Nashville Stars, proposed MLB expansion team discussion

[Big Z Man 1990]

Overall, my proposal to expand to 40 teams years after to 32 would add the following cities to each league:

AL: Charlotte and Indianapolis
NL: Hartford and Louisville
CL: Buffalo and San Antonio
PCL: Las Vegas and Portland

And if we truly wanted to make a major-league PCL, some of the teams would change their names to match classic PCL teams:

LA Dodgers to Hollywood Stars (complete with building a new stadium in or near Hollywood)
Oakland Athletics to Oaks
San Francisco Giants to Seals
Seattle Mariners to Rainiers

The name changes might not actually happen due to brand equity, but it's a nice thought.

But one change outside of Indians (which is somewhat seriously being considered) that should happen is Atlanta discontinuing the Braves name amid the social justice climate of now.

They could purchase the rights to the Thrashers identity once used by the second NHL team in the city and repurpose it. The entire look (colors, logos, etc.) would be used verbatim for the team, albeit with the hockey stick of the original logo being changed to a baseball bat. This keeps with the Atlanta team also cutting ties with its past by moving from the NL to the CL.

 

[KevFu]

My schedule format I proposed aims to reduce the number of games between the PCL teams and the teams in the ET/CT leagues. The PCL teams would salivate at only having to play 3 3-game series in the Eastern or Central Time Zones, especially if the assigned cities in a given year are close enough to have them all in one road trip.

Most series are 3 games while some are 2 or 4 for a good reason. I'm not sure what that is but still. I'm sure it has to do with the number of off days each team is required to have.

The four-league structure would make it impossible for the All-Star Game to maintain its current format. So "Original 16" VS. "Expansion 16" (at least until ultimately expanding to 40 teams) makes a lot of sense. Much more than determining the All-Star teams by the playoff bracket, because this would change every year if a 1-4 seeding proposal (see below) is used for the national semifinals.

The league champions would be seeded 1-4 in a national semifinals, with the winners advancing to the World Series. This would help the two best teams remaining in the postseason have a chance to meet in the World Series, even if it means the AL and NL champs have to meet in a semifinal.

I get the "max PTZ games" thing, but they're going from 82 to 112 in my proposal, which is great for them. And I think going more than 112 for divisional games would make no one want to move to the CBL, unless the Central Time Zone teams wanted their own division.

Changing the divisions that comprise the all star teams is no big deal. Or they could just keep it AL/NL with "Old AL and Old NL" joining their former league mates instead of Original 16 vs Expansion 16. Especially when you consider that Minnesota would be a the youngest "Original 16" member based on the Senators in DC from 1901-1960 before moving, and LAA, TEX would be "expansion 16" having started the same year the Twins started.

I really don't think there's a big issue with keeping AL/NL on opposite sides, because statistically speaking, it's likely to happen most years ANYWAY, and furthermore, the records of a team are dictated by the teams that they play and with an unbalanced schedule the win totals do not = best team. Your win total would be dependent on "how many bad teams are in your division" and not how good you are.

A major change that would come as part of the realignment to 4 leagues would be universal DH. Both the CL and PCL would have teams come over from both the AL and NL. For reasons of fairness, all 32 teams would now use the DH.

Universal DH is happening. There's no way pitchers ever hit again. I personally think they should change the DH rule and do "DH for the SP only" and have the DH listed separate on the lineup card and that player is a "Free sub" for the SP on offense. If you DON'T use your DH when the SP is removed, the DH becomes available off the bench. It would add a ton of strategy back to AL baseball, and create new strategy.

 

[Big Z Man 1990]

My long-term 40-team alignment involves splitting the AL, CL, and NL into 2 divisions after expansion, but keeping the PCL at a single table.

AL East: Baltimore, Boston, Charlotte*, NY Yankees, Washington
AL West: Chicago Sox, Cleveland, Detroit, Indianapolis*, Kansas City,

NL East: Hartford*, Miami, NY Mets, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh
NL West: Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati, Louisville*, Milwaukee, St. Louis

CL East: Atlanta, Buffalo*, Montreal, Tampa Bay, Toronto
CL West: Houston, Minnesota, San Antonio*, Texas, Tennessee

The amount of intraleague games for those teams remains 126, but now 19 games against division rivals (4*19 = 76) and 10 games against the teams in the other division (5*10 = 50).

