Realignment

Tom Tango's post on getting rid of our geographical tendencies would be good for baseball. I've long argued against the most recent re-alignment that sent the Pirates to the NL Central where they have no real rivalries (besides, perhaps, the budding feud between the Bucs and the Beer Makers).

#2 on Tom's post argues for a 4-6-8-12 divisional system along market-based lines where the top two teams from each division advance to an eight team playoff, which got my mind grapes working on how I would realign the current structure in baseball to accomodate that. I decided on a 6-6-8-10 system instead of 4-6-8-12, since that seemed to work a little better, and though I toyed with the idea of also incorporating a promotion/relegation system, I couldn't find a sensible way to make it work.

Anyway, here is the breakdown:

Top Tier (6 teams, top 2 make the playoffs):

Boston Red Sox
Chicago Cubs
Los Angeles Dodgers
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
New York Mets
New York Yankees

Second Tier (6 teams, top 2 make the playoffs):

Atlanta Braves
Arizona Diamondbacks
Houston Astros
Philadelphia Phillies
San Francisco Giants
Texas Rangers

Third Tier (8 teams, top 2 make the playoffs):

Baltimore Orioles
Chicago White Sox
Detroit Tigers
Florida Marlins
Minnesota Twins
Seattle Mariners
St. Louis Cardinals
Washington Nationals

Fourth Tier (10 teams, top 2 make the playoffs):

Cincinnati Reds
Cleveland Indians
Colorado Rockies
Kansas City Royals
Milwaukee Brewers
Oakland A's
Pittsburgh Pirates
San Diego Padres
Tampa Bay Rays
Toronto Blue Jays


I'd imagine it would get a little hairy with the travel arrangements going from Seattle to Miami a few times a year, but you could schedule it so there's a swing through the DC area before/after to play the Nats and O's. This is not too far from the current conference system in the NCAA, albeit on a much larger scale. The biggest money teams (or conferences) end up meeting in the playoffs more, just like we have right now, and your Pittsburgh Pirates toil away in baseball's version of the WAC.

Theoretically, this makes the Pirates' chance of making the playoffs worse (20% instead of just under 25%), but in actuality it might be better given the constant competition with the least competitive teams. Anyway, just some food for thought, since it has no chance of ever becoming reality any time soon.