Question about NL Central/AL West

[Dunner44]

Ok, this may seem like a dumb question, but I've only casually followed baseball for about 3 years now outside of the Reds. Football was always my sport of choice, but damned if I can;t help but like any Cincinnati team.

My question reguards the state of the divisions in baseball. With there being 30 teams, why aren't the teams evenly distributed between the NL and AL? And why does the central get 6 teams as opposed to only 4 for the AL West? It just seems to be a competitive advantage for the AL west, as you only have to beat out 3 other teams for the division as opposed to 5 other teams for the Reds/NL Central guys. Obviously fixing this would mean one team switching from NL to AL, but why was this never done?

Thanks!

[Chip R]

If they had 15 teams per league they would have to have an interleague game every day because of the odd number of teams in each league.

[westofyou]

why aren't the teams evenly distributed between the NL and AL? And why does the central get 6 teams as opposed to only 4 for the AL West

If they were there would have to be a constant interleague schedule to engage all the teams.

Houston is in a different Time Zone than the West and lobbied to be put in the central so that game start times on the road start at 6 instead of 9.

It's purely a marketing move to maximize the amount of viewers and dollars.

Texas has no recourse but to deal with it it due to the lack of a 4th team in the AL west of Dallas.

[Dunner44]

If they had 15 teams per league they would have to have an interleague game every day because of the odd number of teams in each league.

Ok, this makes sense, but not every team plays every day. There are about 3 to 4 off days every month, so it shouldn't be that hard to schedule so that interleague every day was unnecessary, should it? Maybe schedule a few more double headers to allow for more days off even... i love a good double header, but i guess the league doesn't. oh well....

[westofyou]

And because of the imbalance Milwaukee becomes the only city to have two different incidents of franchises in both the American League and the National League

[Red Leader]

Maybe schedule a few more double headers to allow for more days off even... i love a good double header, but i guess the league doesn't. oh well....

I love doubleheaders, too. I think all fans do, but it's all about the money.

[westofyou]

Players hate em owners want the extra day of revenue.

During WW2 some teams played up to 45 DH IIRC.

[IslandRed]

Ok, this makes sense, but not every team plays every day. There are about 3 to 4 off days every month, so it shouldn't be that hard to schedule so that interleague every day was unnecessary, should it?

Off days for travel are usually Monday or Thursday. Just look at this year's Reds schedule -- except for the first week of the season, which is always a little screwy, and the All-Star break, they play every Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Pretty much everyone else does the same. So that's five days a week where interleague would be necessary.

[macro]

I just wish MLB would get over their insistence that interleague games should only be played during certain weeks of the season. Divide the teams up into two leagues of 15 and play interleague games whenever necessary. It works for the NFL, and that league seems to be doing okay.

[KronoRed]

Or expand by 2

[BRM]

Or expand by 2

Or contract by 2.

[Mario-Rijo]

I have thought some about this as well. I figured the ideal situation would be to move the Rockies to the AL west (What better place for a launching pad) and then move the Astros to the NL west. The Astros stay where they have rivalries in the NL and the Rockies who really have no true rivalry would be the easier to start fresh in the AL. It urks me that MLB has still not addressed this imbalance.

[RedsManRick]

Nats move to Vegas and to the AL West. Houston moves the NL East where they have natural geographical rivalies with Atlanta and Florida. One interleague series going on at all times. Problem solved.

[Dunner44]

If the Marlins go to Oklahoma, could they be moved to the AL west?

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/5337066 --->might just happen

[macro]

If the Marlins go to Oklahoma, could they be moved to the AL west?

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/5337066 --->might just happen

Again, not unless MLB gets over its resistance to there being an interleague game every day, which I don't think they will. It's special, you know, this Interleague Week.