In this article, I explained why baseball's competitive balance is better than you realize, actually on par with the NFL's.Yes, he actually suggests changing the division every year.
This does not mean baseball is "fair" and it certainly seems most fans desire the sport to be more fair. And what makes baseball unfair, mostly, is the New York Yankees. As you probably know, the Yankees spend a lot of money and win a lot of games. They don't win it all every season, but they won it all last season, so now everybody is again hyper-concerned about fairness in baseball.
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If you created a salary cap of $88 million -- the average MLB team payroll in 2009 -- several franchises would likely go bankrupt or possibly relocate. You could force the "rich" teams to provide even more revenue sharing, but good luck with that. You could institute a rule like the NFL will have this offseason (when it will likely play under an uncapped system): the final eight playoff teams are not allowed to add any new players through free agency except to replace those they lose.
Now, I'm not exactly sure how that will work, but a similar system in baseball wouldn't have prevented the Yankees from signing Mark Teixeira, CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett -- remember, the Yankees had missed the playoffs in 2008. Plus, do you penalize teams like the Rays or Cardinals, who may make the playoffs even though they aren't "big-market" teams?
So, yes, it's a complicated situation without an easy (or realistic) solution. That's why I'm here. I have one.
Change the divisions. Each season.
Why does baseball have to keep the same division format every year? Why should Tampa Bay and Baltimore always have to beat out the Yankees and Red Sox while the AL Central teams duel each other to 87 wins? Why should the Angels only have to beat out three teams instead of four in the AL West?Yes, I'd probably watch that, but it doesn't make it a good idea.
So the plan is to realign the divisions after every season. For the American League, there would be three basic rules:
1. The Yankees and Red Sox always remain in the AL East. It makes sense and it's good for the game.
2. Tampa, Toronto, Baltimore, Detroit and Cleveland can play only in the AL East or AL Central. All five cities are in the Eastern time zone and having them play in the West creates logistical and television issues.
3. The Angels, Seattle and Oakland always remain in the AL West. This makes sense for logistical reasons, as well.
Now, how do we disperse the remaining teams? Simple. MLB holds a big telecast two days after the World Series ends. We put all the team names in a big ball like during the NBA lottery selection show. Teams send their general manager and a star player and Hall of Famers like George Brett and Reggie Jackson draw out the team names. You wouldn't watch this? You wouldn't love to see Dave Dombrowski throw up in his mouth when the Tigers draw the AL East? You wouldn't get excited to see Andrew Friedman high-fiving Evan Longoria when the Rays draw the AL Central? You know you would watch this.
He then goes on to show what each AL division would look like over the next few seasons and it's pretty safe to say it looks a little ridiculous. For example, the 2010 AL East would include the Yanks, Sox, Indians and Tigers, while the 2011 AL East would include the Yanks, Red Sox, Tigers, Royals and White Sox.
I'm not posting this because I think it's a good idea, even Schoenfield admits it's not realistic. I just think it's funny the lengths people would try to go to because the Yankees won their first World Series since 2000. Imagine how nuts people will get if they win another next season? I can't wait for that.
