Potential Major League Baseball Realignment Plan? It's For The Birds

When I first heard about Bud Selig’s “Study Group” back in December, I was all for it . I loved the idea of the some of the brightest minds in the game getting together trying to make on-field improvements to America’s pastime.

However, if this radical realignment plan is what they are coming up with, then they have all wasted each other's time.

Here is how the plan would work according to SI.com’s Tom Verducci:

“The committee already has made good on Selig’s promise by discussing a radical form of “floating” realignment in which teams would not be fixed to a division, but free to change divisions from year-to-year based on geography, payroll and their plans to contend or not.

One example of floating realignment, according to one insider, would work this way: Cleveland, which is rebuilding with a reduced payroll, could opt to leave the AL Central to play in the AL East. The Indians would benefit from an unbalanced schedule that would give them a total of 18 lucrative home dates against the Yankees and Red Sox instead of their current eight. A small or mid-market contender, such as Tampa Bay or Baltimore, could move to the AL Central to get a better crack at postseason play instead of continually fighting against the mega-payrolls of New York and Boston.”

Why do people think baseball has a parity problem? How is baseball different than any other sport?

I wonder if MLB had a salary cap we would be having this conversation. It’s amazing to me how many people are fooled by those two words. People think that by having a salary cap there is no such thing as have’s and have not’s.

So the Red Sox and the Yankees have been very good for the past 10 years—so what? The Los Angeles Lakers have very been good for the past 25 years. The San Antonio Spurs have won four championships in the last 10 years.

I don’t hear anyone talking about how the NBA has a parity problem.

How are the Los Angeles Clippers different than the Pittsburgh Pirates?

I don’t hear David Stern thinking about a plan to move the Lakers out of the West so the Phoenix Suns can win a championship.

The Indianapolis Colts and New England Patriots are Super Bowl contenders every year, seemingly for the past 10 years. The NFL should move the Buffalo Bills into another conference just so they have a better chance to win the Super Bowl.

You give me the sport and I will give you a couple of teams that dominate year after year. You know how you beat those teams? It’s not by switching divisions or conferences or leagues or what ever it might be.

You beat those teams by hiring smart people who make smart decisions. Salary cap or no salary cap, the team that makes the smartest and most sound decisions win.

The Minnesota Twins somehow find a way to win every year, so do the Pittsburgh Steelers. Duke and UNC dominate the ACC year after year, but that didn’t stop Maryland from winning the College Basketball National Championship in 2002.

Plus here is another thing: Sports and especially baseball are cyclical. For the most part, the team that dominates now, could be rebuilding 10 years from now and vice versa.

The Atlanta Braves made the playoffs 14 out of 15 seasons from 1991 to 2005. They were the class of the National League. Now they are in the middle of the pack.

On the other side of the coin, the Philadelphia Phillies had seven straight losing seasons in the mid-90s and now they are the class of the NL.

I really hope this idea gets tossed to the side rather quickly.

I am sure some better ideas can come out of this group.

You can follow The Ghost of Moonlight Graham on Twitter @ theghostofmlg