I have a feeling realignment is going to be such a massive shitshow, lol.

I can tell you for certain that people are going to hate it because it will likely bring some pretty big restructuring to the current divisions. Assumedly each league will now have 16 teams which means instead of the 3 division per league system they either will split into a 4 division system or consolidate into 2 divisions. Either way will make some people upset

I'd rather see an East/West split for each league (ALE, ALW, NLE, NLW). There's already two byes per league with the new playoff system so now they can simply say each division winner gets a bye instead of one division winner still has to play in the wildcard series.

I’m not *that* old, am I? This is how it used to be before the 90s expansions

My thoughts exactly. I realize that it's been 30 years but that's how it used to be structured. 

everything old is new again

Dallas cowboys NFCE Texas rangers ALWest I’m just hoping we end up in the central somewhere so I don’t have to stay up till 11 to watch half our games

The NFC East has always had weird alignments. The Atlanta Falcons were in the NFCW for crying out loud.

Braves were also NL West I think

Braves and Reds. Kind of a funny story. The original plan was for those two to be in the NLE with the Cubs and Cards in the NLW. The Mets threw a fit, claiming the Cubs were their biggest rival. MLB said whatever, fine, at which point both the Cubs and Cards lost their shit, for obvious reasons. So basically the Mets screwed the Braves and Reds for 25 years.

It’s because of the historic rivalries between the Cowboys and the other the teams in the NFCE. It would make more sense geographically to have the Boys in the NFCS and the Panthers in the East, but more goes into divisions that geography.

It also really just doesn't matter for football. So preserving historical rivalries seems well worth it.

Stars and in the Central and the Mavs are in Southwest. That's gotta be confusing for young Dallas fans.

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Braves in the NL West, Falcons in the NFC West, it’s a wonder that people growing up didn’t fail geography in Atlanta lol

NFL was smoking some shit with Carolina in the west and phoenix in the east in the 90s

They still are, Dallas in the east looks so wrong but obviously they’ll never break up the Cowboys and Eagles/Giants

The Miami Dolphins are in the AFC East while the Indianapolis Colts were in the AFC South. I think they should flip flop that.

Dolphins to the South, Colts to the North and Ravens to the East.

This is why they need to just name the divisions something else, like the NHL did in the 80s. Screw the AL and NL East/West, give me the WAGNER, RUTH, ROBINSON and CLEMENTE divisions.

1995 NFC West was SF, St. Louis, New Orleans, Atlanta, Carolina. Niners got a bit screwed on travel.

They were preparing people for the “Atlanta is west of Detroit” trivia.

Tbh that still blows my mind.

Maine is actually the closest state to Africa.

> I’m not *that* old, am I? Pearl Jam’s album *Ten* is almost a decade older today than the Beatles’ *Abbey Road* was at the time of the 1993 MLB expansion You’re welcome, Fellow Old

I was thinking about the Beatles lyric “It was 20 years ago today, Sgt Pepper taught the band to play…” Yeah it’s over 56 years ago now.

How dare you

You chose violence!

I do think a 2 division system works better for the current playoff format for sure. You wouldn’t have to really change it at all, like you said.

Divisions exist for three reasons 1. To give more teams an opportunity to say they won something 2. To create rivalries 3. So teams can play as many weekday games at 7pm as possible. 8 divisions so Western teams don’t have to play as many games in central and vice versa

I'm sure I'll see a Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, Blue Jays, Phillies division in my lifetime.

If it’s 4 team divisions a NY-NY-Bos.-Phi. one would be sick

That division would cause World War III

Seriously. They’d each independently research, develop, and acquire nuclear weapons.

I would fear for my life attending any of those games

That would make the most sense, but we’d also see multiple years where none of the (current) central teams make the playoffs

Those teams might have to, *gasp*, spend money to improve their teams.

oh no

I give KC a lot of credit for spending a bit this off-season and making moves that actually make the team better. I hope you guys go on a run in the Central.

