Saturday, November 19, 2011

Welcome to the American League, Houston!

As usual, Bud Selig only sort of listened to me. The sale of the Houston Astros apparently triggered a wholesale change to the structure of Major League Baseball. Some of the changes I love, some I can’t stand, and some I could care less about.

The first one is the change of the Astros to the American League. It doesn’t really affect me, or the Red Sox. So, I’ll leave it up to the Astros fans to voice their opinion on that switch. I can imagine where it could be a little bit jarring to change the whole league you’re used to. But, it could be pretty exciting too. I’m not exactly sure why they didn’t just switch the Brewers back to the AL. But, they went with Houston. A quick guide for Houston fans on the American League. Now, instead of having to watch the worst hitter on the team hack at three balls or bunt, you get to watch a decent hitter actually, you know, have a chance to get a hit. Don’t worry. You won’t miss the double switch. It’s a strange move anyway, since it requires you to remove a player who is presumably better than the one you’re replacing him with.

I love the fact that this change practically requires perpetual Interleague Play. There will be an interleague series just about every night. I have long hated how they grouped all these games together, making it seem like an exhibition weekend. This way, the games are just part of the schedule. Perfect.

I like the equal leagues and divisions. It always seemed weird that the AL West champion only had to beat out three other teams, where everyone else fought four or five. This makes that aspect of it a lot more fair.

I can’t stand the extra Wild Card team, though. I don’t understand how you preserve the integrity of the regular season by adding one more team to the playoffs that didn’t have a great regular season. There’s one more chance to have a team fluke their way to a championship. And the one-game play-in option is a joke. Why not just flip a coin? Let’s just get all the GMs of every team together and draw straws. The longest straw wins the World Series. If you want to really add integrity to the regular season, get rid of playoff teams. Don’t add more. Team with the best record wins. That makes it all about the regular season. The second wild card does not. If you still want to give teams a way to luck themselves into a championship, use the tournament format I’ve proposed before. It’s the only way to preserve the regular season, and let a team on a hot streak win a title of their own. For some reason, people really want you to have to be lucky instead of good.

Maybe that’s Bud’s next move?

6 comments:

  1. Bud's always wanted Milwaukee to be a NL team, just like the Braves he rooted for growing up were. I actually tend to agree with him, but he's definitely not unbiased in that.

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  2. Good point. I remember his saying when the Brewers switched it was OK since Milwaukee was really an NL city...like that previous 20 years were just a dream sequence the entire city couldn't wait to wake up from.

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  3. Milwaukee only had the Braves for 10 to 12 years, while the Brewers were in the AL for over 25 years, so Selig's claim that Milwaukee is an NL city is just more spineless BS from the reigning expert on that.

    Next thing you know, Selig will dictate 2 more expansion teams, and four 4-team divisions in each league, so that more teams can win "1st place".

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  4. I agree the Brewers should have been switched since the Astros have been an NL team for their entire existence. However I'm over it now. I've had my time to be mad about it and now I have to look at the future. The team is young and rebuilding, I just hope it's like the 90's rebuilding where we had Bagwell and Biggio.

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  5. In typical cynical fashion, I point out that Bud isn't interested in maintaining the integrity of the game. The more playoff games he can fit in, the more money he makes.

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  6. My team of interest for your 2007/2017 contest is the Houston Astros! Thanks!

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