So with this expansion, Central Time teams would play fewer games in the Eastern Time Zone.

The PCL would go to a schedule with 16 games against each of the other 9 teams, keeping a 144-game intraleague schedule.

 

[KevFu]

@Big Z Man 1990

With Canada rejecting the Blue Jays waiver to play/travel to US and back, they might set up shop in Buffalo for the season. Fitting to the CBL discussion.

 

[Big Z Man 1990]

In my 40 team alignment, the CL's West Division is the only such division entirely in the CTZ. The AL and NL West Divisions have a mix of Eastern and Central Time teams, in both cases all teams in those divisions are in the Midwest or in the case of Louisville, they border the Midwest. The CL's West Division is based mostly in the South with three teams in Texas and one in Tennessee (which could land in either Memphis or Nashville), only Minnesota is Midwestern.

 

[Big Z Man 1990]

The interleague schedule would take place over 6 weeks, beginning the third Monday of May and lasting until the last Sunday of June (or July 1st, if that day is a Sunday).

The first three weeks would not involve the PCL in interleague play, with most days featuring 4 games each between the AL and CL, AL and NL, and CL and NL. The PCL joins in on the fun during the last three weeks of the interleague schedule. This is because PCL teams would only play 18 interleague games, compared to 36 for the ET/CT leagues.

 

[Big Z Man 1990]

The exact postseason format for the LDS and LCS would be this:

LDS: 1 game at lower seed followed by up to 2 games at higher seed (to reduce travel, give all postseason teams at least one home game, and get postseason done a little quicker)
LCS: 2-2-1 format
National rounds: 2-3-2 format

This is done to reduce the relative amount of postseason games needed to be played after an expansion to 16 teams (top 4 teams in each league). Here's what the postseason schedule would look like this year under my format:

September 28: LDS begins
October 2: Latest possible end date for LDS
October 3: Universal off day for travel
October 4: LCS begins
October 11: Latest possible end date for LCS
October 12: Universal off day for travel
October 13: National semifinals begin
October 21: Latest possible end date for national semifinals
October 22: Universal off day for travel
October 23: World Series begins
October 31: Latest possible end date for World Series

All of this is weather permitting

A minimum of 40 postseason games would be needed to be played under this format, up from 26 under the current format, but keeping the end of the postseason from being well into November.

 

[Big Z Man 1990]

And with the move to four leagues, a fourth national cable TV partner would be needed. ESPN, Fox Sports 1, and TBS would all be guaranteed one of the leagues. MLB Network would only televise a limited schedule due to a smaller reach. MLB could add either USA (with production by NBC Sports) or Paramount Network (with production by CBS Sports) as a cable broadcast partner, also including a slate of regular season games.

The four cable networks would alternate which league they carry in the first two rounds. The four cable networks would also alternate coverage of the national semifinals, with two networks airing them one year, and the other two the next. And I'm hoping one day the World Series will alternate between Fox and ABC (as well as the All-Star Game, ABC would also get Sunday afternoon games, while TBS is sent to Tuesday nights; USA or PMN would get Friday nights).

 

[KevFu]

Eh, MLB doesn't really do TV deals by league, so that's really not all that necessary. (Plus, no one is going to want exclusive rights to the PCL on a national basis because their games are at 10 pm ET).

They can keep the existing deals, just bundle the PCL with the NL and CBL with AL. The CBL would have the smallest names, the AL has Red Sox/Yankees.

 

[Big Z Man 1990]

They don't do regular season deals by league. My post was specifically about postseason TV coverage. All national networks would be able to show any team they want in the regular season, as it is now. But currently, the postseason rights are mostly on a by-league basis so to speak. In odd years, ESPN and Fox/FS1 air the AL playoffs, and TBS the NL playoffs, exchanging every year.

The postseason TV plan in a 4 league alignment would be similar. In the first two years, ESPN and Fox/FS1 would trade off the AL and NL playoffs, and TBS and PMN/USA would trade off the CL and PCL playoffs. In the next 2 years, ESPN and Fox/FS1 would trade off the CL and PCL, and TBS and PMN/USA would trade off the AL and NL. MLB Network would alternate between carrying an AL and CL Division Series game in some years and NL and PCL in others.