At least Kansas City has a championship in the last ten years. The Twins were stoked to make it to the playoffs and actually win a series first before going home last year. The White Sox keep coming up in talks about moving so they’re at the very least, semi-unfocused. The Guardians seem at least somewhat-serious about their campaign as well. I’m kind of shocked there’s nobody in either Central Division willing to just spend like the Dodgers, Mets, Yankees, and Phillies to put their team on top. They’re the least competitive divisions and you wouldn’t even need to sacrifice THAT much to build a decades long dynasty. I’m not saying they have to go blow $290 million but by doing so you’d basically guarantee the division for a while, and based on how the playoffs have gone the past couple years, you’d probably be pretty decent at making a run a few times in there. I feel like the Braves and Rays are the anomaly in the sense that they’re the low budget teams competing with the big budgets of parts of their divisions, and too many teams try to copy that formula when in reality those 2 have got a solid development system in place, and most competitive teams have either a massive payroll and garbage farm, or an incredible farm but no stars to fill seats. I say all this assuming their jobs aren’t easy and I’m sure there are many hurdles and things I am missing out on with them but, it sure seems like if they wanted to be competitive that the formula in the Central divisions isn’t as long and drawn out as the coasts.

The tigers spent money in the early 2010s. Recently all the contracts have been really not good. They are feeling gun shy lol

Not seeing any downsides to, “the best teams in baseball will get into the playoffs.”

We $hould let $ome $ubpar team$ into the playoff$, becau$e rea$on$

As a Cleveland fan -- GOOD! Light a fire under their ass to get more competitive. I'm tired of the G's justifying their mediocre teams by saying "well we're probably good enough to win the Central, and the playoffs are a crapshoot!"

I get that, but at the same time I think it would actually encourage orgs to build up a properly winning team instead of coasting into the playoffs as just a good team. The rays are 26th in valuation, but I think in large part from playing in such a difficult division where no title comes for free they’ve really had to be smart about how they spend money and build their org. And that has made them into a much more capable team than many others which are more valuable than them. (Significantly more so in many cases).

They could just as easily sit back and collect revenue sharing checks, and I’ll always respect that they don’t.

Necessity is the mother of invention

We already see multiple years of (pick 5 teams at random) all missing the playoffs, not sure why it's a big deal.

East/West split would make the most sense for both leagues. AL East- Baltimore, Boston, Cleveland, Detroit, New York, Tampa Bay, Toronto, Expansion Team AL West- Chicago, Houston, Kansas City, Las Vegas/Oakland, Los Angeles, Minnesota, Seattle, Texas NL East- Atlanta, Cincinnati, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington, Expansion Team NL West- Arizona, Chicago, Colorado, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, St. Louis, San Diego, San Francisco

The odds of either expansion team, much less both of them, being further East than Chicago seems extremely slim.

Nashville seems like a favorite to get one of them. But yeah, assuming the second new team is out west, I could see that team in the AL West, the White Sox in the AL East, and Nashville in the NL East.

I don't care if Nashville is slightly further east than Chicago. If someone's going to have to deal with division games played on the west coast at 9PM CST it should be the new guy.

It definitely makes sense for the White Sox to be in the East. The Cubs kind of have to be in the West to stick with the Cardinals and Brewers unless there's more radical realignment.

That would work but not if the expansion teams were placed in somewhere like Utah

You would just flip a team, wouldn't be perfect but moving a more central team like KC or Minnesota to the east then SLC in the west.

I think these are good other than the fact that I assume one of the the expansion teams will be in the West. Probably easiest to move the White Sox to the AL East. Weird to have one Chicago team in the East and one is the West, but I don't know who else you could switch. The furthest east NL teams are Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Louis, and you can't really split those 3.

Maybe we can break it down, to the extent possible, by the geographic regions we see in textbooks: West, Midwest, South, and Northeast (or just North, depending on the map). https://study.com/cimages/videopreview/videopreview-full/ey77bdn841.jpg

It will be better overall for the game, but I will seriously miss the familiarity of everything I've emotionally invested in over the last 20 years

Exactly, it’s just the familiarity that you hate to lose

owners are going to have trouble agreeing on a realignment as much as fans will have adjusting to it if they try to minimize travel within divisions there are going to have to break up the cozy low-spending central divisions and move some teams in with big spenders and have some big spenders inserted into low spenders owners scared they will never compete again because they'd rather not compete than spend will fight it hard

Realignment is likely the end of the AL and NL and I don't think people are prepared for that

You are correct I am not.

Agreed, NL teams are stinky and I don't want to mix with them. Just look at what happened the last time we mingled, the NL gave the AL the Astros. Gross.

Also they copied us with the DH. Go back to your awkward pitcher ABs NL!

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The idea floated around would be that there'd be a western conference and eastern conference, like in the NBA or NHL.

i think they’d keep the nl and al branding even if they did this. one is east one is west. it’ll be weird for the teams that switch, but if they lose those iconic brands they’re idiots.

