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What Would The Current Standings Look Like Under Realignment?

Aug 24, 2011, 9:27 PM UTC

ST PETERSBURG, FL - : : Pitcher David Price #14 of the Tampa Bay Rays pitches against the Detroit Tigers during the game at Tropicana Field. (Photo by J. Meric/Getty Images)

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Of all the fans of the four major pro sports in America -- MLB, NFL, NBA, and NHL -- baseball fans almost certainly fear change the most. Hockey makes huge changes to the rules of the game to allow for more or less scoring, and the NFL is constantly fiddling with various rules on penalties. But baseball fans contain a subset of ultra-purists, and they’re an especially noisy lobby. Big changes are hard to come by.

But they do happen. A few Molotov cocktails couldn't stop Bud Selig from pushing interleague play through. The All-Star Game counts for something now -- really, it does -- and baseball adopted an unbalanced schedule in 2003, much to the delight of the Blue Jays, Rays, and Orioles.

Futzing around with realignment is trickier, though. Selig floated a wacky realignment plan over a decade ago, and it didn’t take. Earlier this year, there were whispers of a new plan making the rounds. The main points of the plan:

15 teams in each league, requiring at least one interleague series at all times
No divisions
One team moving from the NL to the AL
Five playoff spots in each league, with the fourth and fifth playoff spots going to teams that would meet in a one-game playoff to advance to the NLDS or ALDS

This is just one plan, but it seems to be the only one that’s leaked, so we’ll go with it. The question is, what would the standings look like if this were in place right now? It’s a good time to check because most of the divisional and Wild Card races are essentially over.

National League

	Team	W	L	Games back
1	PHI	83	44	---
2	ATL	78	52	---
3	MIL	78	53	---
4	ARI	70	59	---
5	SFG	68	61	---
6	STL	67	62	1
7	CIN	63	65	4.5
8	WSN	62	65	5
9	COL	62	68	6.5
10	NYM	60	68	7.5
11	PIT	60	68	7.5
12	SDP	60	70	8.5
13	LAD	59	69	8.5
14	FLA	57	71	10.5
15	CHC	56	73	12

American League

	Team	W	L	Games back
1	NYY	77	49	---
2	BOS	78	50	---
3	TEX	74	56	---
4	DET	70	58	---
5	LAA	70	59	(tied for 5th)
6	TBR	69	58	(tied for 5th)
7	TOR	65	63	4.5
8	CLE	63	63	5.5
9	CHW	63	64	6
10	OAK	58	70	11.5
11	MIN	55	73	14.5
12	SEA	55	73	14.5
13	KCR	53	76	17
14	BAL	49	77	19.5
15	HOU	42	87	28

The teams at the top stay the same, of course. The difference is with the teams fighting for the fourth and fifth playoff spots. Instead of the Braves going for the Wild Card, they'd be scrapping with the Brewers for home-field advantage in a first-round series. The Diamondbacks wouldn't be in position to have a first-round series; they'd instead be fighting for a one-game playoff, as would the Giants. The Angels and Rays would have new playoff life, and formerly hopeless teams like the Blue Jays, Nationals, and Reds would at least be in the periphery of the postseason chase.

It would be ... different. There’s something weird about teams under .500 still being close enough to sniff around the chase, but there’s also something appealing about not guaranteeing a spot to a team in a division like the AL Central, which doesn’t necessarily have a team that’s better than the Angels or Rays.

If the plan were to go through, we’d adjust. There would still be exciting races to follow. The idea is so foreign right now, though, that it’s hard to know for sure if this setup or the current setup provides for better baseball in September and October. I’ll take my chances with the current setup, but only because while I’m not a purist, I’m at least a purist sympathizer.

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