If There Was Reallignment Again?

[KingLouieLouie76]

Eventually, w/the prospects of several franchies relocating, the question of reallignment might become a critical issue....

I personally believe the worst case scenario was when the
American League Central was formed, the Tigers should have been kept in the AL East, especially to maintain their intense
rivals w/the Red Sox, Yankees, and what was becoming one of such magnitude, the one w/the Blue Jays.... Yeah, since then, the Tigers have had some classic match-ups w/the White Sox,
Indians, and Twins, but I just dont believe they will ever reach the height of the earlier day ones..... I came across an interesting proposal of reallignment and to me it is radical, but somewhat logical.... Here it is....

http://showcase.netins.net/web/reading/baseball.html

The question here is, would you wish the Tigers would return back to the AL East, remain the AL Central, or even take into consideration of the proposal that link I provided suggested?

[djhutch]

I like the current alignment (2 leagues, 3 divisions, 1 wild card), but I would like to see the unbalanced schedule go the way of the dinosaur. I understand the argument that you should play your division a lot, but 19 times? Multiply that by 4 other teams, & that's nearly half your schedule. & with inter-league play, that means even fewer games against the East & West. Even if they went down to 15 games with each club in the division, it would allow 4-5 more series with other AL clubs.

[RedRamage]

I think the proposed alignment on the webpage linked is just awful. I also find it a little funny that they talk about the current alignment being meaningless and arbitrary while there are quite a few strange things about how they align things...

For instance, why is Detroit part of the Northern Division, yet everyone else in our area in the Midwest? How is Arizona considered a "southern" team when it's further Western than (I think) all the western teams and most of the Western teams are further south than Arizonia? And Pittsburgh is FAR from "New England-ish" both in geography and culture.

I also GREATLY disagree that this plan would preserve or enhance many of the rivalries.

Seattle's natural rivarlies in Oakland and Anaheim are gone just to name one. What about the Tigers vs. Indians? Baltimore and any of their traditional rivals? The Mets and Braves? The Growing rivalry between the Diamond Backs and the Giants?

Personally, I don't see a need to realignment unless and until we change the number of teams. IDEALLY, I'd like to see Baseball expand to 32 teams after they get some stabilization in the Labor and Finance areas. I think 32 teams works out nice for creating divisions and Leagues. I think with 32 teams we could have two Leagues, each with two divisions, and each division could have two classes. Just my opinion...

[Shaggy Ry]

I think the reason why most people would like to see the Tig's back in the East is because as a city we think we are better than Kansas City, Minnesota and Cleveland and liked it when we were grouped with Boston, New York and Toronto. We're much better off in the Central from a purely competitive stand point as our payroll is a much better match with our division rivals. Maybe the next re-alignment will be based on payroll maximums - The High Payroll division(Yankees, Boston, Texas Baltimore, Chicago) Medium Payroll Division(Cleveland, Detroit, Toronto, Tampa Bay, Seattle) and the Low Payroll Division(Minnesota, Oakland, Kansas City, Anaheim). There would be set salary caps in each division, and teams could decide to move into a new bracket every 3 years. If a middle payroll team has set up a good neucleus of players who are all due for a pay raise and they want to keep them they can petition to be bumped up into the High Payroll division, similarly if a team wants to rebuild, they can petition to join a lower payroll division.

I too like the present play-off set-up, and agree that the unbalanced schedule should be done away with. It is unfair when crowning a wildcard with unbalanced schedules. I'd also like the inter-league play go the way of the Dodo as well.

[berneree]

That opinion sucks. Did anyone else notice that the California division is all close together. Also, the New England division is assured short travel. Seattle is in Detroits division. The travel would hurt everyone but teams in NY and CA.

Go try again you loser. Red you are right about Pittsburgh. Baltimore is much closer to NY in geography and culture than Pittsburgh.

I would only support a realignment plan that would put the Cubs, Cinncinnati, and St. Louis into our division. At least 2 of these 3 teams. That would be the only way to give us an advantage, with good baseball towns and teams that will draw fans into Detroit to watch the rivalry.

I also believe we got the shaft on the last realignment. Who were the draws into Tiger Stadium... Toronto, NY, Boston. We never have gotten a draw into Detroit from Chi, Min, Cle, or KC. We should have been compensated $25 million for losing such rivalries with the east.

[estrepe1]

I disagree Ryan Dirt about why most fans want us back in the East. Much like Tiger Stadium over Comerica it is where a lot of our best memories come from. We haven't won much since being in the Central so the rivalries really have yet to pick up.

Both things will be resolved when the Tigers are good again sometime....

I like us being in the central personally. The geographics of it make more sense and their is no dominant team which helps a rebuilding club like ours.

[Drake]

Divisions based solely on D- Geography, brilliant. I wonder how much hate mail this guy has gotten over how ridiculus these are. Anyway I like the Tigers being in the Central. Sure the rivalries would be more interesting in the east, but I'd rather not see the Tigers finishing 50 games back or more every year. At least in the central they have hope that some fluke year they can make the playoffs. Once DD erases the mistakes of the past and finally gets a good team on the field again the Tigers will be like the Indians of the 90's and just dominate. The weak central division is the best possible place for them really.

[MotownRandy]

Whoa Red! Sweet Avatar!

I think the links proposal is not logical at all. The whole point in having geographical allignment is to keep teams in their own time zone. It makes no sense for teams like Detroit and Seattle to be in the same division..ever.

I think the Tigers are better off in the Central Division. Sure, it is nice to be associated with better teams, but do we really want to be in second place every year like the Redsox. If we stay in the Central we compete with mostly smaller market teams and have better chance at winning the division and entering the playoffs. I know we won't win the championship just by being in the weaker division, but winning divisions and playoff berths is better for the team economically and makes it appear to be a better place to play.

I think reallignment should be done again at some point, but it wont be a huge one this time. Either it will stay like it is now with only a few teams changing, or it will go to 4 divisions in each league. I've actually figured this out in my spare time before, but I dont have my info with me. There is a very logical and workable "tweakl" that can be done to the current system. First, some team(s) like Montreal may have to move though.

[djhutch]

Originally posted by berneree
We never have gotten a draw into Detroit from Chi, Min, Cle, or KC.

We've never gotten a draw from Cleveland? Have you been to a Tigers-Indians game in the last 5 years? It's all Indians fans who can't get a ticket to their own park, so they make the trek to Tiger Stadium or Comerica Park.