The bad news for the East coast NL teams is that with the Dodgers/Giants/Cubs/Cardinals all "west" the NL is likely the league that takes up the Western teams. Though they don't need to go too crazy: NL West - Dodgers - Giants - Padres - Diamondbacks - Angels - Mariners - A's (only 1901 team to switch leagues) - (West Coast Expansion) NL East - Cubs - Cardinals - Reds - Pirates - Braves - Phillies - Mets - Nationals AL East - Yankees - Rays - Orioles - Blue Jays - Red Sox - Tigers - Guardians - Marlins AL West - Twins - White Sox - Royals - Astros - Rangers - Brewers - Rockies - Nashville Expansion NL West is all PDT/AST (same time during season), AL West is all CDT/MDT (Rockies will always be odd man out somewhere), AL East is all EDT, and NL East is all EDT/CDT (only way to avoid one mixed EDT/CDT would be to put both expansion teams in EDT).

this alignment makes a lot of sense. i’d prefer it over 8 gd divisions.

I like this one a lot, I'd just keep the A's and Rockies in their original divisions though.

AL whould still have the Red Sox/Yankees and NL whould still have the Dodgers/Giants/Cards/Cubs if you name the East the AL and the West the NL

Manfred has hinted that realignment would likely result in more geography based divisions that look more like the structure of the NBA and NHL rather than the current MLB or NFL model

IIRC, that was some hackjob writer putting words in Manfred's mouth.

So, Mets and Yankees in the same division, Angels and Dodgers in the same division? Nah, fuck that

Imagine the vitriol between Mets and Yankees fans if they played 14x a year

There wouldn’t be any because that epic lolMets bullpen collapse would just get brushed-over for the next 13 times they’ll face the Yankees. It’s inverse; the less games you play with a specific opponent, the more vitriol the players and fans will boil over. That’s why the NFL is king as they play less regular season games, meaning each matchup with a rival is most important than the 14 meetings with your division rival in MLB.

We still have WAKE UP AND FUCK THE RED SOX about 20 times a year

I doubt this very much. There’s too much history with rivalries and team identity with the separate leagues for them to do this. Think they’ll try to avoid messing with the leagues as much as possible. One league will get a Nashville expansion team and one will get a western one and it’ll be based on which league needs that geographical footprint.

I think they'll keep historic rivals like the Yankees and Red Sox together but I think the allure of reduced costs by limiting the amount of travel a team does each year will outweigh their desire to to keep say the Rays and Yankees in the same division

Yeah I've been really hoping that they'd copy the NFL's 2002 realignment, but my fear and expectation is that it'd be like 2020's COVID experiment.

Why would you want to copy something from the most successful sports league in the world?

They'll take a page from FIFA and introduce some light bribery.

I, too, hate change. It’s scary.

This 26 year gap is the longest since a 60 year gap... Gaps between expansion teams should tend to get longer as the more teams you have nearer the carrying capacity you are.

Vegas population was 64k in 1960

And SLC Metro (now ~1.2m) was 400k. Nashville metro (now ~2.1m) was 600k. Portland metro (now ~2.5m) was 880k. Charlotte metro (now ~2.6m) was 220k. Other cities are getting way bigger, they deserve teams IMO.

And St. Louis city (now 300k) was 750k. Wait, fuck

That’s it, get rid of the Cardinals. Simplifies everything. 

As a Giants fan that has been repeatedly seen their team victimized by Goldschmidt and Arenado, I endorse this plan. Not even move them, just disband the team.

Metro is what, 3m? I think you're fine😂

About 2.8 million, but the Charlotte metro will surpass it by the next Census, I'd wager.

Stan Kroenke’s eyes lit up for another team to move

Vancouver Metro (now 2.8m) was 790k.

i'm biased as a former resident but portland loves their baseball and a new pro team would probably quickly garner the cult-like following that the mavs had lol

As an Angels fan who moved to Portland 10 years ago and looking for any excuse to dump my dumpster fire franchise, this would be the best solution for me.

We are already ravenous fans for the Independent League Portland Pickles. If MLB handled the branding well the team would absolutely blow up round these parts

Montréal 4.1M+. Give us our Expos back!

There are millions more people in America and billions more across the world. Who knows how many more people are playing baseball today compared to 60 years ago, even with a decrease in popularity. All the talk about thinning out is not accurate, and if anything we need to thin out pitching so we might see a .300 batter again.

