Yes, teams other than the Yankees and Red Sox would like to get in on whipping the Orioles every year...

Mr Schmuck:

I like the idea of rolling division play but I do not think CEO Pete and the board will vote for the idea. The team is assured of making money now without little risk. This idea has some risk with it and our franchise is risk averse. It is not really all Peter A it is the share holder or partners. He had an unpleasant experience the last time he tried to win a championship and if he tries again and the profits are not as good, he may not remain the CEO.

Frustrated fan

Instead of crazy divisional realignments, just adjust team's schedule's based on the previous year's performance. That way we avoid the O's 2010 April nightmare.

You don't need realignment, you can change the schedule based on the previous year's record ala the NFL. Make the "winning" teams play each other more and that gives you the sense of parity.

I'm not really in favor of it but that is what the NFL does although the NFL isn't as reliant on big city teams winning to get the TV ratings unlike MLB (Yankees, Red Sox, LA, Chicago) or the NBA (Boston, LA).

I can’t believe this is an issue. Stop crying and deal with it. Even if the Yanks and Sox bought off every great player, are there only 50 great baseball players in America? In the world? If I were Roberts, Weiters, Jones, Matusz, etc. I would find this to be an insult. I don’t go to work and say, “Johnny makes better presentations because his daddy paid for him to go to Yale and I had go State. Johnny needs to be rotated out of my department.” This Birds team WILL compete this year and be in the post season next year. No help needed thank you. The young guns need to go to Yankee Stadium and Fenway, pitch hard, inside and not blink. Go Birds!

Tim....those are nice thoughts and your optimist is appreciative, but it's unfortunately delusional. Sure we have good players and nice talent, but they're almost all young and not yet in their primes. That's the big difference. Yes some young teams can come along and compete with the big boys, but once these elite talents hit their primes, they become free agents and sign with guess who?

The truth is the Orioles are royally screwed by being in a division with the Yankees and Red Sox, but if it's even worse for Tampa. The Rays are probably one of the 5 best teams in MLB and yet are underdogs to even make the playoffs. And of course they're in a very small window right now that they will not be able to sustain. They're benefiting from having high-end talent that they took at the top of the draft (Upton, Price, Longoria, Crawford, plus Garza who came in exchange for Young) and they don't have those high picks anymore.

Is it possible to compete in this division? Of course it is. Tampa's done it recently, and the Blue Jays have had a couple competitive teams. But it's incredibly difficult...harder than it is to compete in any other division in professional sports. And that's not really the way it's supposed to be. It's an untenable situation....but one I don't see being fixed anytime soon. Selig is not exactly the most progressive commissioner in the world.

I like the idea conceptually, but doubt that it will work in the short term, because of the money that Angelos et al would lose. In the long term, however, baseball needs to do SOMETHING -- it is delusonal to believe that fans will perpetually support the notion of their team being the "Washington Generals" to the L.A/Bost/N.Y Globetrotters.
Nobody will perpetually support cobbling together a group of relative amateurs to play the barn-stormers who are just passing through.

Tim, I believe you overllok an important economic circuymstance. Yes, there are other good players, and any team can afford a good player or two. The large markets, however, can afford by them in bulk. The larger markets can afford the critical mass
of talen that is critical to winning. The larger markets can also afford to take risks that smaller markets cannot -- if a ziollion dollar athelete goes bust, they can always pick up a new one. It's pocket change for them.

Something has to bgive. My fantasy would be a 1994 quality strike that would annihilate the union. Short of that, management has to show wisdom and courage.

Can somebody proved that Sir Peter has any real desire to build a real team here? He is after the money, you goto ball games and you look up and his owner box is locked up and empty. He does not care. He collects lots of money from owning the team rights and the television rights to MASN, and even half of the National's TV Money. Sorry to be so negative this early in the season. 13 losing seasons takes a toll. I think there are lots of bright spots in this team, unlike previous years. But, too many not bright spots, to have any realistic chance of being a contender.

I still think the problem is better addressed through revenue sharing, the draft, and or salary caps, but I also know they all have a snowballs chance in hell of ever happening.
Some modification of the schedule based on the previous years record might work, but you have to be realistic and accept that the richer franchises are always going to have an advantage.

