Is Radical Realignment What Baseball Really Needs?

Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig established a panel of 14 men, who hold differing positions in baseball, to address some of the on the field problems that Major League Baseball is trying to combat. One of these problems is competitive balance. Now the members of this committee realize that a salary cap is just not going to happen in the near future, so how can they make it so all teams can compete? Their solution is play with the schedule.

In order to change the baseball schedule the committee is looking at a plan where teams could switch divisions based on rather they are believe they are going to be competitive or not . Here is an example the Kansas City Royals decide that they are in a rebuilding mode and thus not ready to compete, I know real hard to imagine, and they decide to move to the American League East, so at the very least they will have some nice crowds at Kauffman Stadium for the games against the Red Sox and Yankees.

First of all let me applaud baseball for looking at different solutions to their problems. Now comes the but part of the conversation, I just don't think this particular plan is a good one. Having teams floating in and out of divisions every few years to me seems overly radical and even a bit confusing for casual fans. I will admit I am a bit of a purist when it comes to baseball, but having the St. Louis Cardinals win the Central Division title one year and the Eastern Division the next seems silly to me.

I have a few questions for the panel. First are the Red Sox and Yankees forced to stay in the AL East, because this plan is obviously aimed at these two teams among a few other big market teams? Second how can we be sure that we won't wind up with just two team in the AL East because no other teams want to take on the dreaded Nation and Empire? Third what impact does this plan have on rivalries in the game, if the Cubs decide to jump to the NL East doesn't that in turn hurt the Cardinals?

This plan to me is just a bit ridiculous. No other league in American sports has teams jumping form division to division and I don''t think this is a trend that MLB wants to start, this isn't English Premiere League Soccer after all. So kudos to some different thinking by the committee, but this one is just too radical. Maybe the committee should look into a salary floor to help the smaller market teams compete or expand revenue sharing, making sure that the money small market teams receive goes towards the on the field product and not in the owner's pockets. Yes I'm looking at you Kansas City Royals owner David Glass.