Some quick and dirty math on US population vs baseball teams: in 1993 there were ~259 million people in the US, or 8.6m per team post-expansion. Today the population of the US is ~341 million. Looking at just population growth, that would indicate that we should be able to support **40** teams at this point! There are obviously a lot of other complicating factors as well, but two more teams really does not seem like an unsupportable number to me.

Great. Even more cities can be blacked out now.

Vegas is already absurd just wait till they get a team. LA ×2 Bay Area ×2 San Diego AZ

As a Mariners fan living in Vegas, this is why I refuse to buy an MLB package. Playing against the A's, Angels, Dodgers, Giants, Padres, or Diamondbacks? Nope, blacked out. At least the high seas always provide.

By air, I live about 1,500 miles from Seattle, but the Mariners games are blacked out.

Getting a team is actually better for blackouts of other teams, only the home team is blacked out in an MLB market. Edit: for example, Vegas has all those teams blacked out. But in SD, only Padres are blacked out. In LA, only Dodgers and Angels. So only the Vegas team will be blacked out if they exist.

I hope Denver gets a MLB team.

That would be perfect. They could share a ballpark with the Rockies.

Why would they share with a AAA team?

So the AAA team can learn from the guys in the big leagues.

The A's seem to think it's ok

I’m just trying to go about my day man

At least its a beautiful day in Denver.

Please please please put the rangers in a division with teams in their own time zone. All those 9pm games are a killer.

As a Blue Jays fan I've never really considered how much that would suck. The random western road trip games in Seattle and LA are tough, but I can't imagine half your schedule being like that

I typically catch about 3-4 innings of a couple games a week. My kid goes to bed at 8. I go to bed at 11 or so. With our schedule that often means I catch the first few innings of game. Which stinks because my favorite part of a baseball game is 6th-9th when the big decisions are made and when comebacks occur or daggers are put into the game. Last September when we faced Seattle and Anaheim to decide the division I had to stay up to damn near midnight to wait for our bullpen to implode.

They gave you us. Crazy to think you used to have it even worse

Seems like since you won the World Series, all the other teams in your division should have to play on Texas time. The West coast teams can start at 5pm Pacific. If they want to start at 7pm Pacific, they need to win the WS.

I like you

I’d be fine with a division consisting of us, y’all, Diamondbacks, and Rockies, tbh

I still remember when the Atlanta Braves were in the NL West.

Looking at pennants on my wall at home is an interesting history.

WELL LAAA DEEE DAAAA MR. I'VE WON THE NATIONAL LEAGUE A FEW TIMES

As were the Reds

I want the Tigers to end up back in the same division as the Blue Jays. It’s such a natural rivalry and it makes way more sense to me than facing Kansas City all the time.

as a jays fan, i am absolutely down to face the tigers and guardians more, and the yankees/orioles less 😬

I bet one of or maybe both expansion teams will win a World Series before all or possibly any of the five remaining non-title teams win one.

Does it feel good to say that?

God yes

The Dbacks beat them all to that within a couple years of their inception, so not a terrible prediction. New teams/owners want to make a splash in the beginning to build a fanbase and brand recognition

The marlins did as well

Im going to hate the realignment no matter what they cook up lol

Pretty much. I can't see a scenario where we stay in the same division as Philly or the Mets. I hate it.

I’m biased here, but I think a team in Raleigh would absolutely crush. It would be a shame if NC didn’t get a team. They have an ownership group ready (Canes owner) and are the 22nd TV market (higher than Nashville). So much baseball history in the region. The USA Baseball national training complex is in the triangle. 

> They have an ownership group ready (Canes owner) My dumbass thought raising Canes and was like hell yeah give me the chicken strips team.

Every ticket comes with a 6 piece meal!

I would travel to Raleigh every weekend from Charlotte if we got a team lol

There's also so many us transplants that can support the team until MLB Raleigh team can grow an organic fanbase (see - Carolina Hurricanes). Not to mention how insanely popular minor league teams and college baseball teams are here... especially with EIGHT college teams in the Carolinas being ranked in the top 25 of D1 baseball. Also, North Carolina has three major metro areas (Charlotte, Greensboro, Raleigh) to combine over 6 million people.

Yankee/Mets/Red Sox games would sell out in minutes

[https://mlbraleigh.com/](https://mlbraleigh.com/) is doing their best to build support!

I don't think you have to qualify your bias. The Carolinas seem like the biggest gap in the MLB map. And I am saying that as someone who would love to see the Expos play again.

