Is The MLB in Need of a Division Shuffle?

It seems like when you turn on ESPN you can always expect the same things.  You'll see Brett Favre retire then cry then return.  You'll see LeBron or Kobe.  You'll hear about yet another steroid scandal. Or you'll see constant highlights from the Red Sox and Yankees, one of the biggest rivalries in sports.  As a Red Sox fan I am fine with my team getting coverage but it seems you only hear about the same teams.

Even when you turn on the local network NESN, you only hear about the same 4 teams.  Tampa Bay this, Baltimore that, Roy Halladay and the Blue Jays, the Bronx Bombers.  Why do we hear about these teams so much?  The way the divisions and schedules are set up the Red Sox play the Yankees 18 times!  They play the opponents in their division almost 20 times each and play very few National League teams and Inter league play is very short.

This scenario does not only happen to the Red Sox but happens for every team.  Earlier on ESPN Buck Showalter presented a possible way to solve the issue of teams playing division rivals so many times, and other teams very few times.  His scenario eliminated two teams and made 4 divisions consisting of 7 teams each.

Although I do not recall every detail to his scenario I am going to state the general idea he had.  There would be 28 teams and each team plays each other 6 times, 3 games away and 3 games at home.

His divisions are as followed (I did not record the segment so I do not know the names of every division and which teams are exactly in each division so this is my rendition):

The first division consists of most of the North East teams:

-Boston Red Sox

-New York Yankees

-New York Mets

-Philadelphia Phillies

-Baltimore Orioles

-Washington Nationals

-Pittsburgh Pirates

The second division:

-San Francisco Giants

-Oakland Athletics

-Los Angeles Dodgers

-Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

-Arizona Diamondbacks

-San Diego Padres

-Seattle Mariners

The third division:

-Florida Marlins

-Tampa Bay Rays

-Atlanta Braves

-Houston Astros

-Texas Rangers

-St. Louis Cardinals

-Kansas City Royals

The fourth and final division:

-Minnesota Twins

-Chicago Cubs

-Chicago White Sox

-Detroit Tigers

-Milwaukee Brewers

-Cleveland Indians

-Cincinnati Reds

I know the Blue Jays and Rockies are left out but if two teams were left out, geographically dropping these two teams could make sense.  This scenario keeps the Red Sox and Yankees together, the Mets and Yanks, the Dodgers and Giants, the Dodgers and the Angels, and the Chicago teams together.  Many more rivalries could be developed such as the Marlins and the Rays.

The scenario makes it so every schedule is completely fair.  Right now the Orioles and Blue Jays play 3 of the leagues best teams over a total of 50 times.  If this scenario were to occur a playoff situation would need to be figured out such as the 2 best teams from each division make playoffs.

I give all credit to Buck Showalter for suggesting it, I just wanted to write an article to see how other people feel about it.  Thoughts?