My Idea for MLB Realignment

This posting has nothing to do with my current residence in Evansville, but this is a topic that I have always found interesting: MLB realignment. I have always been a fan of having two 15-team divisions.

A few years ago, I created what I thought would be the best divisional line-up. I don't recall what I said back then, so i decided to give it a fresh take. My only rule was to ensure that each teams had their "natural rivals" and, in some cases, some teams moved divisions...and even leagues.

Here it goes:

American League/National League
EAST DIVISION
NY Yankees / NY Mets
Tampa / Florida
Baltimore / Washington
Pittsburgh / Philadelphia &&&
Boston / Atlanta ***

CENTRAL DIVISION
Chi. White Sox / Chi Cubs
Minnesota / Milwaukee
Kansas City / St. Louis
Cleveland / Cincinnati
Toronto / Detroit @@@

WEST DIVISION
LA Angels / LA Dodgers
Arizona / San Diego ^^^
Seattle / Colorado
Oakland / San Francisco
Texas / Houston ###

The most important thing I had to do was move one team from the National League to American League. I did that by moving Pittsburgh to the AL East from the NL Central (&&&). Why Pittsburgh? I think the same state rivialry with Philadelphia (ie: St. Louis/Kansas City, Florida/Tampa, etc.) is more intriguing.

Of course this put one too many teams in the AL East. In a bit of a controversial move, I decided that Toronto should move to the AL Central and Detroit should move to the NL Central (@@@). I felt that movign them and putting them in alternate league would make them natural rivals. Toronto has been screwed since Montreal left town and Detroit is the next logical choice to me. Of course, these two teams are interchangeable so either of them could move to the NL with the other staying the AL.

We still have six teams in the NL Central, so we are moving Houston to the NL West (###), maintaining the natural rivalry with the Texas Rangers, but keeping balance within the divisions. The final piece of the puzzle is moving one team from the NL West to AL West. The team is Arizona (^^^). They are the newest team in MLB and sets up the rivalry with San Diego.

The only major problem is this realignment moves the Philadelphia/Boston rivalry ***. The only two teams that no longer have teams close to them are Boston and Atlanta. By pairing them as rivals, MLB can play up the fact that the Atlanta Braves originally started as the Boston Braves. I know its a stretch, but its the only thing I couls make work.

So what do you think?