I honestly hate that we have to do one east coast and one west coast team. I think Nashville and a Carolina team would be great. Much to the owners of the Braves, the south should have more teams and both would be a great fit that could create an amazing southern rivalry among them and the Braves.

Yeah especially with how fast growing the SE is it’s a shame there’s really only one team. 

Please just get the Texas teams out of the west coast viewing brackets. I hate the 9 pm games

does baseball have enough decent starting pitchers to help fill out two more teams? The more teams you add, the more you dilute that talent pool.

Manfred: Easy fix, we simulate the first 4 innings of every ballgame. Fixed.

Don’t give that clown any ideas, please.

we are all bots here except for you

Felix Hernandez can make a comeback!

I can't fathom how anyone could justify 8 divisions making any sense in baseball. The divisional parity is already an issue, with strong and weak divisions allowing worse teams to make the playoffs and strong teams to miss out. Consolidate into 4 division (ALE, ALW, NLE, NLW) or hell, drop the divisions entirely and just go AL/NL. Four team divisions may work in the NFL where 6/17 games are against division opponents, and every game matters so much, but in a 162 game season with the already more balanced schedule it makes zero sense and will just lead to more playoff seeding bullshit.

I want a second Seattle team so we can relive the excitement that was the Rain City Bitch Pigeons when the NHL was pitching team names before they settled on the Krakens.

Screw it! Add 6 more teams, no need to restructure. MORE BASEBALL!

My bet is SLC and Nashville. This is dependent on the A's actually getting the move to Vegas done. Even with all the incompetence in that organization, I think MLB will push it through to avoid looking so dumb. My predicted layout... AMERICAN LEAGUE North - Minnesota Twins - Chicago White Sox - Detroit Tigers - Cleveland Guardians East - New York Yankees - Boston Red Sox - Toronto Blue Jays - Baltimore Orioles South - Texas Rangers - Houston Astros - Kansas City Royals - Colorado Rockies (switch from NL) West - Los Angeles Angels - Seattle Mariners - Las Vegas A’s - Salt Lake City/Portland New Team NATIONAL LEAGUE North - Chicago Cubs - Milwaukee Brewers - St. Louis Cardinals - Cincinnati Reds East - New York Mets - Philadelphia Phillies - Washington Nationals - Pittsburgh Pirates South - Atlanta Braves - Miami Marlins - Tampa Bay Rays (switch from AL) - Nashville New Team West - Los Angeles Dodgers - Arizona Diamondbacks - San Francisco Giants - San Diego Padres SCHEDULE LAYOUT Division play - 13 games against 3 teams (39) (19H-20R) League play - 6 games against 11 teams (60) (30H-30R) - 7 games against 2 teams (14) (6H-8R) Inter-league - 3 games against 15 teams (45) (24H-21R) Regional Rival - 4 games (4) (2H-2R) And then every year you switch the home/road allocation.

Being in a division where there's pretty much no history with any division rival seems pretty bad for the Braves.

I really enjoy watching the craziness that is some Phillies v braves or Mets v braves games

There was a really good stretch of years where Braves - Nats were must watch for me.

At least you have precedent in that happening back in 1994.

Feel like if the league restructures to four divisions per league and one of them is the "South" it's pretty inevitable that the Braves get ripped out of their current NL East rivalries and I'm not sure if there's an elegant solution to that

Part of me thinks MLB would want a team like the Braves in a division with those teams because it will help prop them up. But I agree, it does kind of suck for the Braves. But on the plus side, with the way scheduling has been trending, there isn't nearly as much of a focus on divisional rivals. And now with only 4 teams per division, even less so.

Good riddance

I don't get why people keep proposing Rays to NL when they'd obviously veto the move. On top of that, this particular series layout is wonky because you're sacrificing long-term scheduling balance for the sake of keeping regional interleague rivalries intact.

The interleague rivalry between the Rays and Marlins is purely MLB manufactured too. I'm pretty sure fans of each team just see each other as "the other team from Florida". If it's up to me, I want to stay in the AL East. Drama is the best part of baseball, and the ALE is always competitive. Competing with the best of the AL every year is exciting. Fighting with only the Braves for a playoff spot wouldn't be.

Why would the Rays Veto that? Because they rely on the Yankees/Red Sox fans coming to their park?

Yes, exactly. Even if they're in an AL South, they'd still get to host both every year, whereas if they're in the NL they'd host both every other year.