 

[Big Z Man 1990]

And with the possibility of the 4th day of the LDS round carrying as many as 8 games (4 game 3s and 4 game 2s), more TV networks would need to be involved in televising postseason games. During the LDS round, most likely a network when they carry 2 games in one day would schedule the games so that the end of one game doesn't overlap with the beginning of the other.

ESPN/TBS and Fox and FS1/PMN or USA would be the network pairs for the national semifinals.

 

[Big Z Man 1990]

For most of the season, all cable networks (outside MLB Network) that air MLB games would typically show a doubleheader on a weeknight or Saturday night), with the first game at 7 PM being from the AL, CL, or NL (a game in the Central Time Zone would have its local start moved up to 6 PM local time to accommodate TV), and the game at 10 PM being a PCL game. For the first three weeks of interleague play when the PCL is not involved, an interleague game would air at 7 PM and a PCL game at 10 PM. During the last three weeks of interleague play where the PCL is involved, then an AL, CL or NL team could appear in the 10 PM slot if it is visiting a PCL team; conversely a PCL team could appear in the 7 PM slot if it is playing a road game. Otherwise AL, CL, and NL teams would not appear in the 10 PM slot nor the PCL in the 7 PM slot.

As the MLB season occurs during Daylight Savings Time, Arizona is effectively a Pacific time team despite technically being in the Mountain Time Zone. On the other hand, Colorado is in a part of the MTZ that does observe DST, so if a Rockies home game is selected for a 10 PM ET start on national TV, the local start would move back from 7 PM to 8 PM.

Here's the timeslot breakdown for what networks I want to air MLB games on what day:

Sunday afternoon: ABC (once the network no longer needs these days for NBA games)
Sunday night: ESPN (exclusive)
Monday night: ESPN (subject to blackout)
Tuesday night: TBS (subject to blackout)
Wednesday night: ESPN (subject to blackout)
Thursday night: MLBN (subject to blackout)
Friday night: PMN or USA (subject to blackout)
Saturday (both afternoon and night): Fox (regional coverage on some Saturday nights; except in three weeks where the PCL plays interleague, the games that are played at 7 PM ET involve ET/CT teams and would only air on affiliates in ET/CT, while MT and westward get at least one PCL game at 10 ET), FS1 (afternoon games, sometimes a 7/10 DH)

 

[Big Z Man 1990]

Swapped league assignments for Louisville and Indianapolis in expansion to 40 teams

 

[KevFu]

They don't do regular season deals by league. My post was specifically about postseason TV coverage. All national networks would be able to show any team they want in the regular season, as it is now. But currently, the postseason rights are mostly on a by-league basis so to speak. In odd years, ESPN and Fox/FS1 air the AL playoffs, and TBS the NL playoffs, exchanging every year.

The postseason TV plan in a 4 league alignment would be similar. In the first two years, ESPN and Fox/FS1 would trade off the AL and NL playoffs, and TBS and PMN/USA would trade off the CL and PCL playoffs. In the next 2 years, ESPN and Fox/FS1 would trade off the CL and PCL, and TBS and PMN/USA would trade off the AL and NL. MLB Network would alternate between carrying an AL and CL Division Series game in some years and NL and PCL in others.

Yeah, I got ya on the trade off for post-season. Sorry, I thought you meant regular season.

But there really isn't a huge reason to go to four networks for four leagues instead of two networks for two leagues... because each league is smaller. You have TWO LDS series in AL/NL now. You'd have ONE LDS series in AL/NL/PCL/CBL.

So the TV inventory is essentially the same. Instead of
ALDS Yankees/Twins and ALDS Houston/Tampa Bay on FOX
NLDS St. Louis/Atlanta and NLDS Dodgers/Giants on TBS

You'd have:
ALDS Yankees/Twins and CLDS Houston/Tampa Bay on FOX
NLDS St. Louis/Atlanta and PLDS Dodgers/Giants on TBS

 

[ViktorBaeArvidsson]

I would totally swap from the Marlins to a Nashville team so I could say I have two Nashville teams that I root for.

 

[Big Z Man 1990]

Yeah, I got ya on the trade off for post-season. Sorry, I thought you meant regular season.

But there really isn't a huge reason to go to four networks for four leagues instead of two networks for two leagues... because each league is smaller. You have TWO LDS series in AL/NL now. You'd have ONE LDS series in AL/NL/PCL/CBL.

