How do you guys feels about this move now after the season just gone?
I feel the need to expand my proposal, as it really wasn't clear when I posted back in the spring. My proposal only takes place as part of league expansion to 16 teams in each league; 4 divisions of 4 teams each.... and it's not something I see happening for a while. I proposed moving the Dbacks to the American League as they would be more competitive in the new AL West, amongst other reasons. It's the roadmap that the Astros took when they were struggling in the National League; a bit of investment and a move to a division that wasn't as competitive gave them the springboard to making the play-offs every season. Squaring up against the Mariners, Angels and Athletics is a better bet than the most intense division in baseball right now. Oakland constantly battles to keep hold of it's best players, Angels can't pitch and the Mariners have struggled to attract top talent since Ichiro. The Rangers are no better but for the sake of the greater good I happily plopped them into an AL Central with the Royals, Twins and White Sox.
I know you guys love your games against the Dodgers and Giants and have that rivalry with the Padres and Rockies, and you get to keep playing those teams in interleague, I wouldn't dream of taking that away from you, I look back and I didn't make that clear. You'd play:
6 games v Dodgers, Rockies, Giants, Padres;
6 games v Yankees, Cleveland, Red Sox, Tigers; Rays, Expansion team (i.e.)Carolina/Nashville, Orioles, Blue Jays;
12 games v Mariners, Angels, A's; Rangers, Royals, Twins, White Sox
Every season without fail. So would your divisional rivals, so it's a fair playing field where each team finsihes where it does on merit.
Why is this important that the Dbacks switch leagues for my proposal? Because each league is split into pairs of teams; in your case your partner would be the Angels, and you have a corresponding pair of teams in the other league geographically near you, Padres and Dodgers in your case. Whenever a team goes on a road trip it is always for 6 games, three each against two neighboring teams. As an example, a team traveling to play the Cubs would follow by playing the Brewers the three nights after, and their neighboring team would make the same trip but in reverse at the same time, effectively swapping opponents after the third night. I found this would massively reduce travel for most teams, balanced out the schedules for all 32 teams and produced divisional alignments that didn't span more than one timezone. It also gave fans a regular routine of 6 nights of home games one week, followed by six games on the road the next for much of the season. It'd be enough of a change to make scheduling and traveling easier, but not massively dissimilar from the traditional East/West divisions before the Central became a thing. I orignally thought each team should play their division rivals 18 times (6 series) each season but you guys are right, Oakland, Seattle and Anaheim are not great draws; and playing just three teams too often would be more monotonous.
So what about the Cubs? Well, sorry Chicago retirees...... but there is hope. Because my season proposal is "only" 156 games long, I put a post season shootout into it. I watched the Dbacks with interest this season and, by this I mean no disrespect, the team had nothing to play for in reality from the end of August onwards. To make where you finish in the division relevant I added a post-season interest for every team. Since every division was four teams strong and three teams from each division would not make the play-offs (save my genius wildcard eventuality which I shall not get into here) I could pair up divisions from different leagues and add 6 games depending upon the final divisional standings. If you finished second in your NL division you got two, three-game sets at home against a 3rd and 4th placed team from another division in the AL. If you finished bottom of your AL pile you would travel to a 3rd and 2nd placed team in an NL division. The division pairings would rotate much like interleague does in the regular season now. Even if you are a Cubs fan who is not able to make the trip to watch your team in San Diego or Anaheim, a Dbacks team who finished outside of the play-offs would get the chance of drawing the Cubs in the shoot out every three years.... it's not much, I know, but I was always for supporting my local home team than pitching up to watch the opposition. Anyhow, have the best record of the teams of both divisions from your two series and you get to play-off wildcard-style one off games against four more teams to win a dodgy trophy, a seven figure cash prize and a couple of draft picks....
.... and CB, the Dbacks may not be dead in the NL West but it's been a good while since they were consistently competitive. As ever, I look forward to your feedback/jeering/abuse!
Thanks Arizona baseball fans.