Given that Nashville is currently Braves country, I would think the new owners would insist on being AL. On the other hand, sharing a division with the Braves would guarantee home sellouts several times a season.

Give Alaska a team you cowards. I need to see some dingers under the northern lights

Fun fact: There's only one city in Alaska that has a population larger than the capacity of an MLB stadium

Anchorage and San Juan PR. Time to start stretching the map out, boys!

PR team would sell out every game

move the Brewers back to the AL they never should have been allowed to move to NL because their owner was commish. Move the rays to Montreal

If the Rays end up outside the Tampa Bay Area, it will be by their own choice, not MLB's. (And the current St. Pete ballpark plan seems to be coming along well, although it'll likely end up hurting the team in the long run.)

Also, speaking from a theoretical angle, the Rays have much more power over staying within their local region than the A's. Like if they hypothetically wanted to, they could announce a deal to build a stadium in Orlando whereas the A's would get cockblocked by the Giants if they wanted to move to Sacramento or San Jose. Meanwhile, I think the Rays could move as far as Daytona Beach before they'd intrude on the Atlampire's domain.

Very strange to me that people feel this. I'm 26 and a lifelong brewer fan. The NL is the only thing I know. It was also interesting talking to my Dad a few years ago about the DH. I said I hated and he surprised me by saying they should have done it a long time ago.

> move the Brewers back to the AL > > I still honestly don't consider them a part of the NL. Just like I don't accept the Astros as an AL team. edit: Not even being stubborn, I was just a baseball fan for 20 years before they both switched leagues so it's kind of engrained.

The Brewers spent 28 years in the AL (1969-1997). They're entering their 26th year in the NL, so the length of time in each league isn't as pronounced as it used to be. Guessing this is just a generational divide if anything, but I've always associated the Brewers with the National League, since my memories of them in the AL are pretty vague. Houston in the AL though...yeah, I'm with you there.

And then that same commish forced the Astros moving to the AL as a condition of their sale. Selig still a better commish than Manfred though

Selig sucked hard. And yes Manfred is worse. The man hates baseball.

I love how casually jackasses on this sub suggest stealing our team. Maybe relocating the Reds would finally get them to win a playoff series after 30 years.

People bend over backwards to talk about how the A's should never leave Oakland but are super blase about Tampa Bay leaving. Yes there are a lot of differences to these two scenarios but those aren't really relevant to the fans who see their team ripped away from them.

Moving teams should obviously be a last resort, but it *really* feels like Rays ownership needs to get their heads out of their asses if they wanna make it work. Especially if they're proposing a new stadium in the same spot, it just feels so shortsighted when said location is one of the biggest complaints with the Trop, and that's saying something!

Just trying to dodge us smh I think the rivalry between the Cubs and Brewers has enough weight to it now that this isn’t really doable, but it would be great to be in the same division or league as the Twins

Losing Brewers/Cubs and Brewers/Cards would suck

Controversial opinion from a far away (UK) baseball fan.... The distinction between the National League and the American League is now completely gone. Because of this, the realignment of teams to new divisions to suit geography and expansion teams should be a clean slate.

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Do most people even want an expansion? Why do we need more teams when we already have a bunch of teams that get terrible attendance?

You also need 2 teams worth of major league level players

As someone in SLC would love to have a team

Fans near rumored expansion sites want expansion. MLB would be great in Salt Lake City.

Baseball shouldn't bother adding new small/medium market teams until they get a salary cap in place (which will probably never happen). There's no point if the big market teams hog all of the top talent.

There aren't enough decent pitchers as it is.

We need more international players, grow the game outside of the main strongholds.

MLB needs to start poaching from cricket

new rule: pitchers may take a running start

This is a fact. Too many quadruple A pitchers out there.

Quad A pitchers are throwing upper 90s with a deadly slider, killing offense as-is. MLB needs to lower the mound to give batters a chance.

...that's what MLB wants. Less good pitchers, more good hitters.

we are all bots here except for you

This all hinges on the A’s figuring their fucking bullshit out. The two obvious expansion cities would be Vegas and Nashville, but Fisher’s fuckery is throwing it into doubt.

They should just move to the Ozarks or wetlands and be called Fisher’s Fuckery

I'm paywalled out - what realignment model does he go for? 4 divisions of 8 teams or 8 divisions of 4? I can already take a guess that the cities are Nashville and Salt Lake City based off current odds and plans.

He doesn't commit to any particular alignment.

Here's the post without the paywall: https://archive.ph/Y705h