Moving the Astros out of the NL Central and into the AL West would make a lot of sense for several reasons.

1. The Rangers are in the only 4-team division in baseball, while the Astros are in the only division with 6 teams. As a Ranger fan, I'm kind of okay with this since it provides a competitive advantage for the Rangers, but it's easy to see objectively that this is unfair. It seems obvious enough that one team should be moved out of the NL central and into the AL West to even out the numbers.

2. Both the Rangers and Astros are geographical oddities in their respective divisions. The Rangers are the only team in the West that is not located on the West coast; the astros' closest division rival is the St. Louis Cardinals, who play almost 900 miles away from Houston. IMO, this is a competitive disadvantage for both teams because they are forced to make longer, harder trips to play their opponents, than others in their divisions have to. If the Astros were in the AL West, it would create a more balanced division geographically, with two Texas teams and three west coast teams.

3. With the Rangers and Astros playing each other more often, and with much more at stake, the series would turn into more of a true rivalry. I know the Astros are currently struggling but when both teams are good, it could turn into a Spurs-Mavs type rivarly. Rivalries are good for the game and help spark interest in the fan base.

In my opinion, this move would make a lot of sense, which probably means it won't ever happen. I think the biggest obstacles to accomplishing this would be the traditionalism in baseball and the resistance among Stros fans to switching from the NL to AL. The reality though, is that their fan base will still cheer for Astros and come to games, regardless of which league they play in.

Thoughts?

You need an even number of teams in both leagues, or you'll have at least one game of interleague play (almost) every day. I don't see it happening.

The Astro's, ie, COLT 45's have always been the thorn in DFW Sports, especially Baseball.
We should have had the Original Senators (Twins), if not for Houston baseball men. The former
owner drew a hard line in the sand, when it came time to be pragmatic~ Houston vs. DFW baseball.
Not only would he not trade, but nixed any developments that would enhance our area over Houston.
Maybe The Crane Group, the new owners, will be more visionary in the 21st Century, Texas Baseball?
Don't wear spurs, when you cross legs with boots on though. Keep a derringer & pick handy & close.
Some things don't change.

I agree with the Astros Moving to the western division, I just think it should be the NL west. Teams like Colorado or Arizona should be the first to be asked to switch because of of the seniority the Astros have in the League. Plus, that would mean the Western division teams in both leagues would have three Pacific time teams, one Mountain time team, and one Texas team. It might make more sense for the Astros to move to the AL, though, due to it (somewhat) leveling the playing field in the AL west travel schedules by having two teams in Texas. It's probably good that Texas has one team in each league. As much as I hate watching most pitchers pathetically flail away like the hitting amateurs they are, the NL game does offer something different than the AL in terms of strategy. But that's a different argument.
As for there having to be one extra game of interleague, I think you could just give those two teams the night off. You lessen the number of games to about 150 or so, which, I think, would improve the quality of play, especially come August and September. Also, you wouldn't have to shorten the number of days the season takes place in. Fewer games in the same amount of time.
I don't know what the solution is, but Baseball's divisions need reexamining. 6 teams in the NL central and 4 in the AL west? C'mon Bud.

I think that they should do two things that would complement each other: first either accept the DH league wide or do away with it league wide( and the players union will not do this, so it it should be the former) because "purists" are very much in the minority these days... and then after you accept it league wide, totally realign the league to make for rivalries..... You could have a division with Texas, Houston, Colorado, and Arizona, ...... That would be huge for interest and intensity- Baseball is already re-gaining popularity and Baseball might edge up against the NFL if they did this.... Back in the early 2000's, there was markedly more interest in the NBA when the Mavs, Rockets, and Spurs were all successful and when they met in the playoffs, there was huge interest by fans, media. I just think it is ridiculous to play a game two different ways and especially dependent on who's park you are in.... I mean the Mavs are not going to change up their lineup or have to play a different way now that it is moving back to Miami.... and to the causal fan -they don't understand..... If Baseball went regional right now and I mentioned the division with the Rangers but look at these two also: Detroit, Chicago, chicago, Minnesota, and Milwaukee..... Then New york, New York, Boston, Philly, Washington.....Seattle, San Fran,Oakland, La ; LA , SD, ; you could tweak the other 10 or so and it would be so good for baseball... just my opinion and doubt that they would ever do that

I'm all for a complete realignment although I think they would need to add two more teams most likely in the west. Vegas has been pushing for a franchise for years and Portland fans need something else to do. The leagues could take on Northern and Southern divisions. So there could be a northeast division, southeast, north central, south central, northwest and southwest. The Rangers and Astros could be part of the south central division along with Cincinnati, Kansas City, St. Louis and Cleveland.

