MLB: With Sale of Astros and Realignment, Is a Shortened Season Next?

Back in June, I wrote an article detailing five ideas on how to improve Major League Baseball.

In the piece, among other things, I wrote that Major League Baseball ought to realign their divisions by moving the Houston Astros out of the National League Central Division to the American League West, where they would play alongside fellow state rival, the Texas Rangers.

With the move, Major League Baseball would now have an even 15 teams in the National League and 15 in the American League, which, ironically, would leave an unbalanced schedule.

Due to the simple fact that Major League Baseball doesn't have full-time interleague play, the unbalanced schedule led me to the simple conclusion that the number of games played should be adjusted accordingly from 162 to 157 games.

Here's how interleague, along with division realignment now with the Astros moving to the AL West, would work:

The New York Yankees, for example, currently play against their own division (Boston, Baltimore, Tampa and Toronto) 18 times a year. In the new proposal, the Yankees would play their own division 13 times, good for 52 total games.

The Yankees would then play the remaining 10 teams in the American League Central and West a total of 60 games, or each team six times, with three games at home and three games on the road.

At this point, the Yankees have now played 112 total games against their own division and league. The remaining 45 games in the new 157-game season would then be split with one three-game series against the entire National League, with home and road visits changing yearly.

This plan would allow for every single team to play each other every year, with National and American League teams alternating yearly between home and road.

In this new proposal, the Yankees would go to Houston one year, then host Houston the following year.

The new proposal also allows for interleague Opening Day, which is regarding as the most sacred of all opening sports events.

This move allows for interstate rivalries like Yankees-Mets, A's-Giants, Braves-Red Sox, Marlins-Rays and Rangers-Astros.

The new proposal works in building interstate rivalries, ensuring better Opening Day products, which for a lot of teams may be the only time they sell out their stadiums.

In the end, this is merely a proposal, but it's a honest proposal and bettering the game of Major League Baseball and honoring the traditions of the past.