If Vladimir Guerrero couldn’t save baseball in Canada…what makes them think Vladimir Demikhov can? (readjusts dunce cap)
ajor League Baseball, according to a Tom Verducci column at SI.com, seems to be considering a move that would allow the Blue Jays to escape the unbelievably tough AL East. It sounds good, but thankfully is a long way from reality.
This is the dumbest thing commissioner Bud Selig has ever considered. With apologies to the Jays and any hopes they might have for realignment, there must be another motive behind this initiative.
Despite the apparently nonsensical nature of the recent proposal, Bud is not a dumb man, which leads one to believe he must be angling for something else before he retires in a couple of years. Like, for instance, a few additional wild-card teams.
Moving teams among divisions on a whim – Selig’s idea is for “floating” realignment, in which teams could change divisions from year to year based on geography, payroll and whether or not they plan to contend – is a stupid concept. Message to Jays president Paul Beeston, a member of Selig’s committee: Suck it up, toots. Just win more games against good teams.
...Instead of blaming the AL East, why not just expand the playoffs and add a couple of wild cards in both leagues. The two division winners with the best records could have a first-round bye while the worst division winner hosts the lowest-ranking wild card and the top wild card hosts No. 2. Why, it might even allow a team like the Jays to feel like a contender right through the end of September.
But giving teams the right to change divisions as long as the shift is not more than two time zones away is the dumbest idea baseball and Bud Selig have ever had.
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1. Avoid running at all times.-S. Paige Posted: March 11, 2010 at 06:50 AM (#3477202)That would allow Theo and Company to target 88 wins every year!
the entire AL East makes the playoffs every season. It's just so obvious that every team in that particular division is so vastly superior to 95% of the teams who've played baseball over the last 100 years, with the Yanks and Red Sox every year being better than the 27 Yankees, that the only fair thing we can do is send them all to the playoffs.
The remaining 25 teams in baseball will battle it out for the remaining 3 playoff spots.
The 22 teams that don't make the playoffs will have the special pleasure of forming the basis for two all-star teams -- well, "all-stars" after you consider that the 125 players on AL East teams are perhaps the single greatest collection of talent in the history of post-integration baseball -- which will play a 5-inning game (nobody really wants to watch 9 innings of baseball) as the opener to the Mylanta Pinstripe Bowl on Dec 30th.
Glad you added that qualifier, Walt. For a minute there you had me going.
But not quite as good as the '39 Yankees.
I like the two wild card idea, except with it being the wild cards play each other in a one game winner goes to 'real' playoffs other goes home style. Those are always fun and I did like the old division winners only method pre-1994. Either that or go whole hog and toss in 8 teams per league to the playoffs.
Just wait. The NHL has yet to make their contribution to the festival of dumbness.
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