Saturday, April 11, 2020

The proposed realignment of teams looks like a practical joke

According to the Internet, MLB is pondering a bizarre divisional setup for the increasingly endangered 2020 season. Here's the proposal, as floated in the latest round of ether.

GRAPEFRUIT LEAGUE
  • NORTH: New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies, Toronto Blue Jays, Detroit Tigers, Pittsburgh Pirates.
  • SOUTH: Boston Red Sox, Minnesota Twins, Atlanta Braves, Tampa Bay Rays, Baltimore Orioles.
  • EAST: Washington Nationals, Houston Astros, New York Mets, St. Louis Cardinals, Miami Marlins.
CACTUS LEAGUE
  • NORTHEAST: Chicago Cubs, San Francisco Giants, Arizona Diamondbacks, Colorado Rockies, Oakland Athletics.
  • WEST: Los Angeles Dodgers, Chicago White Sox, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Indians, Los Angeles Angels.
  • NORTHWEST: Milwaukee Brewers, San Diego Padres, Seattle Mariners, Texas Rangers, Kansas City Royals.

Zoiks. You can argue that anything is better than nothing. But at first glance, this looks flat-out batty. Of course, it's based entirely on where teams play spring training. After that, nothing makes sense. Some cocktail napkin observations: 

Tampa doesn't even get to play in its own town. Do the Yankees become Tampa's home team? 

The Yankee-Redsock rivalry goes down the tubes, along with the Cubs-Cards and Giants-Dodgers. 

Gleyber Torres won't get to hit 20 home runs against the Orioles.

Considering that MLB would surely play a short season, you wonder if six divisions are necessary.

Again, anything is probably better than nothing. But the biggest conclusion from this plan is the daunting task of creating a season on the fly. 

7 comments:

TheWinWarblist said...

I feel well. No fever or cough.


Fuck MLB. Fuck them.

JM said...

The greatest challenge here is smacking all of the MLB execs responsible for this in a dark alley and leaving them drooling and crawling through decades of muck.

That is both challenging and called for.

Other than that, great job, guys.

PS: I keep plugging Brockmire, it seems, but the latest episode has a consortium of Native American tribes buying the Cleveland Indians and renaming them the Colonizers. The new logo is a caricature of a white guy in a powered wig licking the bloody blade of his pirate-like sword. I love this show.

el duque said...

I've gotta check out that show.

Statman Druthers said...

I hope this happens. This will put the "lore" back in baseball. Just think of all the gotcha moments for stat geeks and fantasizers.

HoraceClarke66 said...

I don't care, just as long as it takes another couple months, so we can get all our guys back.

Anonymous said...

Brockmire is by far one of the greatest shows in TV history. I kid you not.

As an aside - JM , please say spoiler alert. :)

Doug K.

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