Division "De-Alignment"

Will Bud Selig green light a huge change to Major League Baseball?

“Contract the Twins!” “Relocate the Marlins!” “Expand the playoff field to five teams!” For years, we’ve heard a wide range of calls to alter the state of Major League Baseball. And even though these refrains have failed to outlive the early stages of deliberation, they retain symbolic significance, echoing the penchant for change that pervades the thoughts and desires of baseball officials. Simply put, Major League Baseball is always up for trying something new.

The current hot topic of debate: division realignment (or, perhaps more aptly termed, division “de-alignment”). Read about it after the jump.

Commissioner Selig insists that such a change is far from imminent, but rumors abound that MLB is in the midst of weighing a radical new plan for league configuration. The plan entails balancing out the American and National Leagues into fifteen teams each (presumably by moving the Houston Astros from the jam packed NL Central to the sparse AL West), then abolishing the division system altogether, leaving the top five teams in each league to advance to the postseason.

Although this system is undoubtedly not without flaws (i.e. mitigating potential September pennant races), there are a variety of practical reasons for division realignment. Each reason ultimately boils down to baseball’s favorite goal: equity.

Perhaps the most straightforward and logically sound argument made by proponents of realignment is that the current system is inherently unfair. Since the AL West contains only four teams whereas the NL Central houses six teams, certain teams have a better chance of advancing to the playoffs by virtue of pure statistics. How ironic, for a sport that has made long strides towards leveling the playing field, to so blatantly disregard a serious impediment to equity. Pursuant to this point, since divisions were aligned to their current format in 1995, each AL West team has enjoyed multiple division crowns, while only four of the six NL Central teams have proudly hung division banners.

Second, the current playoff qualification system has paved the way for inferior teams to squeeze into the playoffs over undoubtedly superior teams. Because each division winner is automatically awarded a playoff berth, mediocrity is often rewarded. In 2008, for instance, the Los Angeles Dodgers won a mere 84 games- tied for seventh best in the NL- yet advanced to the playoffs because their division was so incredibly weak. A similar event took okace in 2004 when the San Diego Padres won the NL West with just 82 wins, also good (or bad) for seventh in the NL.

Lastly comes the economic argument for division realignment. The magic words “competitive balance” strike a chord when discussing any MLB policy, and the issue of realignment is no exception. From 2009-2010, the average payroll by division was as follows:

AL East: $106,830,039.40

NL East: $91,253,239.80

AL Central: $85,710,282.00

NL Central: $86,307,420.83

AL West: $85,775,491.00

NL West: $ 75,096,581.60

Clearly payroll is not equal across the divisions. This issue is particularly poignant for small-market teams like the Tampa Bay Rays, who are consistently competing with the budget-less New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox in the goldmine that is the AL East. Doing away with divisions could address the increasingly difficult task of winning games for hard-luck poorer teams.

Talking specifics, moving the Astros to the AL West may actually be favorable for the financial state of baseball. Though constant interleague play is an unfavorable proposition to many, from an economic standpoint, interleague play may actually be beneficial. In 2010, average attendance for a Rangers-Astros interleague matchup was 36,344. This represents a nearly 16% increase from any other games played by these teams, where average attendance was 31,407 fans. (See this article for more on the success of interleague play in 2010.)

Of course, a full debate over the specific terms of realignment deserves its own blog post. But it should be evident that the status quo in the realm of alignment is unsustainable if baseball is going to achieve equity.