Astros to the American League?

El Torito

El Torito

1,000+ Posts
Astros to the American League to foster a rivalry with the Rangers?

Dissolution of MLB's six divisions?

Some pretty interesting possibilities percolating up from the MLB labor talks:

MLB Labor Talks
 
If they move them to the AL East, ESPN would have no choice but to finally give them some coverage with all those games against the Yankees and Red Sox. I wonder if they would say things like "the Yankees beat 'today's opponent' employing the 10-run mercy rule."

Whatever benefits might come along with such a new and sudden exposure would not be worth the beatdowns. How you like dem oranges now Jim Crane? $680M worth of spoiled groceries. Yeck.
 
Better yet send a couple of teams to the Pacific Coast League which will make for 2 14 team divisions. Then throw out the DH.

An interesting idea that probably will not be acted on.
 
Why bounce the Stros to the AL? Living in central Texas, I like being able to drive to Arlington to see the AL and driving abt the same number of miles to Hou to see whatever NL team is in town to beat up the Astros. The AL will be overexposed in Texas, and who wants to travel to Phx or St L to watch a NL game. That intrastate Rangers/Astros rivalry won't be that big of a deal after the novelty wears off; note how interest has peaked already.

Teams have their ups and downs, but if this realignment had already been in place this season and you were going to travel to a game, would you want to watch the Yankees/Red Sox at Houston or the Yankees/Red Sox at Arlington? One stadium will be packed for a competitive game, the other one not so much.

Houston has always been a NL town. Since divisions will go away, why not put the Brewers back into the AL? They've been there before and should be used to getting the short straw when it comes to realignment. Or Washington, which has no MLB history to worry abt.
 
Even with the Astros becoming more competitive someday and the Rangers staying that way, I think there would be too many series/games between them to hold fans' interest through the year unless the series was late in the season and could decide if one of the teams was going to be in the final 5.

From the link:
In reply to:
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I think it's a dumb idea. The Astros have always been an NL team, and the only ones that have really cared about the Rangers/Astros "rivalry" are the marketing types trying to invent it and hype it up (silver boot, anyone?) and the sheep who fall for it.

And then you have the Brewers, who were already an AL team until 1998 and have never really made any noise in the NL (one wild card win and a quick exit from the postseason).

Seriously MLB, WTF?
 
Let me count the ways I hate this:

(1)this has been a National League town for 50 seasons now, with ties that go back even further (Buffs were a Cardinals farm team.

(2)interleague play and the DH suck enough without having to live with them over 162 games.

(3)trying to invent a rivalry makes about as much sense as having home field advantage in the World Series be determined by who wins a meaningless, mid-summer exhibition game.

(4)MORE playoff teams?
 
the idea of 2 leagues, 15 teams per league sounds good. That's what I've been hearing.

Move the Padres over. Makes the most sense. I dunno if Selig would move Milw back, even tho the team isn't owned by his family now.
 
Two 15 team leagues sounds good. Astros to the AL does not. A great thing about MLB (and the NFL) is the league and division layout. States/cities with multiple teams get one of each league (sorry, Pennsylvania).

Send back Milwaukee and bump over Kansas City. The West divison works for KC's football team - it can work for their baseball team too.
 
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