Cool, we'll go with option 1.

We don't necessarily have to this season but I think it would be worth considering just doing random divisions at some point instead of doing some kind of IRL alignment. The alignment does add a little bit of flavor but at the end of the day it's honestly just arbitrary, it's not like there are some historical rivalries that are developed by the teams or anything since owners are always rotating, very rarely is there a season without a rogue team in a division, and it adds a level of gamesmanship in franchise selection that some owners take advantage of that I think is against the spirit of why I enjoy this theme/group of owners.

Randomized divisions would also breathe life into franchises that are otherwise caught in divisions with teams that are historically far superior.

I would support random divisions, or even something like "keep AL teams in the AL and NL in the NL but otherwise randomize".

Posted by captmurphy on 7/16/2020 2:10:00 PM (view original):
Randomized divisions would also breathe life into franchises that are otherwise caught in divisions with teams that are historically far superior.

What are you talking about, I bet on the Marlins and the Rangers to win their respective divisions every season!

Randomizing would allow for some interesting rivalries to start, and would also eliminate some of the gamesmanship involved with franchise selection.

Randomized divisions would make the "steal from a division mate" very difficult which does affect one's strategy. If people want to move to something like that, I would say to randomize owners first then (prior to franchise selection).

[Edit] Another option would be to align divisions based on franchise selection spot in some manner (ex. 1-4 go into NL East)

Posted by sakensei on 7/16/2020 2:55:00 PM (view original):
Randomizing would allow for some interesting rivalries to start, and would also eliminate some of the gamesmanship involved with franchise selection.

How do get a rivalry started when you don't know who's going to be in your division (or your league for that matter). If would be different if we were "Fixed" in our divisions always (i.e. I'm in the AL East regardless of which franchise I've selected).

I suggested years ago to place into divisions based on winning %. Can you imagine Astros, A's, Yanks, Dodgers all in the same division. I prefer this method over randomizing. Just keep status quo.

Posted by ff09 on 7/16/2020 3:00:00 PM (view original):
I suggested years ago to place into divisions based on winning %. Can you imagine Astros, A's, Yanks, Dodgers all in the same division. I prefer this method over randomizing. Just keep status quo.

This would likely keep the divisions pretty static as they are now (since most teams aren't going to move radically season to season) so other than making it highly likely the WCs come from the "better" divisions and having lopsided intra-league games (heavily weighted to the bottom). AL West would be a bloodbath (assuming the bottom 4 are assigned there).

Posted by buddhagamer on 7/16/2020 3:01:00 PM (view original):
Randomized divisions would make the "steal from a division mate" very difficult which does affect one's strategy. If people want to move to something like that, I would say to randomize owners first then (prior to franchise selection).

[Edit] Another option would be to align divisions based on franchise selection spot in some manner (ex. 1-4 go into NL East)

I'm confused. I thought the proposal would be people select their franchises and then the divisions would be randomized then you'd draft your players. So you could still steal from rivals?

Posted by pumpkinmcp on 7/16/2020 3:14:00 PM (view original):

Posted by buddhagamer on 7/16/2020 3:01:00 PM (view original):
Randomized divisions would make the "steal from a division mate" very difficult which does affect one's strategy. If people want to move to something like that, I would say to randomize owners first then (prior to franchise selection).

[Edit] Another option would be to align divisions based on franchise selection spot in some manner (ex. 1-4 go into NL East)

I'm confused. I thought the proposal would be people select their franchises and then the divisions would be randomized then you'd draft your players. So you could still steal from rivals?

Well that would be one way to do it (but would require Sin to do more work getting someone not in the league to do the random.org thing). It wasn't clear if it was going to be that, or just do random alignment like any other theme league which is done just prior to the league schedule being generated.

It would be way easier just to do it based on draft position. I don't know about how "fair" it would be to do it truly randomly as you might get an instance where Astros are lumped in with Rays, White Sox, and Twins for example. At least picking division *prior* to franchise might influence what you want to pick (i.e. if I'm going to be stuck in a division with rbow/schwarze/alleyviper, I might not want to play the Rays).

I don't steal from a rival unless it's a tossup. Otherwise you're not taking the best player so you can weaken one rival and both of you lose ground against every remaining team in the league.

A big reason I want to move away from fixed divisions is the ability to cherry-pick a division once they start to fill up, especially because we tend to use the same rules in deciding who leaves the division. I think locking the divisions prior to picking teams just makes a similar problem worse.

I really appreciated sin's optimism in his sitemail about having the keepers up this afternoon.