Let's Talk Baseball Realignment

With the NBA Finals and Stanley Cup Finals now both in the books, and college football still 12 weeks away, I'd say it's high time for our sports focus to shift to the only sport still in season, baseball. The issue I'd like to deal with today is one that has gotten some recent press and will likely be settled in the off-season: realignment. But how will baseball shake up the 6-division format that it's used for the past 18 seasons? I've compiled the 3 best plans (in my opinion) that correct the biggest complaints about modern baseball: uneven divisions (6 teams in NL Central vs. 4 teams in AL West), unbalanced schedules (Orioles play the Yanks 19 times a year), and the small playoffs (which I personally don't mind but it's a given that Selig will add a 5th playoff team to each league)

With these problems in mind, let's look at 3 possible plans for baseball realignment:

Plan A: Keep It Simple

Change: Houston Astros move from the NL Central to the AL West, where they would join the only other Texan team in baseball, the Rangers.

Scheduling: Unbalanced as it is now, with each team playing their division opponents 19 times each (76 total), inter-division opponents 6 or 7 times each (68 total), and 6 series versus inter-league opponents (18 total). For teams with inter-league geographical rivals: (Mets-Yankees, Dodgers-Angels, A's-Giants, Orioles-Nats, Cubs-White Sox, Marlins-Rays, Cardinals-Royals, Indians-Reds), they are guaranteed to play each other 2 series per year (home and home), which will leave them their rivals + 4 other inter-league opponents. For teams without inter-league rivals, they will play 6 different inter-league opponents. There would always have to be one inter-league series happening, meaning that the 6 series for each team would be spread out, averaging about one per month for the entire season.

Playoffs: 5 per league, with each division winner earning a bye and the two wild-card teams playing a best-of-3 series.

Plan B: Balanced Schedule

Change: Houston Astros move from NL Central to AL West.

Scheduling: Balanced (at least more so) . 12 games against division opponents (48 total), 9 or 10 games against inter-division opponents (99 total), 5 series against inter-league opponents (15 games total). For the inter-league scheduling, no rivalries will be taken into account. Each team will play 5 inter-league teams spread out among the 3 divisions, with each team playing a different set of 5 teams each year for a 3 year rotation, so that each team will have played all 15 inter-league opponents over the course of 3 seasons.

Playoffs: Same as A. One variation that could be applied to the plan though would be to play the best-of-3 series entirely at the higher seeded wild-card team's park, giving a bigger advantage for finishing 4th rather than 5th.

Plan C: Party Like It's 1968

Changes: Eliminate divisions. Move Arizona Diamondbacks from National League to American League.

Scheduling: Balanced. For the 14 league opponents, play half of them 12 games each and the other half 9 games each (147 games total). This would rotate, so that over 2 years each team would play all of their league rivals 21 times total and over 4 years have 21 home games against each team. For inter-league opponents, play five teams one series each (15 games total), with each team playing all15 inter-league opponents at least once over the course of 3 seasons.

Playoffs: Top 5 teams in each league qualify, with the top 3 getting a first-round bye and the bottom two qualifiers facing off in a best-of-3 play-in series.


So there we have it, 3 ideas for how to change baseball for next season (and beyond!). Note that I included 5 playoff teams in all 3 plans as baseball seems set on it, but any of the three would work just as well with the current 4-team per league format. My personal favorite is plan B, although I think that people may gripe about losing their inter-league rivalry home and home every year.

I'd love to hear other suggestions or thoughts on these three plans.

Change is definitely coming to baseball, and I'm excited to see what form it takes.

103: The Names Which Must Stay Secret

Performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) have given an era of baseball a black eye.

George Mitchell provided the knock-out blow.

And, now, Alex Rodriguez's name has been released as one of 104 players who tested positive for PEDs in 2003 during an anonymous drug test for the purpose of determining if mandatory drug tests were necessary.

Cue the clamors for a public release of the other 103 names.

"It's unfair to A-Rod!" "The rest of the players are innocent and we should know who they are!" "Because the people -- baseball fans -- deserve to know!"

Here's my request: stop telling me who did steroids in the past and work on eliminating steroid use in the future.

The Mitchell Report has forever legitimized the practice of investigating PEDs for the purpose of exposing the "cheaters."

A 409-page report which detailed Major League Baseball's failure to adequately respond to the problem of steroids has been boiled down to a he-said, he-said court battle between Roger Clemens and Brian McNamee.

A 409-page report which proposed substantive changes in the infrastructure of Major League Baseball is remembered for 87 names.

A 409-page report which was supposed to prove that a problem exists across the entire league relied on two sources. And they are both criminals.

However, the primary issue with the Mitchell Report is that it came with the implicit message that the list of players mentioned was exhaustive -- that players not on the list are innocent. And now we learn that, in 2003, 104 players tested positive for PED use.

Where does it stop? How many lists of names need to come out before we take a page out of Mark McGwire's book and stop talking about the past?

