Over the past few weeks it seems like a lot of people are thinking about ways for baseball to improve their divisional alignment aka The "Poor Blue Jays, Rays and Orioles never have any chance. Boo Hoo Hoo." Movement. It all seemingly started with Ken Rosenthal at FoxSports, then Tom Verducci got involved, and of course there were bloggers to rip both. Well since I'm planning man with a mild case of insanity here's my idea for realignment, aka the most ridiculous way imaginable, a divisional draft. Here's how it would work. Each year we take the 6 Divisional Winners and we have a draft. A draft? Yes a draft. The divisional winners would select the teams they want in their own division via a typical 1 through 6 draft. Each team could decide whom they want in their division based on any principle they deem worthy. They could pick the Red Sox with the first pick because the Sox will sell out their stadium 18 times. They could pick the Pirates with the first pick cause you know they are going to suck.
Positive Side Effects (1): Everyone loves a good draft.
Negative Side Effects (3): 15 teams per AL/NL means at minimum one inter-league series at all time. Is that so bad? Rivalries might die quickly. Travel would get even worse for players.
A Mock 1st Round 2010 Draft and a Quick Conclusion After the Jump
1. Minnesota Twins - Pittsburgh Pirates
2. St. Louis Cardinals - Kansas City Royals
3. Los Angeles Dodgers - San Diego Padres
4. Los Angeles Angels - Houston Astros
5. Philadelphia Phillies - Baltimore Orioles
6. New York Yankees - Washington Nationals
The draft would then continue this way until the Yankees made the final pick at 24. The divisions would change radically each year and the draft would be MLB's offseason biggest showcase.
This idea is completely ridiculous has no chance of every happening but is it really that much worse than any of the other ideas out there? I mean how would a division of Yankees, Red Sox, Phillies, Mets, Pirates be good for anyone?
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