true baseball fan it doesn’t matter where they play or who or how many times they play, you will watch, play In empty stadiums, play in Arizona or Florida, hell play on the moon, if you really love the sport you will watch.
Do you think the NBA, NHL and NFL aren’t going to have to adjust too? Will you boycott those sports too? Stop complaining
Dr Fauci is skeptical that sporting leagues can play this season….without major changes etc…yahoo.com/sports/dr-anthony-fauci-sports-leagues-s…
“Safety, for the players and for the fans, trumps everything,” he said. “If you can’t guarantee safety, then unfortunately you’re going to have to bite the bullet and say, ‘We may have to go without this sport for this season.’”
Geographically…. wouldn’t it make more sense to put Braves in the East and pirates in the central … sorry if it’s been said already
I’m certainly OK with a realignment for this season, but how on earth is Atlanta comsidered Central while Pittsburg is considered East?
If one of the major considerations is travel cost savings, this makes zero sense.
Hey, Atlanta used to be in the West, so…
the state of Texas has about 6 high level stadium within 6 hours of each other
Globe Life Park
Globe Life Field
Houston
Frisco
Round Rock
San Antonio
Florida houses ST facilities along with these cities could have two divisions
Tampa
Miami
Durham
Pensacola
Daytona
Fort Myers
Let those two serve as a hub between AL in Texas NL in Florida and then I think we are good to go. both states are beginning to open up so fans could be aloud to come to games soon and at that point just make each team split revenue.
St Petes (which is the Rays home park)
Lakeland
Disney
Joe Tinker Field
Seems like you are giving the Braves an easier bracket at the expense of the Pirates…
So if they do begin some farce of a season, how will they deal with injury replacements if the minor leagues aren’t playing?
Thank you for this question cuz I’ve heard very little regarding this issue. My knee jerk idea would be to have larger rosters and therefore expanded game day rosters. Kinda like spring training. Early on the starters would be on lower pitch counts that would ramp up as season progresses.
Anyway, put some of the prospects on the expanded roster. They would probably be more excited about playing than the vets, who might not be as motivated.
The only reason I’d vote yes is because the Astros and Dodgers are in the same division.
If they do decide to push forward with this farce, absolutely NO statistics compiled should ever be applied to the historical record.
If they do push forward with some sort of farce of a season, I would hope that NO statistics compiled are ever applied to the historical record.
Eh, the integrity of the game already went out the window with the Astros. I’m not too worried how they count stats.
The Integrity of the game already went out the window with the cheating Yankees teams with drugged up/roided up players…
I hate this idea. I prefer to keep some normalcy in an abbreviated season that will surely lack it. If this needs to be implemented then the Braves should be in the East with the Pirates moving to the Central to maintain the AL/NL balance in each division while also prioritizing geography and rivalry.
Thus far, there has been nothing but flapping gums and cockamamie ideas. The powers that be and all the other baseball pundits have nothing better to do while the pandemic continues to dominate the news, the country and the world.
If MLB adopts too many drastic measures an already impacted 2020 season will become a farce. If this is the case, they ought to just cancel the season or have some sort of World Classic competition that will have no bearing on the statistics that help make MLB the most traditional and relevant team sport since it adopted the two league AL/NL system back in 1901.
The best solution is to maintain as much normalcy as possible while playing as many games as possible. The only changes should be in adding more players to the active roster in order to accomodate more games being played in less days, including more doubleheaders. MLB was already set to implement a regular 26-man active rosters in 2020 and could easily adopt the new 28 September roster rule for the entirety of the season. Expanding the roster to as many as 30 during this abbreviated season also makes more sense than shortening double header games to 7 innings or adopting other minor league rules like their extra-inning one that would be ludicrous and a farce at the MLB level.
There is nothing going to be normal this year with anything at all so screw it, if it works then let it happen.
Keeping the status quo with our usual league and division alignments is the simplest and smartest format in an abbreviated season. Increase active rosters to accommodate more games being played in fewer days and concentrate on playing more games within each division and less long distance traveling until restrictions are eased. Players, coaches and other essential team personnel can remain at home with their families. Umpires can be stationed in areas best suited for them as well.
The postseason format can also remain the same or even expanded to include more teams which might allow for MLB to do away with the one-and-done wild card games and have every playoff team play from the outset, preferably with a 7-game format throughout. I hate the one game wild card eliminator as well as the 5-game division series format. Finally, once and for all, just make the DH a universal rule throughout the regular and postseason.
All this would keep MLB as close to normalcy as possible while also promoting greater relations between the owners and the MLBPA ahead of the new CBA talks.
Why swap the Braves and Pirates? The rest looks like regular alignments E v. E etc. Protecting the Yankees probably.
