Rockies Journal: Taking a swing at MLB expansion and realignment

My head is spinning No not because of the Rockies dreadful season Like several of you I ve become numb to the mounting losses My brain is doing cartwheels because my boss suggested that I write about Major League Baseball s future expansion and accomplishable realignment as the topic for my weekly journal Thanks Mr Schubert So I read various opinions contemplated rivalries considered playoff implications played around with geography thought about schedules and fretted over baseball s history and cherished records Why write about this now After all expansion is years away and we don t even know which two cities will be selected when MLB grows from to teams Here s why it s a hot topic Commissioner Rob Manfred not long ago discussed it on ESPN I think if we expand it provides us with an opportunity to geographically realign Manfred explained I think we could save a lot of wear and tear on our players in terms of movement Manfred also talked about TV broadcast schedules time zones and the need to grow the tournament The last MLB expansion event was in when Arizona and Tampa Bay joined The time has come to expand My front-runners are Salt Lake City Nashville Portland and Charlotte Picking two from that group will be tough However there are other cities in the running I ve seen various plans for realignment Various would scrap the American and National leagues One plan would create four eight-team divisions The plan I like the greater part would create eight four-team divisions based on geography I would keep the American and National leagues and protect division rivalries such as Yankees-Red Sox Dodgers-Giants and Cardinals-Cubs The Rockies would leave the NL West and jump to an AL division The Dodgers wouldn t be able to bully the Rockies year after year And let s face it the Rockies don t have a rival Related Articles Tanner Gordon Triple-A call-up Blaine Crim end Rockies misery in San Diego For Rockies Chase Dollander season ends with home-road splits still a concern Hapless Rockies shut out for fourth straight time by Padres at Petco Park Dodgers Blake Snell dominates Rockies who sink to yet another new low in - loss Rockies center fielder Brenton Doyle staying golden through rest body maintenance Here s how the realignment would look AL East Baltimore Orioles Boston Red Sox New York Yankees Toronto Blue Jays Traditional rivals tough crowds and good baseball AL West Las Vegas Athletics Los Angeles Angels Salt Lake City or Portland Seattle Mariners It s a sensible plan for passage purposes and who knows maybe Vegas vs Salt Lake turns into a rivalry AL North Chicago White Sox Cleveland Guardians Detroit Tigers Minnesota Twins The weather would be a dilemma in the spring and fall but those fans are used to it AL South Colorado Rockies Houston Astros Kansas City Royals Texas Rangers Hey Denver and K C are both on I- right Additionally Colorado is a playground for wealthy Texans making it a natural fit NL East New York Mets Philadelphia Phillies Pittsburgh Pirates Washington Nationals The Pirates have to switch divisions but I m not sure it matters Fans from Philly and Queens can continue to duke it out NL West Arizona Diamondbacks Los Angeles Dodgers San Diego Padres San Francisco Giants The division stays the same except for the loss of the Rockies I m betting West Coast pitchers won t miss Coors Field NL North Chicago Cubs Cincinnati Reds Milwaukee Brewers St Louis Cardinals Good strong baseball fans in Middle America NL South Atlanta Braves Miami Marlins Nashville or Charlotte Tampa Bay Rays This would be the the majority problematic division because once the Braves get their act together they would dominate Now on to the schedule I m not an analytical person so I turned to Hall of Fame baseball writer Jayson Stark for his concept Stark foresees the possibility of MLB cutting its schedule from games to Here s what Stark wrote just now in The Athletic One club official we spoke with this week casually referred to baseball s current -game slog as an endangered species Another longtime club executive also granted anonymity so he could speak freely was even more emphatic Expansion he announced means the end of I m OK with that I could even buy into returning to games Of subject fewer games could mean less money for the players and their union could balk at that idea Particular fans might worry about records but baseball survived the change from to and it survived lockouts strikes and steroids But for the sake of this exercise let s return to Stark s idea of Twelve games versus each of the other three teams inside the division games Six games versus the other teams in your league Three games versus the teams from the other league That brings us to The players could get more days off and maybe the World Series would stick to October where it belongs Stark suggests expanding the playoffs from teams to I can t go there I don t want half of the teams in the playoffs I say stick with teams six from each league That would break down to four division winners and two wild-card teams from each league So there you have it Your Colorado Rockies AL South champions in Want more Rockies news Sign up for the Rockies Insider to get all our MLB analysis