Subscribe!Before I begin, I should first offer some defense of myself. I am a lifelong baseball fan, and consider myself a traditionalist in many ways. I believe the designated hitter and the wild card berth should be removed from the game. That being said, I do believe there is something that Major League Baseball could take from professional association football leagues around the world.
In many of the top tier football leagues, teams face the prospect of relegation or the reward of promotion at the end of the season. Teams that finish in the lower positions of the league (typically the worst two or three teams) are relegated to the next lower division and the teams that finish highest in the lower division are promoted to the top division. If baseball were to implement the same sort of system, then teams long out of the playoff picture still have something to play for. It could only add more intrigue and suddenly games between last place teams would have a playoff like atmosphere near season's end. At the same time, teams in the lower division would be fighting for one of the promotion spots.
But how could baseball implement this system? There are a total of 30 teams, 16 in the National and 14 in the American. Let's first even up the split by placing the Brewers back into the American League. Now, we have 15 teams in each league. As a traditionalist, I want to retain the American and National Leagues, so let's divide the first division into those two leages. Since we'll want an approximate even split between the first and second divisions, let's place 8 teams in the top division of each league, leaving 7 in the two second divisions.
Let's take a look at how this scenario would have played out for the 2005 season. Taking the results from 2004, the teams in the divisions would have been:
|
American League 2005 1st Division | National League 2005 1st Division |
| Boston Red Sox Chicago White Sox Cleveland Indians Los Angeles Angels Minnesota Twins New York Yankees Oakland Athletics Texas Rangers | Atlanta
Braves Chicago Cubs Houston Astros Los Angeles Dodgers Philadelphia Phillies San Diego Padres San Franscisco Giants St. Louis Cardinals |
| 2005 2nd Division | 2005 2nd Divison |
| Baltimore Orioles Detroit Tigers Kansas City Royals Milwaukee Brewers Seattle Mariners Tampa Bay Devil Rays Toronto Blue Jays | Arizona Diamondbacks Cincinnati Red Colorado Rockies Florida Marlins New York Mets Pittsburgh Pirates Washington Nationals |
For the sake of simplicity, let's retain a schedule format where all the teams still play each other (that is, teams from the 1st division still play teams in the 2nd division). This simplification also allows for the the current schedule to be retained. However, in reality some tweaks should be made such that 1st division teams play most of their games against first division opponents.
Let's choose a format whereas the bottom two teams in the 1st divisions are relegated to the 2nd, and the third to last team in the 1st division must play a playoff series against the third place team of the 2nd division. The winner of that series is given membership into the 1st division for the next season.
In this scenario, at the conclusion of the 2005 season, in the American League the Minnesota Twins and Texas Rangers would have been relegated, the Milwaukee Brewers and Toronto Blue Jays would have been promoted, and the Oakland A's would have played the Baltimore Orioles for a spot in the 1st Division. Let's use the regular season results to determine that winner. Oakland and Baltimore played 10 times, with Oakland winning 6, thus Oakland would remain in the 1st division.
In the National League, the Giants and Dodgers would have been relegated, the Marlins and Mets promoted, and the Cubs would have played the Nationals for the last 2006 1st division membership. Once again using the regular season results, the Cubs went 1-5 against the Nationals, thus the Cubs would have been relegated and the Nationals promoted.
But what about the World Series? First let's tackle who would play in the World Series. Since we only have 8 teams in each league, and since teams would be changing yearly, it doesn't seem necessary to me to break the league into smaller divisions of four teams, but that is an option. But for now, let's allow the top two teams in the league play each other. If one likes, we could even keep two rounds of playoffs by allowing the top four teams into the playoffs, with a seeding system based on records. But, I think doing so dilutes the meaning of the regular season, so I think it best to only keep two teams (I'd actually prefer to keep only the top team, but in this day of big dollar media contracts , a league championship series is a given). At any rate, the top two teams in each league play a series for the league championship.
In 2005, this would have meant the Cardinals would have played the Braves in the National League and the Yankees and White Sox would have met in the American League. As these series did not play out, we must again look to regular season results. Since the Braves and Cardinals split their season series at 3 games apiece, let's look to aggregate runs. The Cardinals outscored the Braves 26-24, so they would have played in the World Series. We also must look to regular season results to decide the American League Champion, finding that they also split their season series 3-3, but the Yankees outscored the White Sox 15-13. Thus, the 2005 World Series would have been between the St. Louis Cardinals and the New York Yankees. The Cardinals won the season series 2-1, so the Cardinals are my hypothetical 2005 World Series Champions
For 2006, the Leagues and Divisions would have looked like this:
|
American League 2006 1st Division | National League 2006 1st Division |
| Boston Red Sox Chicago White Sox Cleveland Indians Los Angeles Angels Milwaukee Brewers New York Yankees Oakland Athletics Toronto Blue Jays | Atlanta
Braves Florida Marlins Houston Astros New York Mets Philadelphia Phillies San Diego Padres St. Louis Cardinals Washington Nationals |
| 2006 2nd Division | 2006 2nd Divison |
| Baltimore Orioles Detroit Tigers Kansas City Royals Minnesota Twins Seattle Mariners Tampa Bay Devil Rays Texas Rangers | Arizona
Diamondb
acks Chicago Cubs Cincinnati Reds Colorado Rockies Los Angeles Dodgers Pittsburgh Pirates San Francisco Giants |
For the current season, many teams are on the bubble in terms of relegation and promotion. In the American League, the Brewers and Indians are likely to be automatically relegated, while the Angels are in a tight race for avoiding the relegation playoff with Toronto. At the top of the division, that White Sox and Yankees must look nervously down at Boston and Oakland. All in all, this would be a very exciting division to follow, as the spread between first place and sixth place is only 10 games, the spread between the top four teams is only 4.5 games. In the 2nd division, Detroit and Minnesota are virtual locks for promotion, while Texas appears to have an easy road to the promotion playoff game.
