Major League Baseball (MLB) has just started it's spring training. The season will not end until November. The season including the play-offs last close to seven months now. So the marathon has begun. Aside from the advent of the league championship series and the wildcard format, the format for the season and how the champion is crowned has not changed for 1,000,000 years. I am proposing a way to switch things up.
The English Primer League (EPL) is arguably the most competitive soccer league in the world. The Serie A in Italy and the Bundseliga in Germany are close rivals of the EPL. The EPL season starts in late August and ends in late May. So it is a lengthy eight month season so it is a horrendous marathon comparable to the MLB. Like the MLB, the EPL has the Big Four teams who spend the most money and are always close to the top. Those teams in the EPL are Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool, and Chelsea. Right now, these teams have the highest four salaries and are respectively are 1st through 4th in the standings. This where most of the comparisons between the two leagues end. The EPL has no divisions or conferences. The EPL has twenty teams and every team plays the other team twice in the regular season (one at home and one away). There are no play-offs to determine the champion of the EPL. The champion is decided by the best team in the league after the regular season is completed. The top five teams in the EPL are promoted to Champions League play where they compete on their own continent against other countries top soccer clubs in a tournament to crown a European Champion (a highly coveted trophy). All of the EPL teams play with all the other professional clubs in the "minors" in a tournament to crown the F.A. Cup as the best team in England (the highest coveted trophy in English football). The bottom three teams in the EPL are regulated down to the minor leagues while the top three clubs in the minors are promoted to the EPL.
So let's apply the EPL format to baseball in the States. The first thing that I would do is lower the number of games from 162 to 118. This would cause each team in MLB to play every other team in MLB a two game home and away series each season. So, for example Atlanta would play Baltimore two games at home and two games on the road every season. Each team plays every other team in the league four times. Now, before anyone complains they are short changed 42 games I'll explain how to resolve that issue in a minute. By playing all the teams at least four times each every year this eliminates the whole strength of schedule argument. Fans will be guaranteed to see every other team in MLB at home at least twice a year. Using EPL tables to the 2007 MLB regular season standings reveals the following:
1. Boston 96 wins (+210 run differential)
2. Cleveland 96 wins (+107 run differential)
3. New York Yankees 94 wins (+191 run differential)
4. Los Angeles Angels 94 wins (+91 run differential)
5. Colorado 90 wins (+102 run differential)
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6. Arizona 90 wins (-20 run differential)
The top five teams (place was separated by run differential which is the same as the goal differential in the EPL) would qualify for the Champions League title with the top teams in the top leagues in the Northern Hemisphere. The championship series could be called the "true" World Series (I know, that is a stretch but a small one). By the way, the winter leagues do this already. The MLB Champion would be Boston as they had the most wins and the tie breaker of having the best run differential. As you can see the championship race between the top teams would have been extremely close. Very exciting all the way to the end of the season. The bottom five of MLB baseball reveals the following:
25. San Francisco 71 wins (-37 run differential)
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26. Florida 71 wins (-101 run differential)
27. Baltimore 69 wins
28. Kansas City 69 wins
29. Pittsburgh 68 wins
30. Tampa Bay 66 wins
The bottom five teams would be relegated to Triple AAA status (I choose five as it is a larger league). Now, who hasn't wanted to kick out these five teams over the last five seasons or more? These franchises have not cared about winning for years and since there is no punishment for losing in the current format, the EPL format offers relegation for those teams who don't compete to get out of the relegation zone. Again, very exciting (in a weird way) all the way to the end. On the Triple AAA side, five teams would be promoted to the MLB. If we applied last years win totals in Triple AAA for last season the following teams would make the promotion: Nashville, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Sacramento, Toledo, and Durham. How exciting would it be for these cities to have a shot at playing in MLB for at least a season? Imagine the home series between the NY Yankees and the Durham Bulls? It could happen in this format. One major way to make this work better in baseball under this format is to eliminate the minor league affiliations and make every team independent of each other. Players would not make it to the majors unless they were moved in the transfer window (traded) or their team gets promoted to the majors. Now to make up some of the games the MLB fans would lose during the regular season in this format I would propose a major trophy be given to the best professional baseball team after a tournament that would involve every professional team playing each other in three-game series (seven for the finals) until the best team is decided. This could add a significant number of games throughout the season. After each round (just for giggles) put each remaining team in a lottery and pick the match-ups through a ball drop lottery.
Am I crazy or would this work?
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