Buster Olney: League should scrap divisions

[NAHSTE]

I tend to agree with this sentiment. I don't like the unbalanced schedule at all, and if there is no salary cap, it's unfair to force three teams to get bullied while the rest of the league gets to play on an even field.

Tampa Bay Rays general manager Andrew Friedman was joking the other day when he mused that the impossible task of winning the American League East has become more impossible in the aftermath of Boston's acquisition of Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford.

Well, he was sort of joking.

Or maybe he wasn't joking at all.

The New York Yankees will spend more than $200 million in 2011, and the Boston Red Sox won't be far behind. Meanwhile, the Rays, Toronto Blue Jays and Baltimore Orioles will bring knives to the Boston-New York gunfight. Baseball has more parity than it is given credit for, but the Rays, Blue Jays and Orioles are in a special class. Although the Giants, Rangers or almost any other team can go toe to toe with the Red Sox or Yankees in a short series, Tampa Bay, Toronto and Baltimore must do it throughout 162 games to make the playoffs.

The Rays got it done in 2008 and 2010 through extraordinary management and good fortune. But it has been 13 years since the Orioles made the playoffs -- largely through mismanagement -- and 17 years since the Blue Jays appeared in the postseason. The ballpark seats in Tampa Bay, Baltimore and Toronto remain empty during the teams' best seasons partly because few fans buy into the notion that those clubs can sustain success. (There are other factors, of course.)

Imagine selling season tickets for the Rays. Your script would include a recitation of the team's remarkable performances in recent years and the Cy Young worthiness of David Price. But the guy on the other end of the line could respond: What about Crawford? What about Carlos Pena? What about the exodus of the entire bullpen? Do you really expect me to believe they'll contend in 2011?

It's a really tough sell, and the gap between the Red Sox and Yankees and the three other teams is so deep that the disparity becomes part of the decision-making process for the have-nots. If the Jays played in the AL West or AL Central, they might be tempted to overpay for someone like Zack Greinke to load up for a run at the division title. But instead, the team evaluations tilt in the other direction: If the Rays get a really good offer for Matt Garza, they'd be smart to take the deal now, when they know his value is high -- because it's highly unlikely Tampa Bay can keep up with the big-money monsters.

This disparity is why, as baseball executives and union officials negotiate over the expanded playoff field for 2012, they should strongly reconsider blowing up the divisions and taking the teams back to the pre-1969 American League and National League alignments. Let the five best teams in each league qualify for the playoffs. No East, Central or West divisions.

This way, the Orioles, Rays and Jays would compete with the other AL teams for a playoff spot instead of having their postseason chances more directly impacted by the talent acquisitions of the Yankees and Red Sox. The schedules should be balanced so that Baltimore, Tampa Bay and Toronto would have more games against other AL teams rather than opening the year knowing that matchups with Boston and New York would make up one-third of their schedule.

Would it make a difference?

Well, consider how different recent history might look if there were no divisional factions in the past decade. In many years, rival talent evaluators regarded the Toronto Blue Jays as one of the 10 best teams in the majors. In a six-year period, Toronto won 86 games in a season twice and 87 games in a third season -- while playing an unbalanced schedule. Still, the Jays never made the playoffs.

If the divisional format was stripped away, the Rays, Orioles and Jays would more consistently have incentive to make moves to try to contend. If a player like Victor Martinez were assessing offers from Baltimore or Tampa Bay or Toronto, he would feel better about their chances for playing in the postseason.

But annually, the competitive mountain in front of those teams can appear too high to climb.

The Rays have shown that success in the AL East is possible. But none of the teams has demonstrated that it can remain financially or competitively viable on a regular basis while sitting across the table from the two teams with the biggest stacks of chips.

It's time for Tampa Bay, Baltimore and Toronto to get some relief. They should have the same shot at the playoffs as every other team in the AL Central and AL West. Said one official within the division with some frustration: "Maybe we should just let the Red Sox and Yankees have their own division and leave the scraps for the rest of us."

 

[Bomberooski]

I was just reading that article.

Sounds like a really good idea.

Where is houtz?? Is he still around and if so can he put together some sort of practice MLB The Show league that is set up like this.

 

[Justo]

as an Orioles fan i love the thought of this but i think it would be a little far-fetched to get rid of the divisions all together, i think maybe a rearrangement is needed first

 

[Bomberooski]

As a Mariners fan, we would still suck.

But in all actuality it would really hurt us because now we wouldn't have the bailout of winning a sometimes down (not currently thanks to the Rangers) AL West to get into the postseason.

Overall it's an east coast writer getting his east coast bias on while the World Series trophy sits firmly on this side of the USA

 

[SuperKevin]

Really this only affects the AL East. Every other division is at least somewhat competitive

 

[Justo]

just some numbers to consider from the 2010 season about the Orioles

Against the AL East: 24-48
Agains the rest of the AL: 35-37

 

[NAHSTE]

Really this only affects the AL East. Every other division is at least somewhat competitive

Yeah but with unbalanced divisions it essentially lets the other small market teams have their fun without Baltimore, Tampa and Toronto. They get to be the sacrificial lambs while everyone else plays an even field.

