Atlanta Braves Morning Chop: 5 Ways MLB Could Shake Things Up for Fans

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Apr 4, 2015; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; General view of the stadium with snow and a baseball before the game between the Cincinnati Reds and the Toronto Blue Jays at the Olympic Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports

1. Expansion

Baseball has been suffering through this 30-team league with whacky scheduling being the result. Because the leagues are at a balanced 15-15 count, there’s always at least one inter-league series in progress.

That leads to problems such as the split 4-game series: 2 at my place and 2 at yours... often consecutively, sometimes as a “fill in” on the way to another city.

This will never be resolved unless… Major League Baseball expands once again. 32 teams, 16 in each league.

The odds-on favorite for the 31st team would be back in Montreal – a revival of the Expos. A 32nd team would be… more interesting to select.

The largest US Metropolitan areas without a major league team are…

Charlotte, NC (22nd largest overall)
Portland, OR (24th)
San Antonio (25th)
Orlando (26th)
Sacramento, CA (27th)

For comparison purposes: Denver is 21st, Pittsburgh 23rd, Cincinnati is 28th, Kansas City is 29th, and Cleveland 31st…all are in the 2-3 million population range. Milwaukee is 39th (1.57 million).

Also: Columbus, OH (32nd), Indianapolis (33rd), and Nashville (36th) could all be viable destinations as well. Las Vegas (30th) is often mentioned prominently, though I would expect that the vast majority of visitors to this city would not be interested in baseball.

If you want to think way out of the box, then Mexico City could be a choice: at a population of roughly 9 million, it would certainly have a very interested fan base. The biggest concern with that venue would be the altitude: it’s higher than Denver at nearly 1.4 miles about sea level.

It would probably be wise to place at least one new club west of the Mississippi River – thus either a Texas location or Mexico City makes most sense to go with Montreal.

Issues…

None of these cities currently have a ballpark that’s up to major league standards, excepting Montreal. Mexico City has Foro Sol, but this would require some significant upgrades.

A good number of these cities mentioned above currently host minor league teams (up to the AAA level), but many have recently built/upgraded those facilities. Orlando’s problem would be a lack of desire in the state to assist in funding a major league stadium (thanks to the Marlins’ fiasco).

The other problem associated with expansion would be the dilution of talent. As it is, teams currently have difficulty keeping a viable 5-man pitching rotation, plus the kind of hitting that would sustain an offense. Adding 2 more clubs would necessarily exacerbate that problem, requiring a full minor league structure – up to 300 additional professional players each.

My solution to that:

Reduce all rosters by 2 players per club. That accounts for roughly half the additional players needed.
Implement a full International draft for 16-year-olds. While even saying that brings a shudder to my own sensibilities, it would eliminate a lot of the shady dealing that we’re seeing today… and probably increase the player base.
Rely on future international expansion for the additional players needed.
Re-emphasize baseball support in urban areas in an effort to raise participation in Little Leagues, particularly among minorities.

Over time, I believe that issue would then resolve itself.

Next: Time to Re-arrange the Deck Chairs

Oct 7, 2015; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Pittsburgh Pirates manager Clint Hurdle (left) high fives his team during introductions prior to the National League Wild Card playoff baseball game against the Chicago Cubs at PNC Park. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

2. Radical Realignment

I’ll get straight to the point here: with 32 teams, 8 divisions of 4 teams apiece make great sense, and would provide more playoff opportunities for all.

AMERICAN LEAGUE NORTHEAST

Yankees
Red Sox
Blue Jays
Orioles

AMERICAN LEAGUE CENTRAL

Indians
White Sox
Tigers
Twins

AMERICAN LEAGUE SOUTH

Mexico City/San Antonio
Astros
Rangers
Royals

AMERICAN LEAGUE WEST

Angels
Athletics
Mariners
Diamondbacks*

NATIONAL LEAGUE EAST

Montreal
Nationals
Mets
Phillies

NATIONAL LEAGUE CENTRAL

Cardinals
Pirates
Cubs
Brewers

NATIONAL LEAGUE SOUTH

Braves
Rays*
Marlins
Reds

NATIONAL LEAGUE WEST

Dodgers
Giants
Padres
Rockies

* – teams that would switch leagues under this plan.

Details could be quibbled over – such as whether the Twins go out west or if the Rockies and DBacks should be swapped. But geographically, this makes sense and should serve to increase rivalries… while at the same time also reducing the impact of travel for games within a division (as opposed to the Marlins having to consistently travel to the Northeast, for instance).

How would this be scheduled? Well, that’s the next topic of discussion…

Next: Get out your date books!

Aug 5, 2015; Atlanta, GA, USA; Atlanta Braves starting pitcher Williams Perez (61) buries his face in a towel after being removed from a game against the San Francisco Giants in the seventh inning at Turner Field. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

3. Shortened Schedule

Facts related to the manner in which baseball currently schedules its season:

162 games
If divided strictly by sets of 3-game stints, that’s 54 series-es.
Inter-league play schedules choose a single division and schedule 3 games vs. each team in that division (sometimes 4).
There’s also a ‘rivalry’ series that is added each year (example: The Atlanta Braves always have the Boston Red Sox on their schedule)
Division foes are played 18-19 times per year; other teams in the league are scheduled for 6-7 games. This is the “unbalanced schedule” scheme.

Many do not like inter-league play on principle; the fans apparently do like it, as attendance routinely jumps during inter-league play. Thus, my proposal includes IL games, but will reduce their impact.

THE PLAN

With expansion, there would be 3 divisional rivals, 12 additional league rivals. I propose a single opposite-league division be selected for inter-league play per year (4 opponents), and the elimination of the “rivalry” series.

