MLB Expansion - Jim Bowden /The Athletic

[DocTee]

I like Ben Grimm's plan, but for the fact that there are three expansion teams in one division, and that Vancouver trumps Portland.

[smg58]

Will we even recognize baseball by the time Manfred is done with it?

[Marshmallowmilkshake]

If there is a balanced schedule, is there any real reason to blow up the leagues and have the location based clusters? If the biggest reason to do this is to eliminate extensive travel, but the Mets will be playing the Mariners as often as they play the Red Sox or Phillies, then what is the benefit?

[nymr83]

=DocTee post_id=118077 time=1676038646 user_id=85]
I like Ben Grimm's plan, but for the fact that there are three expansion teams in one division, and that Vancouver trumps Portland.

[batmagadanleadoff]

=TransMonk post_id=118058 time=1676001165 user_id=71]
=nymr83 post_id=118037 time=1675972877 user_id=54]I would realign to only FOUR divisions of 8 teams each

[metirish]

Long look at Montreal here, I'll copy and paste if anyone wants



https://theathletic.com/4103000/2023/01/19/montreal-mlb-expansion-team?source=user-shared-articlehttps://theathletic.com/4103000/2023/01/19/montreal-mlb-expansion-team?source=user-shared-article



Nashville



https://theathletic.com/4085693/2023/01/16/nashville-mlb-expansion-team?source=user-shared-articlehttps://theathletic.com/4085693/2023/01/16/nashville-mlb-expansion-team?source=user-shared-article



Portland



https://theathletic.com/4094197/2023/01/17/portland-mlb-expansion-team?source=user-shared-articlehttps://theathletic.com/4094197/2023/01/17/portland-mlb-expansion-team?source=user-shared-article



Vegas

https://theathletic.com/4097332/2023/01/18/las-vegas-mlb-expansion-team?source=user-shared-articlehttps://theathletic.com/4097332/2023/01/18/las-vegas-mlb-expansion-team?source=user-shared-article

[Benjamin Grimm]

https://www.fox13now.com/sports/salt-lake-city-named-favorite-for-mlb-expansion-by-baseball-insidersSalt Lake City named favorite for MLB expansion by baseball insiders



One of the two "insiders" quoted in this article is David Cone, so perhaps this scoop should be taken with a grain (if not a lake) of salt. But until now, I was unaware that Salt Lake City was putting in a bid for an expansion team. I think Portland would be a better choice for the West Coast expansion team, but maybe SLC's greater distance from Seattle will give it an advantage.



Other cities mentioned in the article are Nashville, Charlotte, and Montreal.



I've seen elsewhere that there's a good chance that we'll have 32 teams by 2028.

[metirish]

Wow , I would never have guessed Salt Lake ( and that's what Olney and Cone are doing) certainly would be interesting

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Baseball was waiting for the Oakland situation to work itself out before expanding. Fees will be ginormous, there's no way to stop it.

[Frayed Knot]

And the expansion fees will solve all their problems, just like the ones from the 1993 expansion teams did.

[MFS62]

Frayed Knot wrote: And the expansion fees will solve all their problems, just like the ones from the 1993 expansion teams did.

Will the expansion fees:

Speed up the game? (the only thing the owners seem concerned with)

Eliminate the DH? (A problem NL fans are concerned with)

Get rid of Angel Hernandez? (A problem all baseball fans are concerned with)



Stay tuned to see what other problems expansion fees might solve.

(S/M = 94)

Later

[Cowtipper]

I've recently considered the audacious idea of splitting MLB into three leagues—the West, the Central and the East (or something more creatively named than that).



Expand the big leagues to 33 teams with 11 teams per league, keep all the current teams as is in terms of names and locations, then go where the populations are to fill out the rest. And right now Texas seems to be the most underrepresented when it comes to populations/major league clubs. So it would look something like this:



East:



Baltimore Orioles

Boston Red Sox

Jacksonville

Miami Marlins

New York Mets

New York Yankees

Philadelphia Phillies

Pittsburgh Pirates

Tampa Bay Rays

Toronto Blue Jays

Washington Nationals



Central:



Atlanta Braves

Chicago Cubs

Chicago White Sox

Cincinnati Reds

Cleveland Indians

Houston Astros

Detroit Tigers

Kansas City Royals

Milwaukee Brewers

Minnesota Twins

St. Louis Cardinals



West:



Arizona Diamondbacks

Austin

Colorado Rockies

Las Vegas/Oakland Athletics

Los Angeles Angels

Los Angeles Dodgers

San Antonio

San Diego Padres

San Francisco Giants

Seattle Mariners

Texas Rangers



Florida doesn't seem to have much luck with major league baseball, but it keeps hanging around, so it might be worth a shot with Jacksonville. Austin is kind of close to Houston, but it's about the same distance as LA to SD. Hard to believe the best San Antonio can muster right now is a Double-A club.

Edited November 27, 2023 by Guest

[MFS62]

Your divisions didn't look quite right.

But Atlanta , from the map I saw, seems to be to the West of both Toronto and Pittsburgh. So it would belong in your central division.

I'd put Las Vegas and Vancouver in the West instead of the two Texas teams because of their histories of minor league (AAA) ball.



Later

[Cowtipper]

I had a hard time deciding for some of the teams. I wasn't sure if I wanted them to be grouped by purely geographical terms. I almost didn't want to put Atlanta in the Central because though it is farther west than some cities, it is also in an East Coast state. Tampa is barely farther east than Cleveland, as far as I can tell, but it's in an East Coast state and Cleveland is in (what some consider) a Midwest state, so Cleveland gets shoved into the Central.



I've also considered maybe it is time to put a big league club in Puerto Rico. San Juan would be the obvious choice.

Edited November 27, 2023 by Guest

[bmfc1]

I'm sure that we will have an insider touting Portland soon because if "Seattle needs a friend", as is claimed in that article, then Portland is a 3-hour drive from Seattle while SLC is 13 hours. The better argument for SLC is Las Vegas which is a 6 1/2 hour drive and would create a rivalry between those teams (not to mention all the "good vs. evil" disparity that some would believe).