Post by Erbes on Mar 7, 2015 13:43:10 GMT -5
The Winners and Losers of Realignment!
Now that realignment is finally here (and here to stay!) it's time to look over the first half season to see who the winners and losers are of the new league format!
WINNERS
The League
Boy was the league dragging. Nobody can deny that. It's nobody's fault, things just got stagnant. Since realignment every single sim thread has reached 20 pages (and even 30 sometimes). That's crazy. Maybe it can't be all attributed to realignment, but come on. You'd have to be really stubborn to think it has nothing to do it. Plus exports are up, trading seems to be a little up, and fun seems to be at an all time high!
NL East Teams Minus the Braves
Here's looking at you Montreal, Philadelphia, and New York. All three teams are now in a different division than those Hulky Marlins, which you would think would give them a better shot at the playoffs. Of those three, only Montreal has posted a 100 win season in the past 7 seasons, and even with doing so he ended with a wild card due to the Marlies. Hopefully moving them into a new division will spark them to start competing.
The Rich Get Richer
By aligning in a hierarchical structure, we've essentially guaranteed playoffs for the 'top 8' GMs whenever they want it. This is a tad bit unfortunate because part of my reasoning behind this idea was to try and spark competition from guys who don't normally get to sniff the playoffs. By putting a 'top 8' GM in each division (and a couple of two), it really stunts competition from the bottom up. This is good for those 'top 8' because hey just stay on top! If we do this again in 10 or so seasons I'd prefer to stack a couple of divisions with these 'top 8' GMs and leave two divisions wide open so guys like Kobe, Dale, Temp, and Shale have a chance to make the playoffs again.
Any Hitter Currently in the NL
Yeah with Miggy moving to wreak havoc and let loose the pigs of war on the AL, the NL is finally wide open to welcome a new MVP. There was some early chatter about David Wright taking the throne, but I'm not ready to go there yet. I think by the end of the season Trout is going to be putting up some gaudy numbers that even the game won't be able to ignore. Other guys who could surprise could be Julio Enos, Hanley Ramirez or Alex Gordon. Those are my top 5 right now.
Cincinnati Reds
Anybody who doesn't think Stutter is creeping his way into the top 12 GMs hasn't been paying attention. Sure he makes some boneheaded trades every once in awhile and doesn't always rub people the right way, but he's proven that he can turn a mediocre team into a winner - something half the league fails to do. And now that he's out of the division formerly known as the NL Central, ditching the Pirates in the process, he has a chance to make the playoffs for the first time in about 5 years. Not only that, but he might actually pull off the upset and win the inaugural season of the NL Midwest. That would be some serious bragging rights and some serious egg on Play's face.
LOSERS
Old AL Central Teams
The AL Central always seemed wide open recently. Sure the Indians put together a couple of solid seasons, but they never felt dominant and it was always a matter of time before age caught with them. Now the Tigers, Brewers, and Twins will have to contend with the Pirates on a yearly basis, and the aging Indians already find themselves in the basement of the vastly underrated NL Midwest. Apparently the Twins are ready to compete, but I'll believe that when I see that, and the Brewers are sitting on a nice little nest egg so who knows? Maybe they're not as doomed as I thought... or maybe they are.
Shale
Shale's only chance to compete was to hope that the Giants got real old, real quick so that he could pounce. Now he's stuck in a division with the A's and Padres who both have young cores that should be around for quite some time. I actually like some of his recent pick ups (Enos and Alvy), but he still throws money out the window at vets that won't help him. There's no reason a team tanking like his should lose money, which they are going to do this year. He just needs to horde brilliant homer guys, both pitchers and hitters, and just bomb away in Coors. He'll get it one day I'm sure.
Historical Junkies
OH NO WE DIVERTED FROM HISTORY AND REAL LIFE!!! Lol who cares guys? Honestly. If you've lost interest in the league because of this then I feel sorry for you. Minus the export issue at the beginning of the season, realignment has been nothing but fun and entertaining so far.
Baltimore Orioles
I'm sure I'm never going to hear the end of the complaints from Jah. If he was in any other division he'd be competing for a playoff spot... except not true. He really just wanted to take the puss way out and be in the Atlantic so he could avoid the Marlins and Rays. But for what seems like the infinite time this realignment was based off of rankings done by somebody else and GMs were evenly distributed based on that. It has nothing to do with current team ability. For some reason, I think he'll be smiling in two or three seasons when the Rays are trash and Stool quits because he can't rebuild properly.
Competition
This has a little to do with the fact that 'top 8' GMs are going to run a monopoly on their divisions and a little to do with lost rivalries. There just aren't going to be many surprises in the league in the next couple of years. No real shot out of the dark team to take hold of a division. At least none that I can see. Maybe Twins, but everyone already knows about them. I guess what I'm trying to say is that there's not going to be a team that completely goes for it like Stool did this past season. On top of that, realignment tore apart some really good GM rivalries we had going. Play vs. Steve2. Ashes vs. Spence. Break vs. Drowe? Lol. Anyways it'll be cool to see some of the stud teams battle it out in the World Series now, instead of their league championships, but still a little something lost there.
