Jim Crane, the new Astros owner, has been asked by Bud Selig to move to the American League. He was originally against it, but it sounds like Bud is pushing this before approving the sale. This would have ramifications on the entire MLB schedule. It also could be the first step to another round of the playoffs.

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Sounds like we will have (choose one):

• Continuous interleague play throughout the season
• An increase in double-headers and days off
• A decrease in the number of games in the regular season
• An expansion of dates in which the season will be played. Wrigley opener scheduled for March 8th.

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"All crowds boycotting football games shouldn't care who sings or takes a knee because they aren't watching." - Nas

All worked out well for Buddy moving his team to the NL central, then kick out Houston.
Now him and Jerry can sit down and arrange the move of the Twins to the NL Central for the Pirates!

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"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

Fuck that keep the (last place) Twins right where they are. No way I want to see the Sox have to face that Pirates pitching staff in the next couple years.

While the Twins have been bad this year, they have been a Sox nemisis and I am not sure they spin the turnstyles at US cell, so Jerry would let them go for Pitt, who might be seeing it's BiDecade High water mark.

On the flip side, Bud and his 5% ownership of the Brewers would love to see the Twins 3 times a year and I have a feeling the Twins are OK with the Brewers, Cubs and Cardinal fans visiting?

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"That's what the internet is for. Slandering others anonymously." Banky
“Been that way since one monkey looked at the sun and told the other monkey ‘He said for you to give me your fuckin’ share.’”

I'd be happier with a "Bud to the Independent League" realignment.

Good deal.

I hope they move forward on the 2 conferences of 15 with a 12-team playoff. Division winners in each conference get byes and the 8 wildcards play a quickie 3-game series. Make winning a division worthwhile and give us an awesome couple days of wildcard baseball. Oh how the old school fans will bitch!!

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Lay off that whiskey and let that cocaine be.

The Cubs are set up to be worse than the Twins and Pirates in the coming years.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

This makes sense to me. Always dumb to have 6 teams in the NL Central and only 4 in the AL west.

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That would suck. One of the cool things about baseball is its the only sport where just making it in the playoffs is an accomplishment.

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

The major problem is that the playoffs don't end until late november (R.I.P.) as it is and the weather absolutely blows then anyway. Adding another round is going to push them until Christmas.

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In a perfect world, Major League Baseball should trim the current 162-game schedule and start the MLB Playoffs in the next week to 10 days from now. In Eastern cities, you've got colder weather and increased likelihood of rain in places like New York, Philadelphia, Boston & Detroit, ballparks that don't have a retractable roof like Milwaukee has with Miller Park.

Also, you're dealing with Major League Baseball and the national broadcast partners such as TBS & FOX that take over control once the playoffs begin. I wish they'd also have playoff games in the afternoon, especially when you get to the League Championship Series and World Series. Those games seem to drag on & on and move at a snail's pace, even if the Yankees & Red Sox aren't playing. There's a perception that MLB has alienated a generation of fans by playing all these night games come playoff time and stretch them out to a point where younger fans can't stay up to watch them.

All that being said, it's not going to happen anytime soon. The owners don't want to lose ballpark revenue and attendance, and I'm not sure the powerful MLB Players Association would be that interested in a reduced schedule. This despite what I heard ESPN's Jayson Stark mention a while back during a chat with ESPN Radio's Chuck Wilson in which an unnamed General Manager isn't so sure that today's players can handle the 162 game grind anymore.

I am an older fan and I find it hard to stay up through some of the games SHARK

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I can't say I blame you, Phil.

You could trim the regular season by one week, and start one week early. It's also time to start having the season begin in warm weather areas, or teams with domes. If the season starts on Thursday, March 22nd. The seven teams in each league below would regularly start the season at home.

AL: Tampa Bay, Toronto, Kansas City, Texas, LA Angels, Oakland, and Houston.

NL: Atlanta, Florida, Milwaukee, Arizona, San Francisco, LA Dodgers, and San Diego.

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You know Jerry is all for this because it will set up the new league system thus eliminating divisions. By eliminating division Tampa Bay now has a change to make the playoffs every year along with the Red Sox and Yankees and thus their GM stays put and does not go to the Cubs which is Jerry's plan all along. This guy has no limit in his Cub sabotage.

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

Oakland and SF can be quite chilly in late spring, and KC might still be in the middle of the extended Midwestern winter.

What baseball needs to do is expand even more. Have 32 teams like the NFL, but one up them by having the teams in PR and Mexico. ¡INTERNACIONAL!

Not enough unaffiliated talent for two more major league teams, two more AAA teams, two more AA teams, and so on down the line.

Shortening the season is a terrible idea. Shorten the postseason. Let's hear your great memories of the World Series. Okay, now the League Championship Series. Okay, now the League Division Series. Whadya got for that? Johnny Damon getting a concussion against the A's? The Marlins winning the series at home plate? LDSs blow. We only need four playoff teams, really.

Absolutely stop staging early April home games in the midwest and northeast, though. Nobody wants to sit at Wrigley when it's 40 degrees, damp, and windy. And nobody wants to sit at Comiskey in any situation. So yeah, obviously the season should start closer to Arizona and Florida. Makes sense.

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Honestly, there isn't enough talent for 30 teams.

Nope. In retrospect the magic number was probably 28: four divisions of seven teams. The Phoenix and Tampa Bay expansions have been more trouble than they were worth, especially Tampa. They got their team as an I'm-sowwy for three or four jerkarounds (San Francisco, Seattle, White Sox, maybe another), one of which involved building a ballpark on spec, with little consideration to how ill-suited the area was to hosting regular season baseball.

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It won't be 80 and sunny in March with all of my selections. But, as CH acknowledged, it's still a better idea. Nobody wants to sit in the stands, but the players hate it as well. Some teams might bitch about starting the season on the road most years. But, it would reduce road games in the middle of the season. It would only be difficult if people want it to be.

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This has been brought up before about playing in warmer climates early in the season. The reality is that those warm weather teams do not want that kind of schedule. The best attendance is when the weather warms up and the kids get out of school. But I agree that it would be nice if the northern cities played primarily on the road in April.

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Lay off that whiskey and let that cocaine be.

If I'm Houston, I'm demanding the the Rangers are in my division so I can have a 'natural rival' and fill my ballpark regularly against them.

I agree. Contract the Cubs.

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It only makes sense, Hawkeye.

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If we get year round interleague play, this has to mean either the DH goes away or both leagues use it, right?

If that happened, which I hope does not happen, they would have to eliminate or add the DH rule.

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