Maybe because the Braves already play in the NL East while the Pirates are in the NL Central? Those rivalries would be lost in 2020. It also makes sense geographically with the Braves not only in the eastern part of the the U.S. but also in the southeast along with the two Florida teams. Atlanta also sits on the east side of the Appalachian mountains while Pittsburgh is on the west side. Moving Toronto rather than Pittsburgh also makes geographical sense but it also disrupts the proposed balance of having 10 NL and AL teams in each of these three divisions.
There are more teams in the east than there are in the central US, so there’s no perfect solution. As a Braves fan, I’m fine if they play in the central. We really don’t have a rivalry like the Yanks and Sox, so what’s it matter. Honestly, I get more amped for the Cardinals series than any opponents in the East.
The mountains don’t really matter, either. Maybe if they were traveling by bus, but in a plane it’s a non-issue.
Geographically, the Braves should be playing in the East and against the two Florida teams as all three are also considered a part of the Southeastern United States.
Fact is, the Braves are already in the NL East while the Pirates.are in the NL Central. Whether you want to admit it or not, the Braves have clearly built up rivalries in the NL East while the Pirates have done likewise in the NL Central. Travel wise, Pittsburgh is also very close to Cleveland as well as their usual division rivals in Cincinnati.
Your claim of more eastern teams than central ones are also an exaggeration. An even split can easily be done when simply dividing all the MLB teams into three regions of East, Central and West while also maintaining as many existing division rivalries as possible including the Braves and the Marlins along with the Pirates and the Reds.
How can any baseball fan’s opinion be that no baseball is better than ANY other option. Regardless of how weird the divisions/layout of the league will be — live MLB baseball is still MUCH better than NO baseball at all. Don’t get me wrong the 3-divisions thing sounds like a really strange format and yeah missing out on some great rivalries and things like that will be less than ideal. But if the alternative is no ML baseball this season… how can anyone prefer that!?
^^^ this! I think the “casual” baseball fan may prefer that but the real die hard baseball fans want this over nothing
I have absolutely no problem with realignment for this season only. Interleague play started when I was still in grade school, so the idea of scrapping the traditional NL/AL for this season is no problem to me, really only a temporary expansion of that. I think this could be the stepping stone to implementing the DH across all of Major League Baseball that certain people have been looking for. As a fan of the Cardinals, and growing up watching Tony La Russa/ Dave Duncan manipulate the lineup and bullpen, I was opposed to the DH for years, but I accepted it as inevitable for the NL a long time ago, and I’d now welcome that change.
Personally, I’m not concerned if they play this year or not. I’d rather everyone stay safe. Why is there so much outrage over Atlanta and Pittsburgh flipping divisions for a year though? If they play, NOTHING about this season will be normal. It’s the safest thing to cut down on travel. Does anything else really matter?
I totally agree with you Appalachin_Outlaw.
What would they do about minor league call ups and trades? Would we suspend the trade deadline this year?
I don’t understand the value of playing at home ballparks if fans aren’t allowed anyway. Travel expenses and risks will be much higher. I get that the players’ union would prefer it because the accommodations are more comfortable for players and it doesn’t have the same issue with uprooting families or isolating players from loved ones, but I feel like that’s an easier workaround than needing to transport ~50 people (players, coaches, support staff, broadcasters) per team across state lines once or twice or thrice a week.
The Phoenix, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Tampa Bay areas have plenty of ballparks that could host major league games, and many of them do already. That’s a lot less travel. There’s a reason the Arizona Fall League is played in a single metro area and not spread across a bunch of states, and it’s not just weather.
As to the concerns about summer weather, those are well taken, but Chase Field, Globe Life Field, and Tropicana Field all have roofs, and starting games before noon at spring training, minor league, and college fields would minimize the heat. You could even get creative and have the West teams start around sundown in Tampa Bay, so games are on at a reasonable time for West Coast viewers, and East teams start before noon in Phoenix, so games are on at a semi-reasonable time for East Coast viewers.
It is indeed weird, but something needs to be done to have baseball played.
Why not a 4 Division alignment?
A SOUTH Division could be added featuring:
Atlanta, Tampa, Miami, Houston, Texas, Colorado, Kansas City
Kansas City and Colorado not in South more in Midwest wIuth St. Louis.
Also Orlando has Jacksonville and Arlington Cowboys Dome near by,
As Cubs fan and pretty sure I am speaking for Cardinals, Reds, White Sox and the rest of the division, we want the Pirates in the Central for obviously reasons. lol
No Pittsburgh near East Coast.
I am not OK with this change this season. I feel like MLB is rushing to play games and might end up being responsible for second wave of this virus. I am OK with this change whenever baseball resumes for good. I am ready to move on from AL and NL.