In the National League, the Cubs appear assured of relegation while the Braves, Giants, Astros, Phillies, and even the third place Padres, all within 4.5 games of each other, are fighting to avoid both the automatic relegation seventh place position and the playoff relegation position of sixth place. The Mets easily hold the top spot, but St. Louis is only 3.5 games up on the Padres for second place. In the 2nd division, nothing is clear except that the Nationals and Pirates are likely completely out of the promotion picture. The Dodgers, Reds, Diamondbacks, and Rockies are all within 5.5 games of each other, and the Marlins can still dream of an automatic promotion as they are only 6 games back from second place. The table below demonstrates the hypothetical positions of teams in the two leagues.
| American League 1st Division | |||||
| Team | Record | GB 1st | GB 2nd | GB 6th | GB 7th |
| New York Yankees | 70-46 | 0 | 0 | -10 | -15.5 |
| Chicago White Sox | 71-47 | 0 | 0 | -10 | -15.5 |
| Boston Red Sox | 68-50 | 3 | 3 | -7 | -12.5 |
| Oakland Athletics | 67-52 | 4.5 | 4.5 | -5.5 | -11 |
| Toronto Blue Jays | 64-55 | 7.5 | 7.5 | -2.5 | -8 |
| Los Angeles Angels | 62-58 | 10 | 10 | 0 | -5.5 |
| Milwaukee Brewers | 56-63 | 15.5 | 15.5 | 5.5 | 0 |
| Cleveland Indians | 53-65 | 18 | 18 | 8 | 2.5 |
| National League 1st Division | |||||
| Team | Record | GB 1st | GB 2nd | GB 6th | GB 7th |
| New York Mets | 71-47 | 0 | -8 | -15.5 | -16 |
| St. Louis Cardinals | 63-55 | 8 | 0 | -7.5 | -8 |
| San Diego Padres | 60-59 | 11.5 | 3.5 | -4 | -4.5 |
| Philadelphia Phillies | 58-60 | 13 | 5 | -2.5 | -3 |
| Houston Astros | 57-62 | 14.5 | 6.5 | -1 | -1.5 |
| Atlanta Braves | 55-63 | 16 | 8 | 0 | -0.5 |
| Florida Marlins | 55-64 | 16.5 | 8.5 | 0.5 | -3 |
| Washington Nationals | 52-67 | 19.5 | 11.5 | 3.5 | 3 |
| American League 2nd Division | ||
| Team | Record | GB 1st |
| Detroit Tigers | 78-41 | 0 |
| Minnesota Twins | 69-49 | 8.5 |
| Texas Rangers | 61-59 | 17.5 |
| Seattle Mariners | 56-63 | 22 |
| Baltimore Orioles | 51-68 | 27 |
| Tampa Bay Devil Rays | 47-72 | 31 |
| Kansas City Royals | 42-78 | 36.5 |
| National League 2nd Division | ||
| Team | Record | GB 1st |
| Los Angeles Dodgers | 64-56 | 0 |
| Cincinnati Reds | 61-58 | 2.5 |
| Arizona Diamondbacks | 60-59 | 3.5 |
| Colorado Rockies | 58-61 | 5.5 |
| San Francisco Giants | 56-63 | 7.5 |
| Chicago Cubs | 51-68 | 12.5 |
| Pittsburgh Pirates | 46-74 | 18 |
I believe I have demonstrated that a Promotion and Relegation system in Major League Baseball could work very well. It could create more interest than the wild card, as there is more on the line that simply a playoff spot. If you are relegated, then you can't win the World Series the next year. Such a circumstance would also help to prevent scenarios where a team could effectively buy a World Series title, as the Marlins did in 1997. Firesales would happen less often as owners and managers would not want to risk demotion the following season. It would force teams to plan for their futures in a more careful manner. It also returns more significance to the regular season, the results of which have been diluted with the advent of the wild card and two rounds of playoffs. What good does it do to demonstrate that you are the best team in the league, only to risk elimination from World Series contention by a team with two strong starters in a short series?