The sad fact regarding realignment is that the Orioles are not talented enough to compete for the playoffs in any division in the major leagues.
The Orioles refuse to spend the money necessary to bring in the top free agent talent year after year so what you end up with are young unproven position players and pitchers.
The majority of these young players will never "pan" out - it just the way it works out with young players. A wise front office knows that fact and will spend their free agent money intelligently to keep their team successful.

Reallignment is interesting for the regular season, but what about the playoffs?? Lower market teams would maybe make the playoffs more easily but would still have to play the Yankees in the playoffs and there would still be the disparity. It all doesn't address the REAL ISSUE of some teams having payrolls 2-3 times larger than other teams.

Ben,
I agree. If Baltimore/Toronto/Tampa has one good year the Yanks will spend a quarter billion to assure it won't happen again. Jays had some nice teams that didn't sniff the playoffs, O's could compete in NL West. I don't have the solution, I'm just stating my opinion.

Bob, you should do some more whining. You're obviously not getting the attention you deserve!

Whomp f'ing wah Bob, suck it up, you do plenty to make yourself look bad, you don't need Pete to do it for you.

The primary problem is the inequity of the unbalanced schedule for the non-major market teams in the AL East. If the Orioles, Rays and Blue Jays are competing for the same wild card spot with any team from the Central or West, how is it fair that those East teams have to play almost a quarter of their schedules against the Yankees and the RedSox? Interleague play also just gums up the works when attempting to create a fair and balanced schedule. If I were king of the world, I would abolish divisions and interleague play. In the American League, let each team play 12 games against every other team, producing a 156-game schedule (13 x 12), thus allowing for a regular season shortened by one week. The top four teams make the playoffs with 1-seed vs. 4 and 2-seed vs. 3 in best-of-seven first round series. The higher seed gets the first three games at home and game 7 at home if necessary. Ideally, the National League would contract two teams so they can have the exact same set-up. Barring that, the NL can realign into four divisions of four teams each and figure out a way to get to a 156-game schedule. Playing 20 games against divisional opponents (3 x 20) and eight against non-divisional opponents (12 x 8) gets you to 156, and you can have four division winners in the playoffs without an inequitable wild card spot.

A rolling realignment is a stupid idea. It's a reaction to a problem that addresses none of the problems (maybe that's why Mike Greenberg likes it, he's not a true sports person anyway, just an entertainer). The only fair way is to play everyone the same amount of times. There are so many problems with rolling realignment - what about injuries, catching a team at a good time etc. AND the elmination of rivalries.That's why interleague play is flawed - it's not even spread out with equity. Since they won't fix the salary structure, have everyone play everyone equally.

It stinks that the Yankee's and Red Sox are in our division, but I don't see why something should be changed regarding allignment. If I could change something, it would be interleague games.

Just get rid of them completely, then go to a system similar to the NFL where you play teams in your division twice, and select teams out of your division once.

If you expand that across 162 games, it would mean that you play your division opponents 18 times each, and other AL teams 9 times.

The numbers are similar to how it was before interleague play.

If the Os spent about 30-40 million more and spent it wisely, they could compete with the sux and skanks, but they like pocketing that loot instead.

ol dandy andy was brought in to make sure it stays that way while giving the appearance of "rebuilding" while duping the gullible fans

Wake up ppl. The Os are at a 67 million/yr payroll which isnt enough to win the al east, unless you're TB and draft in the top 5 for a decade

I dont think MLB minds having the Os as sacrificial lambs at the powerhouse slaughterhouse. Its good to have some cupcakes to make the road a little easier for the marquee teams to coast towards teh postseason.

The Os are willing participants as they continue to profit handsomely thx in part to the out of town attendance spike whenever the real teams visit camden yds

Everyone is missing the point. The point is not that the O's or anyone else can't get good players. If a team does it homework, drafts well, and builds a team, they can compete.

The issue is that the window for the Red Sox and Yankees is considerably larger. They are making the playoffs every year, while other teams are making it once, twice every couple of years. That's the competitive inbalance, and its due to their ability to sign free agents.

