Current MLB Realignment Plan Sounds Good On Paper But It Won’t Work

Major League Baseball realignment is probably going to happen.  Right now, there are talks to split the AL and NL into two 15-team leagues with no divisions.

Under the possible plan, the top 3 clubs in each division would make the playoffs and the 4th and 5th place clubs would be wild cards and would play each other for the final spot.  Oh yeah, there would be interleague play throughout the season.

What a horrible idea.

I’m all for making baseball better, but I don’t think the current realignment plan of having two 15 team divisions will work.

No other professional sports league in America has two big divisions.

Fans want to see the best teams play each other  not one league winner and a bunch of other teams.  Keep the 2 leagues, each with 3 divisions.

If this 2-mega division format happens, the schedule will be even more unbalanced than it is right now.  How would you play every team in your division as well as teams in the other league?  There wouldn't be enough games.

You need to keep 3 divisions in each league. 

As much as you might not like it, teams close to each other need to play each other more often. That’s the purpose for divisions.  If you have one big division in each league, everyone would play everyone else the same amount of times. That doesn’t make sense.

The Yankees would play the Chicago White Sox as many times as the Red Sox. Rivalries would be diluted which would also affect attendance.

If this plan were to happen, interleague play would have to take place all season. 

Since there would be 15 teams in each league; that would mean that 1 team would have to be off every night of the season.  The only way to do it is to have the AL play the NL.

If you’re going to do that, you’d have to the designated hitter in both leagues. That way, both leagues that are playing each other on a regular basis would have to abide by the same set of rules.  Great in theory, but hardly practical.  Having the American and National Leagues separate is what makes baseball great.  Just get rid of the DH in the National League and call it a day.  Interleague play works to a point but let's not go crazy.

Again, just have 3 division winners and the other top two teams make the post-season. The wild card winners would play each other in a one-game wild card.