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Ken Rosenthal's Realignment Insanity!

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Stirrups posted an interesting ESPN article about a month ago, which essentially proposed floating divisions for realignment. Ken Rosenthal proposed 3 realignment plans, and as he states in the beginning of his article, it's impossible to make everyone happy when it comes to realignment. However, none of his plans are any good, in my humble opinion. I say add two teams to MLB, making for the first expansion since 1998. There will be 32 teams, and each league will have 16 teams. There are a number of different possibilities for new cities. From past conversations, those cities look to be Portland, Las Vegas, Nashville, Charlotte, OK City, San Antonio. Each league will have 4 divisions. The Wild Card will be eliminated, and the seeding will be division winners, 4 vs 1, 3 vs 2, and so on. (Portland and Nashville expansion) AL East – New York, Boston, Toronto, Baltimore AL South – Tampa Bay, Texas, Kansas City, Colorado (Switch to AL) AL North – Chicago, Detroit, Minnesota, Cleveland AL West – Angels, Arizona (switch to AL), Oakland, Seattle NL East – New York, Washington, Pittsburgh, Philly NL South – Nashville (EXPANSION), Houston, Florida, Atlanta NL North – Milwaukee, Chicago, Cincinnati, St. Louis NL West – LA Doyers, San Diego, San Francisco, Portland (EXPANSION) (OKC and San Antonio expansion) AL East – New York, Boston, Toronto, Baltimore AL South – Tampa Bay, Texas, Kansas City, San Antonio (EXPANSION) AL North – Chicago, Detroit, Minnesota, Cleveland AL West – Angels, Colorado (Switch to AL), Oakland, Seattle NL East – New York, Washington, Pittsburgh, Philly NL South – OKC (EXPANSION), Houston, Florida, Atlanta NL North – Milwaukee, Chicago, Cincinnati, St. Louis NL West – LA Doyers, San Diego, San Francisco, Arizona (Las Vegas and Charlotte expansion) AL East – New York, Boston, Toronto, Baltimore AL South – Tampa Bay, Texas, Kansas City, Colorado (Switch to AL) AL North – Chicago, Detroit, Minnesota, Cleveland AL West – Angels, Las Vegas (EXPANSION) Oakland, Seattle NL East – New York, Washington, Pittsburgh, Philly NL South – Charlotte (EXPANSION), Houston, Florida, Atlanta NL North – Milwaukee, Chicago, Cincinnati, St. Louis NL West – LA Doyers, San Diego, San Francisco, Arizona (Portland and San Antonio expansion) AL East – New York, Boston, Toronto, Baltimore AL South – Tampa Bay, Colorado (Switch to AL), Kansas City, San Antonio (EXPANSION) AL North – Chicago, Detroit, Minnesota, Cleveland AL West – Angels, Arizona (Move to AL) Oakland, Seattle NL East – New York, Washington, Pittsburgh, Philly NL South – Texas (Move to NL South), Houston, Florida, Atlanta NL North – Milwaukee, Chicago, Cincinnati, St. Louis NL West – LA Doyers, San Diego, San Francisco, Portland (EXPANSION) Perhaps I missed something, but geographically, these seem to make sense and they also keep major rivalries intact. The only real ugly division would be the AL South, with Tampa Bay sticking out there into the Gulf, but it seems no worse than the distance from Arlington, TX to Seattle, WA, and is definitely better than putting the Red Sox in the Central, as proposed by Rosenthal.

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