How much more fun would it be to see a possible Rangers/Cardinals or Rangers/Reds series every year. They'd be much easier to travel to and their all in the same time zone.

I'm well aware that it will never actually happen but one can always dream.

Hou vs Tex games are always fun to go to, but they lack that true rivalry atmosphere. its always like an exhibition game. move astros in division, add them a DH to help their team improve, and it could become a new big rivalry in baseball. itll never be sox yanks or cards reds, but it could inject another must watch rivalry baseball sorely needs. if done right though

I hate to say it but the other thing that needs to be done when the labor deal is up in December is install a hard cap. If the Union won't go for it they need to break the Union. 125 Million is enough for salary. Teams like the Yankees feed off the smaller market teams. I say this fully believing that if the Rangers play their cards right they can be one of the more profitable teams. They need a competitive run like Mavericks have had and probably a face lift to the BPIA to get revenues over 250. They probably also need to either oust Hicks from parking or just move the BPIA to downtown Dallas (won't happen). As far as changing up the divisions that is not something I can speak on but it does sound silly to have uneven numbers in the divisions.

Please, PLEASE, PLEASE!!! bring the Astros to the AL West. I live an hour from Houston and 4 from DFW, so this would mean I could see Texas play a LOT more often. And for the forseeable future, this would mean a lot of easy wins as Texas owns Houston.

Astros fans should be quaking to hear this.

The "you can't have interleague every day" argument is retarded.

At this point, does it really even register when the Rangers play interleague? Sure, you took notice when they played Philly and take notice when they play the Astros, but those are for reasons that have nothing to do with their league affiliation.

If the Rangers hosted the Brewers on Opening Day, is it any different than if the Royals were in town?

Expand! Go to 32 and split into 16 team leagues....break it up like NFL (4 teams in 4 divisions) and do schedule same way (each division plays one division from other league).

First, there is no way the league is expanding to 32 teams anytime soon - retraction to 28 will happen before expansion to 32.

Second, the 15/15 split is not a big deal to the players or the teams or it wouldn't even be on the table. What do they care if one game a day is interleague? The only time it would even be noticed is at the end of the season in a tight race.

Third, baseball should do away with divisions and just have the two 15 team leagues. It's silly that teams like Toronto, Tampa and Baltimore are more or less stuck each and every year. I have no problem with three teams from the same division making the playoffs - the best teams should be in regardless.

Gotta say, baseball is pretty damn brilliant to "leak" this idea about realignment because now all us lowly internet clowns are talking about moving the stupid Astros to the AL rather than the fact they are trying to sneak another Wild Card team into the playoffs.

They knew we wouldn't like the extra Wild Card team (because 162 games is plenty to determine who the best teams are - I'm still not happy with the current Wild Card setup), so they came up with this realignment "leak" a week later to cover that story. Now we are just accepting the extra Wild Card team as part of the setup!

This whole idea is retarded ... no way will HOU accept moving to the AL. Bunch of NY media idiots who think the Delaware Water Gap is "out west".

I can't wait for those August games with 7th place on the line ... woa! Will pack in the fans that weekend!

For those of us who grew up back in the days of two eight team leagues ... this is stupid.

Damn you are old father time!

I'm not sure I like the idea either. We should keep the divisions and just even stuff out. The problem is that it isn't easy to rearrange the teams in such a way so that someone doesn't have to suffer a lot with games that start at a two hour time difference unless you want to put teams that are in the same market in the same division which I don't think is a good idea.

