MLB might be looking into doing away with AL/NL
 

From Ben Maller's show right now via his website that had the link to the WSJ article

I personally think it would be dumb to do away with the AL/NL divisions.

I definitely do see them moving towards having the DH in the NL though if the All Star Game rule change is any indication.

No, fuck that. We don't want your faggoty DH rule.

:y:

Other than the DH what are the differences?

Nothing, but that one rule makes a huge difference in terms of strategy and the amount of runs scored per game.

I still wish they would have moved Montreal to Las Vegas in the AL West and then move Pittsburgh to the NL East. They would be in the same division as Philidelphia. They're in the same state, why can't they be in the same division? Then there's 15 in each league, 5 in each division. And have one interleague series year round.

Everybody who tries to make the argument that the leagues are unfair because of the DH conveniently forgets the fact that the Yankees and Red Sox are 6 of the 8 AL World Champs. It has nothing to do with the DH. It's all about money. You want fair leagues? Salary cap that ish.

People who think the salary cap is the problem have never heard of The Mets, The Cubs, The Tigers, or even The Orioles until recently

Also, look at the Tampa Bay Rays compared to the Red Sox so far this year, and even in the past few years.

The fact that teams with money can fuck up is in no way an argument against a salary cap.

ok let's look

2010: Tampa is 7.5 games better than Boston
2009: Boston +11
2008: Tampa +2
2007: Boston +30
2006: Boston +25
2005: Boston +28
2004: Boston +27.5
2003: Boston +32

How is this even debatable?

BTW, Tampa increased their payroll $28 million since 2008

What about teams without money that do well?

Obviously money helps. I don't think the salary cap solves everything though. It really comes down to general management.

Also, the NFL has a salary cap and you still see a handful of teams dominating their divisions/conferences.
Not as badly as baseball, but it will still happen.
Model organizations usually stay that way for a long period of time.
Some of the sorry teams in MLB will still be sorry teams if there is a salary cap. Poor GMs and ownership that doesn't give a flying fuck is a bigger problem.

Some of these teams don't want to win, they just want to scrape by. A team like the Pittsburgh Pirates is disgusting to me. They actively choose to suck. They likely focus on financial aspects and keep costs extremely low, and settling for whatever profit they can make.

No Pirates fan should buy a ticket to support that organization. Literally. I think there should be 0 people in the seats every night, and I'm completely serious about that. That's the only way ownership like that will ever change their ways.

I'm a pretty new baseball fan. I've casually watched the playoffs and the World Series for years but this is the first year I'm following a team through the season and the season on general. So I guess I'm not really concerned with 'tradition' as more long time fans are. I'm not a fan of having the NL adopt the DH though. I just prefer the strategy involved in NL games due to a lack of DH.

I would hate it if the NL adopted the DH, and I would REALLY hate it if they did away with the leagues

I hate the DH so much

There are so many players that would have seen their careers extended (and numbers inflated) if the DH had existed in their time.

There is only 1 team in baseball that consistently does well without money and that's the Twins, and even they bumped their salary into the top 10 this season. And how many pennants do they have to show for it?

And yeah general management is the key to building a good team. That's why they should make anyone who wants to be competitive have to play on an even field. There's no cunning GM strategy to throwing a crazy amount of money at the best free agents.

I could see them having all the teams play each other instead of having 2-3 weeks of inter-league games to create a better balanced schedule for all the teams.

The whole one big standings would be stupid since you'd lose out on the specialness of division rivalries and history between teams. Every other sport uses divisions as the basis for a schedule since those are the games you play the most then fill out the rest with the rest of the league teams.

Theo Epstein perplexes me because he spends copious amounts of money, but it doesn't really seem that way. He finds a lot of "bargains" or takes risk on players that aren't exactly superstars.
They haven't signed the Sabbathias, Texieras, or Arods. They didn't go out and replace Manny's salary with another huge bat.
He general manages like the GM of a smaller team does, but does so with a lot of money and spends it in strange places.

Sometimes he's incredible, and other times I just scratch my head. The team is currently a mess.

The best players in their lineup are Kevin Youkilis and Dustin Pedroia. That's a very different dynamic than Mark Texiera and Alex Rodriguez

I'll take Youk and Pedroia, but it's just such a different approach. I have no idea why Epstein doesn't get the A-Gon deal done.

The thing with Pittsburgh that would piss me off is that they have had some good players go through there but they consistently trade them away for almost nothing to avoid paying them. The Twins were like that up until recently. Theres no way you are going to put out a consistently competitive team in baseball trying to grow your team up from the minors if you're going to trade them before they start to cost you big money, its almost like the team would be a perpetual rebuilding mode and a farm system for the richer teams like the Yankees.