What baseball needs is to balance the window of opportunity that teams have so that its not a "one and done" proposition for teams like the Orioles.

Sam, It's called a salary cap.
But MLB players union is more powerful than the United States Supreme Court. And that's not right. And the homeless have all the good carts!!!

I like this Tim guy. ^^^

The Yankees did not win a World Series the whole time Mussina was in NY.

Yeah, I know the Orioles haven't either, but a winning team is on its way...oops...just dropped my rose-colored glasses...

I am just as frustrated as the next fan that the O's aren't winning. I don't think that means that the O's can't win.

This talk of realignment sounds a lot like throwing up a white flag. That doesn't sit well with me.

If you want to be the best you have to beat the (next) best. Switching to another division will not bring the team closer to a championship. It will only make them appear better.

It's been a long time coming but perhaps MLB is finally addressing the competition issue. With their revenue streams, NESN and MSG, the Orioles will never be able to compete with Boston and NY. The vast resources of those teams permit them to make an occasional error concerning personnel, without any negative consequence. If the Yankees buy a player like Carl Pavano, and he doesn't work out they can always buy another like a C.C Sabathia. The Orioles with their limited finances do not have that luxuary, and they never will. Take the Pirates, they are in a similar situation to the Orioles. They've endured 17 seasons of losing baseball in Pittsburgh. Perhaps Bud and the boys are sensing that the "Washington Generals" playing the Yankees and the Red Sox every night will eventually kill the game. At the very least the unbalanced schedule should be shelved. The Orioles would stand a little better chance if they didn't play the Red Sox and the Yankees a combined 36 times a year.

It will be very curious to me as to whether Uncle Peter will embrace realignment, or support a return to the balanced schedule, given the number of NY and Boston fans that annually invade Camden Yards. For all the Angelos apologists in the medis, (and you know who you are), we will see if Pete is really interested in fielding a competitive product, or merely providing lip service to the fans who continue to fill his coffers. My bet is on the latter.

Forget crazy ideas like radical realignment. The simplest way to make things more fair for the O's, Jays, and Rays is to return to the balanced schedule with two seven team divisions in the AL, and no more of the interleague play gimmick (which is all interleague play during the season is.)

The AL East teams would play each AL East team 13 times, and each AL West team 12 times. Award wild cards to to the two non-division winners with the best record, regardless of division. Division winner with best record plays wild card with worst record in division round, other division winner plays wild card with best record.

Peter, is there any way you could pass this along to Mr. Selig?

I've said it once and I'll say it again... baseball is a joke. Until they do away with interleague play, the unbalanced schedule and put a salary cap in place, the game has no integrity. It lost that a long time ago. It's all about the all-mighty buck, and not baseball.

I'm not even sure why you're wasting your time in Florida covering baseball, Pete. Hope you're at least getting a nice vacation out of the deal on the Sun's dime!

Solution to all realignment:

Slide one National League team to American League and have six division of five:
Then:

Each team plays 11 games in their division totally 44 games

Each team plays 15 interleague games rotating division each year(3 per each team in division)

Each team plays other 10 teams in league 6 times each for a total of 60 games

Each team plays 40 more games against teams that had similar records in previous year. Take 15 teams in each league and tier them. The top five team would play each other an additional ten times each. The middle 5 teams would play each other 10 times each. The bottom five teams from the previous year would play each other 10 times each too. This would total 40 games for a strength of schedule.

That would leave 3 games to equal 162. They could be random games.

Lou,

The Orioles do not have limited resources. They just choose not to use them on investing back into the team. They are consistently one of the most profitable teams in baseball

MASN is a cash cow for them and they are even compensated for showing another teams games

Furthermore, MLB GAVE the Os 75 million to start MASN. The other teams had to actually use their own money to get started

BTW, YES shows the Yankees,not MSG

The 2009 Orioles were 64-98.

They were 9-37 versus the Yankees, Red Sox and Angels.

They were 55-61 versus everyone else.

The "everyone else" as an opponent record is still below .500 -- no surprise, the team still stunk -- but if the worst team in the AL is that close to breaking even in a significant sample size, it speaks volumes about rotating the opponents.

