I think we should go back to the 1969-1993 alignment: 2 divisions each, eliminate the Wild Card. This way, one of the four best teams would almost always win the World Series.

Mets’ bats erupt in the last 3 innings for the big win. Read all about it at Midwestern Met: tiny.cc/h8uey

There really is no good reason for a 2nd place team to even make the playoffs. What is the regular season for then? Oh! Because a 2nd place team could actually be better than one (or both) of the other Division winners? Then why even have divisions if we’re not assured of getting the best teams in the playoffs.

Go back to 2 Divisions in each League and only take the winners. If you want to you could take all four 2nd place teams and have a parallel playoff that would increase regular season interest and provide a tournament atmosphere and give the 2nd place teams (and fans) something to play for, post season experience but keep ‘em out of the real playoffs and we’ll get out pennant races back.

After all why play 162 games and then take teams that weren’t good enough to win a division, especially when there are six of them already.

As far as losing divisions, I wouldn’t mind it so much. There’s a inherent problem with unbalanced schedules, anyway.

And move the Astros to the A.L.? Why take away the potential for an all-Texas World Series? Yes, it could happen someday.

It should be the Rockies who move to the A.L.

Duh.

A single Division in each league would certainly produce better quality of post season teams than the current system and might even bring back the pennant race depending on what the incentive is. Last year the NYY and TB were each actively trying to NOT win the title. What a joke.

Still though….Five teams out of 15? Why? For what? Staged rounds? The team that wins the regular season is going to sit for a week to ten days. You know damn well what that’s going to mean. The best team over 162 games gets knocked out in five. Now the regular season has been rendered meaningless and after a few times of this the initial exuberance wears off, attendance falls, MLB gives us more gimmicks, it works for a few years and then repeats itself.

I’d prefer 2 division leagues with only the winner of that division going into the post season finals and then if you want have a parallel playoff of all the 2nd place teams with the winner of that getting to host the All Star game and raise a flag for a “2nd place champion” similar to what FIFA does in the Champions league. The fans of the teams that make up that 2nd tier of the Champions League are no less enthusiastic then those in the first tier but their is a clear understanding that the winner of the first tier is the real Champion.

That would keep 3-4 teams out of seven or eight alive to the last couple of weeks, give us back our pennant races and reward excellence instead of mediocrity and you would still have to win 90+ games to have a real chance at any kind of a post season berth.

Realign the Divisions with Atl, Cinn, FL, Hou, NYM, Phil, Pitts and Wash in the NL East. AZ, Chi, Col, LAD, Mil, St.L., SD, SF in the West. Balt, Bos, Clev, Det, NYY, TB and Tor in the Al East and Chi, KC, LAA, Minn, Oak, Sea and TX in the West.

Play half your scheduale vs teams in your own division, a home and home series vs the other division in your league and a home and home vs just one geographical rival on each end of the All Star game.

Most importantly it would reward excellence during the season and eliminate teams actually going for the Wild Card in order to get an easier first round opponent.

The idea shouldn’t be to keep up interest among fans of the mediocre teams, it should be to drum up more interest among the fans of the best teams. With a real chance of at least some sort of a post season tournament alive for many in mid August and yet a severe penalty for those who come in 2nd best in their division, not a perceived benefit. After all the regular season is 90% of the whole thing. Devalue that and you devalue everything.

Obviously the MLBPA will be getting some serious monetary concessions somewhere else in the next CBA if this happens. With a hard slotting system for the Draft likely to be put into effect in 2012, effectively reducing signing bonuses, it’s hard to imagine the Union agreeing to another potential income reducing idea. Unless, the playoff shares for the 5 teams greatly increases nullifying the loss of shares for the other 75 players. That seems reasonable. I just don’t see this happening this year.

As for contention, I think it would keep teams in it longer if anything. If this were in effect last year, the Red Sox would have made the postseason over the Rangers.