Divisional Play: 3 teams, 6 series’ each (18 games per team; 9 home, 9 away. 54 games total)
League Play: 12 teams, 2 series’ each (6 games per team; 3 home/3 away. 72 games total)
Inter-league Play: 4 teams, 2 series each (6 games per team; home-and-home; 24 games total)

That adds up to 150 games. We’ll still need 12 more to maintain the current 162 game slate.

Solution: add a second opposite-league division for those 12 games. One series each means that your can’t do a home-and-home set, but then you would come back to that division the next season and reciprocate the schedule.

Example:

Atlanta would play the Marlins, Rays, and Reds 18 times each.
Atlanta would play the rest of the National League 6 times each.
Atlanta would play the entire AL-East for 6 games each.
Atlanta would play the entire AL-West for 3 games each.
The next year, the Braves would get the entire AL-Central for 6 games each, plus the AL-West again (3 games each) to ‘complete’ those home-and-home sets.

BUT THAT’S NOT ALL – THE CALENDAR

Baseball is going too long – 183 days (and so is this post… oops). The 2015 season began on April 5th and ended on October 4th. The World Series will likely end in November. There are ways to combat this.

Start the season no later than the last full week of March
Every team must play a double-header once a month… on a Saturday or Sunday. Day-night split, combined… whatever.
Over the April-September time frame, that would cut 6 days – a week – from the schedule.

If this had been done for 2015, then Opening Day would have been on Monday, March 24th (ignoring the Sunday Night ESPN opener) and the final day would have been on Sunday, September 13th… 175 days later.

A 2 week shorter season doesn’t sound like a lot, but it would tend to hold the interest of fans as football season would still be getting in full gear.

Next: But now... it's Playoff Time!

Oct 8, 2015; Kansas City, MO, USA; Houston Astros players including Colby Rasmus (28) , Jose Altuve (27) and Luis Valbuena (18) celebrate after defeating the Kansas City Royals in game one of the ALDS at Kauffman Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

4. Playoff Changes

With extra teams and extra divisions comes the need to re-vamp the playoffs as well. Currently, Major League Baseball has 3 division winners in each league plus 2 Wild Card teams: 10 total clubs make the post-season.

The “exclusiveness” of baseball’s playoffs is still something relatively unique, and I do not wish to see that “dumbed down” as has been done in the NFL (12 teams make the playoffs), NHL (16) and NBA (16). While it would be nice and neat in an 8-division league to simply take the division winners, there’s no way that MLB would tolerate reducing the number of playoff clubs under such a scheme.

Thus – a quandry. Here is my proposal, which kinda mirrors the NFL (unfortunately):

All 8 division winners make the playoffs, and are seeded 1-4 based on record.
Two Wild Card teams get in as well
The two top-seeded clubs in each league get a 1st-round bye.
The 3rd/4th-seeded clubs play the Wild Card teams in a special best-of-3 series.
In this “special” best-of-3, the division winners start the series ahead: 1 game to none.
Thus the Wild Card teams must win twice to advance; the Division winners just once.
Wild Card teams do not receive a home game.

After that, things proceed as you would expect: Round 1 winners travel to the top-seeded teams to begin the ‘Divisional Playoffs’ in a best-of-7 format (I would re-seed the teams after each round). The League Championship matchups follow – then the World Series.

It is my belief that this would strike the right balance in both rewarding the better clubs and in allowing deserving “also-rans” to have a chance to compete in the post-season.

Next: The Final Piece to Revitalizing Baseball

5. Reduce Blackout Restrictions

This has long been a pet peeve of mine – ever since I first heard the early advertisements for MLB’s Extra Innings^SM package.

The sport’s blackout rules are preposterous. Every year, I feel the need to rant about this. Fortunately, the Sporting News had an epic post about that earlier this season which permitted me to defer to their treatment of the subject.

In short: if you want to keep your fans… if you want to expand your fanbase… don’t prevent them from seeing the sport.

I have the same irritation with bad commercial websites, or even brick-and-mortar stores that make it difficult to conduct a transaction for some reason or another. People: if I’m at your location and clearly want to spend money on your products, then you need to do everything in your power to help me spend that money.

Baseball is the same.

If I can watch baseball, I am more likely to become a fan. If I’m a fan, I’m more likely to watch often. If I watch often, I’m more likely to buy my team’s stuff. If I buy my team’s stuff, I’m more likely to physically show up at a game.

Yet MLB continues to stifle this progression of fandom at the very first step.

On my DirecTV system at home, the Braves appeared on six different TV networks this season: Fox Sports Network South (646), SportSouth (649), Fox Sports 1 (219), FOX Local (54), ESPN (206), and the MLB Network (213). That doesn’t count MLB Extra Innings, which is still a re-broadcast of one of the other feeds. So even though I’ve caved to their wishes, I still have to find the broadcast each night.

It’s because I bought the FOX Sports package, that I have access to these games, though: if I hadn’t, they would be blacked out in my area… even if I had bought the $200+ Extra Innings package.

MLB has been obsessed in maximizing its dollars with various media providers without considering the bigger picture of their fans. Even so, this has gotten them into a lot of legal wrangling over the years – including some non-TV issues that we’ve mentioned before – yet they are still trying to to complicate fan access to their product. This even includes one of their largest markets: Los Angeles.

This nonsense hurts the sport. Period.

So if I were in charge, I would be doing everything possible to overcome this issue and provide multiple means of delivering baseball to … the world.

And all of these changes would be designed to do exactly that.

Next: Coppy is the New GM... How Happy Should We Be?

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