So the TV inventory is essentially the same. Instead of
ALDS Yankees/Twins and ALDS Houston/Tampa Bay on FOX
NLDS St. Louis/Atlanta and NLDS Dodgers/Giants on TBS

You'd have:
ALDS Yankees/Twins and CLDS Houston/Tampa Bay on FOX
NLDS St. Louis/Atlanta and PLDS Dodgers/Giants on TBS

Except MLB is expanding to 16 playoff teams for at least this season and if it goes well it will be a permanent feature. So in the four-league structure, there'd still be 2 LDS in each league.

 

[Centrum Hockey]

I would totally swap from the Marlins to a Nashville team so I could say I have two Nashville teams that I root for.

The marlins can’t relocate no Matter how bad the franchise may seem. There whould be so many lawsuits over marlins park if they ever relocated.

 

[ViktorBaeArvidsson]

The marlins can’t relocate no Matter how bad the franchise may seem. There whould be so many lawsuits over marlins park if they ever relocated.

I ment being a fan of, I can see why my post seemed like I said something different doh.

 

[BKIslandersFan]

As a fan of the original Montreal Expos, I hope Montreal gets another team.

However, I'd like to see them in the same division as Toronto and Boston. Both the Jays and the Red Sox have fan bases close enough to Montreal that games against them would get a lot of visiting crowds, so why not maximize things for Montreal by giving them as many games as possible against those teams.

I think thats the route MLB will go if they expand to Montreal. I kinda doubt they want to see all Canadian World Series lol.

 

[KevFu]

Except MLB is expanding to 16 playoff teams for at least this season and if it goes well it will be a permanent feature. So in the four-league structure, there'd still be 2 LDS in each league.

Everyone is hoping that's a one-year thing to get more TV money to offset the lack of fans. Although the rumor is a 7-team playoff going forward.

 

[KevFu]

I think thats the route MLB will go if they expand to Montreal. I kinda doubt they want to see all Canadian World Series lol.

They probably will go that geographic route because Manfred seems to think that baseball needs to be more like the NBA, which is incredibly dumb (and led to the CBL/PCL convo Big Z and I have been having).

Divide and conquer is the way to go. Geographic is more headaches than it's worth and bad for business.

 

[Big Z Man 1990]

Everyone is hoping that's a one-year thing to get more TV money to offset the lack of fans. Although the rumor is a 7-team playoff going forward.

16 teams for now offsets any advantages top seeds might have by taking the first round off. Though when I see MLB expand to 40 teams under the 4-league system, I do see a 20-team playoff format (5 in each league, seeds 4-5 play a one-game playoff into the best-of-3 LDS)

 

[Big Z Man 1990]

Many years after the expansion to 40 MLB teams would be an expansion to 48. Here are the cities I expect will get #11 and #12 in each league (even though I may not see it in my lifetime):

AL: Orlando and Oklahoma City
CL: Ottawa and Mexico City (making MLB the first major league to play in three countries)
NL: Hampton Roads and Birmingham
PCL: Salt Lake City and Sacramento (would lead to divisions in PCL years after ET/CT leagues adopt them, the 6 California teams form one division and the 6 non-California teams form the other; also Sacramento would be last city from the minor league PCL's heyday to get into the majors under my plans).

 

[KevFu]

MLB added the Wild Card game TO GIVE the top seeds an advantage though.

The whole point of baseball is that a 162 game regular season tells you who's the best in each league. Everything between end of regular season and World Series is a money grab.

 

[Big Z Man 1990]

Still, my goal to see MLB expand into Mexico City is perhaps one of the greatest goals anyone has set. It probably won't happen in my lifetime, but it would be a huge game-changer.

Birmingham has an easy solution as to where to build their MLB stadium. Legion Field, a football stadium built in the 1920s and primarily used in its lifetime for college football, would be demolished. This may happen pretty soon as a new football stadium is being built in Birmingham, but the site should remain vacant for when the city wants to pursue an MLB team.

Orlando has a small baseball stadium at Disney World, but I think when the time has come for Orlando to get into MLB, a new MLB-ready stadium would be built close to Disney World.

Louisville could build its MLB park on the site of the Kentucky Exposition Center, where an old baseball/football stadium used to stand.

I'm not sure if Hartford's current minor league park could be upgraded and expanded to meet MLB standards.

An ideal location for an MLB park in Charlotte would be near Carowinds amusement park.