but expand to 32 teams, 16 in each league.
4 divisions, no wild card
Keep interleague play, but rotate it so that every team plays an interleague division (home & road) once every four years.

Each team has this schedule:
22 games against each team in own division (3): 66 total games
6 games against each team in own league, out of division (12): 72 games
6 games against each team in designated interleague division (4): 24 games

This way, every team fighting for a playoff spot plays the exact same schedule.

I would also offer incentives from the commissioner’s “discretionary fund” to any team that wears powder blue road uniforms. :)

Heard this: Jamey Carroll will choose between the two-year offers of Oak. and LA, probably today. Cleveland has been informed they are out

http://twitter.com/Buster_ESPN/status/6736223845

My pet peeve is that there are huge monetary differences between teams. You should not have a team like the Yankees that can spend $200M on payroll and a team like the Royals who cannot come close to that figure. I understand that each owner sits at different points along the spectrum of trying to win vs trying to make a profit, but there needs to be a better balance of talent/payroll between all the teams.

I am not sure what the best solution is. That I leave up to the powers that be. A couple of possible starting points are…

1) More revenue sharing (ie – of local tv networks)
2) Harsher luxury tax
3) Payroll floor (min team payroll)
4) Realignment of divisions based on 3 year weighted payroll. Realignment takes place every year. High payroll teams play in the same division. The top division can be the one(s) with the least number of teams.

vr, Xei

From Bob Elliott, Toronto Sun:

We’re hearing someone involved in the trade flunked their physical

Buffalo Chicken Cheese Fries!

hosted by Stonefire grill. Tri – Tip is calling to me.

potential future Dodger (in Pierre trade). He has the cliche meter jumping:

“I’ve talked to my agent and nothing is set in stone with this trade,” said Ely, who led the Southern League in wins and strikeouts (125). “I might not be traded. But if I am, I’ve got a lot of opportunities with the Dodgers and I’ll make the best of it – just like I will if I’m not traded. Of course, you’d like to stay with the team you grew up rooting for. I’m a diehard White Sox fan. It could take a couple of weeks before something happens. I’m just going to take it one day at a time.”

As newly acquired outfielder Juan Pierre was doing his meet-and-greet with the media, discussing the trade that turned him from an extra in Tinseltown to the White Sox’ leading man, Guillen busted into the teleconference with, ‘’He better say he’s cool with me, or he’s not playing.’’

The timing was perfect. Pierre was in the middle of discussing playing for Guillen when Guillen was third-base coach for the Florida Marlins.

‘’Welcome to the real family,’’ Guillen told Pierre.

Pierre’s response: ‘’Three years, we’ve been trying to make this [trade] happen. I’d like to say I’ve been in the witness-protection program the last three years.’’

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/whitesox/1941759,CST-SPT-sox16.article

3 years? So 2007 wasn’t a good year for you muthafucker?

So I would go back to no interleague play, two divisions, a balanced schedule and no DH.

And get off my lawn while you are at it.

If I could just get one of these, it would be to go back to a balanced schedule. I hate this play Colorado 19 times and play the Braves 6 times, yet the Dodgers are competing against both for the Wild Card.

Although I can not stand it, but if they are going to do Interleague I say they just have to figure a way to do it right. Throw out the regional “rivalries” they are not fair. Divisions have to have more similar opponents.

since we know that there’s no way they’re going to get rid of the LDS- and though I’m a traditionalist, there have been some very entertaining games over the years (thank you, Mr. Holliday), but can we at least have 5 teams per division?! I’m surprised NL Central fans don’t bark about this more.

And yes- I know this will mess with Bud’s precious interleague play promotions (“it’s World Series rematch weekend from teams whose current players weren’t even born yet!” etc.), but you can still do Interleague (if you must)- like delias man says, just fix it so it makes sense!

It gives careers to players who should not be on the field. Guys like Vlad, Matsui, Ortiz, etc., should not be playing if they cannot take the field like everyone else. Kind of like Darwinism. Survival of the fittest is how it should be. It dilutes the pool of what athletes and real ball players worth should be.

Here’s hoping Carroll doesn’t sign while I’m at lunch (feel free to insert “…or ever” joke here).

The card of the week at Blue Heaven is awesome.

The expanded rosters never bothered me (mostly because it gave me a chance to see guys like Hu and McDonald who I had been reading about all year) but I do see your point. As you say, it does kind of mess with the integrity of the game for most of the season.

One thing I thought of if I were managing a team during the time rosters had expanded, when you are on the road, why not use your last bench player and list them as the starting pitcher. In all likelihood, you have plenty of guys on your squad at this point, so say Hu is the last man on the bench (basically he’s there for show, he is not playing) call him the starting pitcher. In the unlikely case that the team bats around in the first, then Hu gets to hit instead of the pitcher, if not then Hu is removed and the actual pitcher takes the mound.

There’s another way of gaming the rules for ya….

My pet peeve is all around timing. Specifically, four things:

1. The season is too long. Not in # of games but in the length of time. Gotta include some double headers in there to quit having teams play in crappy weather for the first and last 2 weeks of the season and the playoffs.
2. Cut down the time it takes for the playoffs. This year was a joke.
3. Play some mother f’ing day playoff games, especially in the World Series. Give today’s youth (and all of us at work) a reason to go watch baseball!
4. Cut down the time between innings. Especially on nationally televised games, this is getting ridiculous.

Of course, these will never happen because they’re all the result of TV running MLB.

Connolly indicates that about 25, rather than 15, teams were on hand to watch Aroldis Chapman yesterday. So the list of teams not monitoring Chapman is shorter. The Orioles remain involved.

(According to links collected on MLBTR)

Wonder if they’d be interested in one George Sherrill, for a prospect, say, Josh Bell? :-/

I have a feeling how the Chris Henry story is playing out on Twitter reveals the good and bad side of information.

pending physical. Per Buster Olney:

Jamey Carroll is accepting a two-year deal with the Dodgers, pending a physical

http://www.truebluela.com/2009/12/16/1203381/dodgers-add-carroll-ing-to-holiday