But baseball never changes, no good players are coming here anyhow, the team is about to surprise people you just wait and see I mean it this time I really do, and the DH is great because it's hard to lose 30-3 without it.

It's funny how the losing teams cry foul while the winning teams really couldn't give a crap. But I guess a realinment will exploit the O's current shittiness a little less

M.A.S.N.:

You're correct about the YES network being the Yankees network, not MSG. (Funny, when I typed that it just didn't look right).

However, I can't entirely agree with you concerning the bucks that YES and NESN generate versus MASN. I would love to compare advertising rates on NESN, YES, and MASN.

In any case I also believe that you're right in your assertion that Greedy Petey doesn't want to reinvest in the franchise. The last big free agent that came to B'More was Albert Belle, and I think that changed Petey's view on the top flight tier free agents forever. (Even though a very large portion of Belle's salary was ultimately paid by an insurance policy that Pete had taken out). Every year the shills at the Warehouse assert that once the O's "get close" that Pete will be willing to open the vault and pay for the "last pieces of the puzzle". I won't be holding my breath for that to happen.

I think the O's are destined to get lower to middle tier free agents like Mike Gonzales for the foreseeable future. And can you really blame the best players, or their agents, for not wanting to play in Baltimore? There is virtually no chance of winning on a consistent basis. The team hasn't had a winning record in 12 seasons, and the owner is a megaloamaniac.

A surefire recipe for disaster.

There is a quite simple approach to all of this. THE SHAMROCK PLAN. Please don't BCS-up MLB or turn it into Indoor Soccer.

1. Go back to 2 Divisions, 2 leagues. No more dopey and (even dopier) uneven 6 divisions.

2. 2 division winners and 2 wilcards. Both Wild cards can come from the same division (thus, a 3rd East team can make the playoffs over the 87 win Twins or Cardinals). If a weaker team takes the division, atleast they beat out 6-7 other teams to do so.

3. 15 teams in each league, so interleague will always occur. Limit interleague to 12 games per team (this allows for just enough to cover every day of the season, 180 games). With more teams in your division, the unbalanced schedule has to be flattened as well.

AL EAST
O'S
NYY
BOS
TB
TOR
DET
CLE

AL WEST
ANA
SEA
OAK
CHI
KC
TEX
MIL

NL EAST
NYM
ATL
PHI
WAS
FLA
CIN
PIT

NL WEST
CHI
STL
HOU
SD
COL
SF
LA
AZ

SO.... In conclusion, in many years, you get a more worthy team in over a weaker divisional winner, no radical changes take place, scheduling flattens as you have to play more divisional foes.

I am a genius. Selig, not so much. He will screw it up somehow.

I also have a good NCAA Tournament expansion plan. Simply give the 15/16 seeds a play in game which squeezes 7 more quality at large teams in to thicken the competition and give the little schools an extra game while not lengthening the season any. GENIUS!

OriAL-

Swear I didn't copy off you!Had this on my screen for awhile and didn't submit.

In other news, hooray! Crazy Jason is back with his salary updates and MASN conspiracy theories!

All of this is a waste of time the only thing to make baseball even is a salary cap and Baseball execs. know it. All of this other stuff is BS Bud stop wasting time and money make a decision and stand by your decision that is what you get paid for.

Shamrock,

Your realignment solution is very poor... Are you sure you are not wearing a dunce cap?

Angelos' pursuit of Albert Belle was a rebound effort after Angelos' stall tactics in the negotiations to re-sign Rafael Palmeiro scared off Palmeiro.

After Palmeiro bailed, Angelos went after Belle in a panic to get a clean-up hitter. He overpaid him and wound up with a bird-flippin' arthritis-ridden disappointment.

Waaaa, we can't beat the Yankees.....waaaa, we can't beat the Red Sox....waaaaa, please realign us, please? Bunch of cowards. If you really want to make things "even" install a salary cap.

Alex-

What?

Its sure better than what is going on now and pretty much eliminates the possibility of an 84 win team winning the WS. YOu don't have a 90 win team sitting at home while an 86 win team makes the post season.