For example, if you took Arizona, Colorado, Texas, and Houston you could have a AL West with no more than a one hour time difference, but then you would have an NL West with Oakland, San Fran, San Diego, both LA teams, and Seattle.

I don't see the point of moving Houston just to even the numbers either because then you have two teams who have to suffer the horrible two hour time difference brought on by having three division rivals on the west coast. Everything works pefectly right now for everyone else but the Rangers who are the ONLY team with this sort of scheduling disadvantage. Furthermore, when the West Coast teams come to Texas or go west they benefit because it is as if they are playing earlier in the day according to their body clock while the Rangers are starting at 9PM on their body clock when they go West.

The whole thing is a shit show, and I don't see any easy solutions unless of course you wanted to reshuffle the deck and you were willing to see two teams form the same market in the same division. I think this might be why people are talking about this freaky system with no divisions. I don't like it at all if not least and perhaps arbitrarily because Baseball is an inherently traditional game.

We need to wait 100 more damn years or so before making any more freaky realignment changes.

I don't see any easy solutions though to the Rangers misfortunes with the scheduling.

My best solution is to take CO or Arizona and put them in the AL West and then take Texas and put them in the AL Central. Then you have 6 teams in each central division, 4 in each western division, and 5 in each eastern division. That would solve all of the scheduling problems with uniform divisional time zones except for the one hour difference between the Pacific Coast time and Mountain time in the Western divisions, but I don't see that as a big deal.

Anyways, basically I've got nothing because no one wants two top heavy centrals and two light westerns.

I think there's going to be a change because of the Ranger problem, I just hope they don't go with some cookey no division framework.

Jimmy Wrench I think you are right.

A SECOND WILD CARD IS RETARDED, that is what we should be raising hell about.

Joe,

Arizona would actually be an ideal candidate to move to the AL West because in the summer they are on West Coast time already. The entire state doesn't recognize daylight savings time so during the winter they are one hour behind us and two during the summer.

Joe... Phoenix is in the Mountain Time Zone but Arizona does not have Daylight Savings Time ... so for the entirety of the MLB season it is 2 hours behind cities in the Central Time Zone ... just like cities in the Pacific Time Zone.

Other ways of reallignment would be ... two 15 team leagues w/5 team divisions in NL and AL East ... a 6 team ALCentral ... and a 4 team AL West

AL East: TOR, BOS, NYY, BAL, TBR
AL Central: MIN, CHW, DET, CLE, KCR, TEX
AL West: OAK, SEA, LAA, Portland or Las Vegas (ex-Florida)

NL East: NYM, PHL, WAS, ATL, PIT
NL Central: CIN, CHC, MIL, HOU, STL
NL West: LAD, SFG, COL, AZD, SDP

Interleague play would run the entire season ... and interleague schedule rotation would pair a NL division against an AL division. One team in the AL Central would in rotation play the AL West interleague schedule to keep interleague play against the same competition for all teams in the same division (except the one AL Central team playing interleague play with the AL West).

I think they should just move the Brewers back to the AL, and go with single table. Divisions blow.

I wish it was just league wide standings, no interleague and only the champions go to postseason, which is the World Series. But seeing how parity and mediocrity make casual fans happy and therefore more money, it will never go back to 1968.

Yea ... they will jump all over that. Post season consisting of maybe 7 game WS between 2 league winners.

You might as well have proposed adopting 154-game season too.

The point missed is that you don't need a long drawn out postseason because the meaningful games are not bottled into a one month digestible format, the whole season is the meaningful event.

So seeing competition in two races ... and then a 7 game post season is more thrilling than seeing 6 races and three rounds of post season?

Not sure how compelling it is going to be to want to drive out to RBIA in mid August to watch #5 in the AL host #7.

Owners want dates in their park ... the business is revenue from TV revenues, ticket sales and concession sales. The games and the races are just what attract attendance in person or on TV in order to sell stuff. The more chances to sell stuff the better. It is business.

The only worthful dialog here is how TEX can move itself out of a crummy division of teams in the Pacific Time Zone in order to improve TV ratings and advertising rates.