And as far as the DH goes, I think it would be better if the NL went with it. Whenever I have to watch NL ball, I hate it when a team has a rally going late and they either have to PH for their pitcher who may have been pitching a decent game or leave him in and kill the chance at scoring. a #9 hitter in the AL at least gives the team a chance to keep it going and give the pitcher a chance to keep pitching in a close game.

That's exactly why I criticize them. There are a handful of teams that don't want to be better.
A salary requirement would be just as effective as a salary cap, in many ways. Some teams are looking to constantly cut costs and keep things on a safe, even level. If they can turn a minor profit with a bad team, they will stay a bad team.

I am not a baseball fan at all. I will casually watch the playoffs and that's it. But really, is the DH really that bad of an idea? Do you really want to be in game 7 of the world series, last at bat with your pitcher hitting?

I do think 1 league makes more sense. I think the divisions should be more geographically aligned like every other sport. I do think it's completely unfair for a team like the Blue Jays to be in the same division as the Yankees and Red Sox because they just don't have the money. They could make a drastic change and align the divisions based on money. Top 5 spenders all in one division, next 5 and so on, that way you could have a team like the Pirates strive to actually succeed.

In sports, I am a traditionalist but I just don't think baseball makes much sense, but again, I'm not a fan so what do i know?

It's called pinch hitting. Also, the situation you're proposing would more than likely be one in which the 9th batter is up to the plate.
If the pitcher was stepping to the plate, he would be in the 9 spot (8 with Larussa)
The DH would most likely not be batting 9th in the AL. He'd already have batted. In this case, you'd be dealing with a 9th batter. You'd still be looking at a pinch hit situation anyways, or if he was sent to the plate it wouldn't be any better than a pinch hitter in the NL.

With the exception of the Rangers in the West, and maybe one or two other instances, the MLB is very geographically aligned.
Much more so than the other leagues, especially the NFL.

My point was based on an assumption that the pitcher is generally the worst batter.

Let's say in this scenario you take your pitcher for a better batter. This batter saves the day only for it to go to the 10th inning. Now you have to put a new pitcher in right?

So was mine... Actually, I'm not sures your's was. Your's likened the DH and pitcher stepping to the plate in the exact same situation, which would never be the case in batting rotation.
It's also irrelevant because of pinch hitting.

Yes you do. Are you under the assumption that the starting pitcher would be headed into the 10th inning?

If the relief pitcher was doing well, he would be switched out. This happens all the time anyways. That's how playoff managing usually works. These guys are groomed for short distances.
Also, inconvenience isn't always a bad thing. It's part of the challenge. It requires strategy, good managing, and depth of roster. These are the things that should be going on in a good sports contest, and attributes of a chamion team.

No, but if the picture who was to be up to bat was really hot, why would you risk taking him out? If you have a Dh you don't have to worry about taking your picher out. The pitcher is the most important player on the field, like a quarter back, why risk taking him out late in a game? That's why I'm for the DH.

However, if they said screw it to the DH I'm all for that too, just make it consistent. That's what bugs me the most. You have "2" leagues with 1 different rule. It's MLB not ALB and NLB.

The only way that pitcher batting scenario is unfair is if one team gets to use a DH and the other doesn't, which will never happen. One team might have that issue with the pitcher batting but then the other team might have the same problem the next inning.

well said

I am trying to understand the baseball mentality that's why I'm asking.

You just asked me how the rules worked when it came to pinch hitting, and you're now telling me how the sport should work, and who is the most important player on the team?

But anyways, what is this whole crusade of convenience? What's the concern here, that the coaches have to worry about something, or take risks? That's really the point of sports.

If they were to do away with the AL/NL then they should just have 4 divisions (North, South, East, West) and have the 2 best teams from each division play in a 8-team tournament.

The goalie is very important, but you take the risk of pulling him in the final minutes to try and tie the game up. It would be more convenient if the team was allowed to put another player on the ice without having to take the goalie out, but that's the way the cookie crumbles isn't it?

The point of sports is for the players to play and us to watch. I'm not a big fan of over coaching in any sport, even the ones I play.

That's the point of pee wee sports. It's fun to just play. Pro sports is played and watched the way it is because of how challenging and competitive it is. That's what drives the play and viewership. If everything is convenient and simple, it will not be as good. All that matters is that it's fair and evenly matched.

The only realignment I would be ok with is adding two more franchises and doing a North, South, East, West split for both leagues.

The only realignment I would be for is moving one team from the NL Central to the AL West.
All of the divisions in both leagues have 5 teams, except for the NL Central with 6, and the AL West with 4. What the fuck is that?
The Astros should be moved to the AL and placed in the Western Division