Waaaaaaaa..........Its not fair that we don't want to pay the good players so they get signed by better teams. Quit crying WOE IS ME. Our owner sucks and so does our philosophy, we are worse than the WCW when they were trying tro change everything every other year till they just folded. Hey you guys why don't we beg to be placed in a division that only includes the Royals, Pirates, Indians, and the Nationals. Not only would there be excuses why we couldn't win the division then, we would have no sell outs, seems like the only time we pack the Yard is when the Sox, Yanks, and Phillies come to town. Then that would give PA another reason why not to pay a player to come here. I look forward to all the comments throughout the year. Face it people what we are doing is not working, all the positive thinking will not help us, I hate to be negative but it is the only way till we have some uppers that will actually make a difference and make us competitive. Enjoy another losing season, I am just glad that I have accepted my team to be a failure and that I still can enjoy the game no matter what.

Lou-

MASN is not making that much profit, unless that Amstel commercial that plays over and over (and over) again is bringing in some MEGA loot.

The O's spent $40 mil on a bullpen and $76 on Miguel Tejeda. Forget about them?

Gonzales was arguably the best free agent RP on the market. Who else would you suggest they had signed this offseason?

AngleO's- one of Raffy's biggest problems had soemthing to do with paying MD state income taxes while playing for the O's.

You cannot install a salary cap into a league where contracts are gauranteed. Players can not be cut like in the NFL to conform to the cap.

MLBPA will never go for it. They will NEVER EVER EVER go to non-gauranteed contracts.

I like playing in the AL East, don't like seeing the same 4 teams 72 times a year. Is 14 vs each so bad, why 18? However, when competing agains the Yanks and Sox, you are not up against the same competition as the AL or NL central.

If someone who knew how to put a winner on the field had bought the team from Eli Jacobs instead of the big Peter that has 'em now; Baltimore would still be considered one of the bigger markets as it was when Camden sold out for something like five seasons straight. Ego and greed have colored every decision made since I don't remember when, and a proud legacy has been squandered. At this point, it don't make no never mind what league we're in .500 is the best we can hope for.
And that sucks.

Shamrock,

How do you know what MASN makes ?

Are you their accountant or something ?

SCAMROCK in his haste to call himself a genius failed to realize that there are 30 teams in MLB. I guess MN is getting contracted regardless of that new stadium, LOL

Guess SHAMCOCK isnt too good at the math

Ironic, since he was just bustin on someone else about math just the other day

what a dick, lol

SHILLROCK started it so when you start bitching, bitch about the right person

So who really cares about a freaking realignment for MLB. I liked the way it was when it was the East and West Coasts. When we broke it down to three divisions, I was not in favor, but grew on me over time. Now we are looking at another realignment, one question WHY? Who really cares, if your team can't cut it, then start spending money and win. Stop being cry babies for all your lives since you always complain about not be able to measure up to the Yankees.

jason-

My math wasn't wrong, I just forgot Min. They go in the AL west. Why you are back to skipping your meds and name calling and cursing on a baseball blog, allow me to say, "Thats not math stupid."

Does this make my idea invalid, cool Guy? You see when I criticize people, it is because they are factually wrong. twisting reality or taking things out of context. Since you are typically wrong, you can only argue presentation points or pick out something slightly wrong and jump on it as if it is the entire argument.

Intelligent posters: Tim in WA State, Brian Tully, lou, TruthBeTold, NY Yankees Fan Fo Life, and especially scott

Ignorant posters: Bryan, bms, Ray (king of the retards), Jason, OriAl, Matt, and especially you SHAMROCK! After reading your comments the only conclusion I can come up with about you is the fact you’re quite obviously brain dead!

I think we can all agree that we need to get rid of Peter Angelos and get in a George Steinbrenner (love him or hate him, he gives squat about winning) type who can restore order to the Baltimore Orioles and turn them into the killing machines I know they are! The same goes for teams like the Royals and the Pirates, get rid of the horrible owners and bring in guys who care about winning and they will start winning as well!

Oh and Chase Titleman of the Bleacher Report is also a retard.