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If I took Bud's place:

- contract down to 28 teams
- 2 leagues, 2 divisions in each
- top team in each division make the playoffs (4)
- next best 4 teams in each league regardless of division make "wildcard tournament" ; seed them based on records and play 1 round to get down to 2 wildcard teams, seed them against the 2 division winners, division winners are home team in best of 7 for games 1,2,4,6,7
- for LCS, format depends on participants. If both are division winners use traditional 2-3-2 home/visitor format, if one is division winner and one is wildcard use 1,2,4,6,7 format above, if both are wildcard use traditional.

- world series uses traditional always based on better record as home team

- 12 teams total make playoffs

- scrunch scheduling of playoffs like it used to be, play consecutive days to force the depth of a rotation that got you through the regular season to get you through the playoffs.

- Play any playoff game on Saturday in the afternoon

- As for the 2 division alignment in each league - use geography to create

- get rid of DH altogether
- expand ML rosters by 1 or 2 to allow for need of additional pitchers/pinch hitters

- impose minimum spending on payroll

- impose salary cap

- impose mixed contracts, i.e. first x years guaranteed, y years after not guaranteed like football

- lower ticket prices; mandate x% of all tickets are below $30 per seat

I like it, but which two teams get cut?

Peter,

I don't like the idea of trashing the divisions, and I hate the idea of trashing the leagues. The latter especially ruins the historical continuity of baseball for me.

What I'd like to see:

1. Each league must have an even number of divisions (e.g, 2 or 4). Each division must have at least six teams (fewer teams increase the likelihood of mediocre teams winning a division on a given year). Since 4 divisions per league and 6 teams per division implies a minimum of 48 teams, the lack of available talent and cities that can support MLB teams implies that each league would, for practical purposes, be limited to 2 divisions.

2. Divisions to be determined geographically.

3. Eliminate the wild card. Let MLB again be the only major North American sport that does not have wild cards. You want to make the playoffs? Win your division. If two teams are tied at the end of the season, they play a one-game playoff.

4. All post-season games on Saturday and Sunday are to be played in the afternoon. I believe this is important to cultivate younger fans.

5. Eliminate the DH.

6. LCS and WS to be best 4 of 7, 2-3-2. Off days after games 2 and 5. All teams start the playoffs two calendar days after the end of the season. This builds in a one-day buffer for (rare) one-game playoffs, if needed. The World Series starts two calendar days after the conclusion of the last LCS to complete. All the off days during last season's ALCS was ridiculous.

7. Eliminate interleague play. Cheap gimmick, the novelty has worn off. Restore the integrity of the leagues.

8. World Series home team to be determined by team with best record. Restore the integrity of the All-Star game.

9. I can't support a salary cap -- strikes me as too arbitrary. Who is to say what the "right" number is? I think Ken Rosenthal has a better idea: introduce a third team to metro NYC (Brooklyn or northern NJ) as well as anywhere else that the population can support it (he has suggested that the Boston could should get another team as well). The idea is to calculate the number of teams in an area based on the population of that area.

10. Work out something with Japan. I have no clue how to do so, but the current system is broken. MLB cannot skim off the cream of the crop. It's not right.

there is only one obvious choice- Washington/Montreal

After that you could say - in two years the team with the overall worst record in baseball for the 2 years combined will be contracted. To avoid players tanking to get themselves into FA, the players that are on the team contracted will go into FA but have a maximum contract for the first 2 years after contraction of $5m per season. Tank at your own expense.

of course every single idea I have thrown out there would end up in court with the union...

Contraction is a horrible idea and is an affront to the loyal fans in the 2 lost cities.

The leagues and divisions and three tier format can remain the same. BUT: expand the wild card round to 7 games and cut back the regular season so that the postseason starts every year on October 1.

That gives us a solid month of October baseball -- without the travesty of 5 game series or extensions into November.

talent levels have continued to thin out, guys hitting around .200 still play everyday, pitchers with ERAs over 5.50 still pitch every 5th day and so on.

Contraction may suck but greed caused the market expansion that should never have been.

play spit double headers shortening the season and not play november baseball...it is insane ..BB should be over by mid october..and stretching out the games for 8 days isway too long. how is Minny going to be in Nov.. get the dog sleds ready

implement the most stringent PED test available. screw the players union. that will bring truth and integrity back to a pure game. that would be first and foremost. let them make treats of a strike.. what are they afraid of..

The sportspig blog @ http://graneyandthepig.wordpress.com/

is a good read often, currently in the third blog post down he touches on this subject of the roving division alignment format and other things...in depth, good read

Watched part of the game, had to leave, Yanks leading 5-1. Got back, what! People saying dicey call Pedroia with strikes from Chan Ho Park, next pitch, 2 homes, Wow! Not gonna panic though. Yankees lost first 8 games to Boston last season.