Let's look past the "fairness" issue as it pertains to Alex Rodriguez. He cheated, and he admitted it. He lost the right to "fairness" a long time ago.

Let's also ignore the plea from baseball fans that they have some inherent right to see who cheated. This list of 104 players was supposed to be kept secret, and everyone was willing to turn a blind eye when Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire rescued the game from "The Strike Era."

And let's be honest: people want to see the list because they are interested in tabloid news.

The best argument for releasing the other 103 names is that the presence of the anonymous list casts a shadow of doubt over the rest of the league; fans and media sources will continuously speculate on whom that list contains.

The problem with this argument is that the speculation never stops. We are entrenched in an era of baseball that has been forever tarnished by cheaters, and we have been taught to trust nobody.

We can stop guessing the other 103 names once this list is released, but will anyone believe that every other baseball player is clean? Will anyone believe that this list is the exhaustive one?

And why should they? From Barry Bonds to Roger Clemens to Alex Rodriguez, our imaginations have been stretched to include the unthinkable. We are prone to expect the next headline to include a new allegation of steroid use.

Stop. While we can still save the game, let's move forward.

Clearly, the status quo is not working. Major League Baseball has mandatory drug testing in place, and players are still stupid enough to use PEDs. Shame on them.

Let's get serious about moving past "The Steroid Era." Let's focus on what the current game has to offer: speed, defense, and youth. Oh, and the stories.

This offseason has been spent discussing steroids, Manny Ramirez, and Joe Torre. Remember when a 10,000-loss team won the World Series against a team that finished the year with a record above .500 for the first time in franchise history?

Baseball has given its fans plenty to talk about.

Now, it's time to move on.

Michigan Baseball Update

As the college World Series continues in Omaha, Neb. there is some news concerning the Michigan baseball team coming across the wire. As All-American teams are announced Michigan has a trio of players whose names keep popping up.

• Zach Putnam: Rawlings All-Mideast 1st Team Utility, 2nd Team All-American Utility (American Baseball Coaches Association, Baseball America, Ping, National Collegiate Baseball Writer's Association), National Collegiate Baseball Writer's Association Region V Player of the Year

• Nate Recknagel: Rawlings All-Mideast First Team 1B, 2nd Team All-American DH (Baseball America, Ping Baseball), 3rd Team All American 1B (ABCA)

• Chris Fetter: Rawlings All-Mideast First Team P, 2nd Team All-American P (ABCA)

Also, after scouring team blogs, I have an update on the five Wolverines who were drafted (in order of draft position)

• Jason Christian Jr. SS - 5th Round (154) Oakland Athletics: Signed a deal, no terms released

• Zach Putnam Jr. SP - 5th Round (171) Cleveland Indians: has not signed

• Adam Abraham Jr. 3B - 13th Round (411) Cleveland Indians: has not signed

• Nate Recknagel Sr. 1B - 19th Round (591) Cleveland Indians: Signed a deal, will report to Winter Haven after rehabbing his elbow

• Michael Powers RS Jr. RP - 31st Round (944) New York Mets: has not signed

• Casey Close C (incoming freshman) - 47th Round (1,408) Oakland Athletics: has not signed

I will try and keep you updated on all the drafted Michigan players. As a reminder all drafter players have until August 15th to sign, otherwise they will return to the draft pool.

Not His Best Stuff

I'm sitting here watching ESPN Sunday Night Baseball, and I am stunned at some of the statements made by color commentator Joe Morgan. Normally Joe does a decent job in these games (he has won an Emmy for his work), but he is off his game today. Since I have nothing better to do I have decided to list them. I will probably be updating these throughout the game.

As ESPN shows Todd Wellemeyer's stats, which include 36 k in 37 IP
"He [Wellemeyer] doesn't strike out a lot of hitters"

Right after Wellemeyer throws a 94 mph fastball and before he throws a 96 mph fastball
"He's not a hard thrower"

After Jason Marquis throws an 83 mph slider
"It didn't look like his fastball"

Red Sox go on Strike

The Boston Red Sox players have done something very unusual. The team has voted to boycott their final spring training game today against the Blue Jays, and are threatening to boycott their season opening series against the Oakland A's next week in Japan. The players are doing this because the team's coaching staff and other staff members are not getting the same $40,000 stipend from Major League Baseball for the series in Japan that the players are getting.

My prediction: Bud Selig folds and gives in to the players demands. MLB generated over $5 billion in revenue last year. In addition, this series in Japan means a lot for baseball as Selig tries to increase worldwide awareness for the game (plus MLB will probably make a ton of money on this trip, by far offsetting the cost of providing a stipend for the coaches and staff). I will provide updates as this situation unfolds.

UPDATE: Major League Baseball has apparently folded, as the Red Sox will make the trip to Japan and play the Oakland A's in the season opener next week (if you want to watch, get up early, game starts at 6am ET).

On a completely separate and hilarious note, Robert Weintraub, a writer for ESPN's Page 2, has come up with a modern-day update for the baseball classic with his Bull Durham: 21st Century Edition.