So I’ve accepted the position as Commissioner of Major League Baseball (MLB), as well as the position of President of the International Baseball Federation (IBAF). Being able to run both organizations will allow for a much smoother running of the baseball community and global growth of the game.
Let’s look first at a couple of changes I’ll introduce as commissioner of MLB.
First (Expansion), we’re going to add 2 teams to the major leagues, allowing both leagues to have 16 teams and bringing things back into balance. We will use a structure similar to the NFL.
NL West: San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Colorado
NL North: St. Louis, Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati, Milwaukee
NL South: Arizona, Atlanta, Florida, Houston (yes, they’re returning to the NL)
NL East: New York Mets, Philadelphia, