Drews Ideas for MLB Changes (proposed on July 13, 2011)

Playoff Changes

12 teams make the playoffs, 6 per league Division winners are only guaranteed a top 4 seed. The teams with the top 2 records in each league will get a bye. The #2 seed could be a non-division winner. 4 3-game series (3 vs. 6 and 4 vs. 5 from each league) hosted by the higher seed. All other rounds are 7 games (could keep the NLDS and ALDS at 5 if preferred).

League changes
Move HOU to AL West to join TEX. East - Swap WAS and TB to create a better rivalry between BAL-WAS and TBFLA. It also makes more sense location-wise w/ TB, FLA, and ATL in the same division. TB plays much like an NL team as it is. Central - Possibly swap MIL and KC to create rivalries between KC-STL and MIL-MIN. West - Swap SEA and COL for location purposes (SEA is pretty far from TEX and HOU).

American League AL East - BOS, NYY, BAL, TOR, WAS AL Central - DET, CLE, CHW, MIN, KC or MIL AL West - LAA, OAK, TEX, HOU, COL National League NL East - ATL, PHI, NYM, FLA, TB NL Central - STL, CHC, PIT, CIN, MIL or KC NL West - SF, SD, LAD, SEA, ARI 162 game season:

1. Divisional games: 18 games (9H, 9A) vs. each division team (18 x 4 = 72) 2. Intraleague games: 6 games (3H, 3A) vs. each other team in league (6 x 10 = 60) 3. Interleague games: 6 games (3H, 3A) vs. interleague rival and 3 games vs. each other team from that same division and two teams from each of the other two divisions. The interleague games between same division teams other than the rival would rotate home and away each year. The rest of interleague teams would play each other in two series (1 H and 1 A) every 5 years.

NOTE: This would amount to about 2 or 3 interleague matchups and 12 or 13 intraleague matchups at a given time. More precisely (assuming 54 series during the season), 10 times out of 54 there will be 2 interleague matchups and the other 44 will have 3 interleague matchups (assuming 3 game series).