I'd be in favor of just scrapping the unbalanced schedule, but either way, it's absurd to force those teams to play the Yankees and Red Sox 3x more than the rest of the AL just because.

 

[trojan49er]

i love the potshot he takes at SF and Texas:

Although the Giants, Rangers or almost any other team can go toe to toe with the Red Sox or Yankees in a short series

IMO, get rid of the unbalanced schedules but keep the divisions, maybe redraw the division lines to try and reestablish parity...the problem with that, of course, is that there is no way to draw the lines where the Yanks and the BoSox arent in the same division. No matter who else ends up playing in that sandbox, they're gonna get the short end of the stick more times than not

 

[dave]

Every league should drop divisions.
The fact that an NFC West team is going to make the playoffs is insane.

Keep the divisions, let the best teams make the playoffs. Just give the division winner's their free meals at Applebee's.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Every league should drop divisions.
The fact that an NFC West team is going to make the playoffs is insane.

Keep the divisions, let the best teams make the playoffs. Just give the division winner's their free meals at Applebee's.

dave managing to contradict himself in one post.

Anyway, scraping the divisions is a stupid idea. Divisions keep more teams in the playoff hunt deeper into the season. That's why they exist, and why they should remain. More meaningful games.

The solution is a salary cap, or scraping the unbalanced schedule.

 

[NAHSTE]

dave managing to contradict himself in one post.

Anyway, scraping the divisions is a stupid idea. Divisions keep more teams in the playoff hunt deeper into the season. That's why they exist, and why they should remain. More meaningful games.

The solution is a salary cap, or scraping the unbalanced schedule.

Given that the former is logistically impossible right now (no way the union agrees to rewriting contracts already on the books, so it'd pretty much have to be set above or near the Yankees current payroll, which is 4x the average) I'd say just do away with the unbalanced schedule.

But we all know that Selig will never get rid of it because he gets 10-12 prime time Sox-Yankees circle jerks on ESPN every season. Let's face it, that's the only reason this retarded imbalanced schedule exists anyway.

Instead of doing away with divisions, let's just get a new commish.

 

[Leftwich]

Given that the former is logistically impossible right now (no way the union agrees to rewriting contracts already on the books, so it'd pretty much have to be set above or near the Yankees current payroll, which is 4x the average) I'd say just do away with the unbalanced schedule.

But we all know that Selig will never get rid of it because he gets 10-12 prime time Sox-Yankees circle jerks on ESPN every season. Let's face it, that's the only reason this retarded imbalanced schedule exists anyway.

Instead of doing away with divisions, let's just get a new commish.

Oh god, thats all i've ever wanted.

 

[killgod]

I've always wanted any solution to put an end to this BS, but am told that (cause of those faggot Rays) that it's possible for success and i'm just bitching. Complain at my owners for not spending 200M (cause really, this would help the league as a whole right? Another massive spender would only make this worse)


Would love for any other three teams to have to play these assholes a combined 36 fucking times, while being ranked beside them, and tell me how much they enjoy watching baseball.

No divisions would be a thing of beauty, but as long as Steinbrenner's and whatever faggot owns the Red Cunts keeps lining Selig's pockets, this will never change.

No divisions does make scheduling issues because of the different sizes in Leagues. Then again I think the entire MLB should be one set of rules which would resolve that, but that's a whole other issue.

 

[Goober]

I know I'm late to the party, but I just wanted to say fuck divisions. Get rid of them. Have every team play the exact same schedule, and put the four teams with the best records from each league into the playoffs.

And fuck the current setup of interleague play. Either get rid of it, or have every team play one serious against every team in the other league. The current set up, where everyone's strength of schedule is determined randomly by who they play in interleague is a load of shit. Those fifteen games can make or break a teams season, and every year a team gets fucked by playing a hard interleague schedule while there division opponent plays cupcakes.

For example, in 2011, the Brewers play: the Yankees, Red Sox, Rays, and Twins(twice). While the Cardinals play: the Orioles, Blue Jays, Rays, and Royals (twice).

How is that fucking fair?

 

[EmpireWF]

For example, in 2011, the Brewers play: the Yankees, Red Sox, Rays, and Twins(twice). While the Cardinals play: the Orioles, Blue Jays, Rays, and Royals (twice).

How is that fucking fair?

No pro league is "fair" if you go by everyone playing the same teams the exact same amount of times.

The NBA isn't. The NFL certainly isn't.

You want MLB to scrap divisions out of the blue and just go le natural?

 

[Senser81]

Instead of scrapping divisions, just scrap a bunch of teams.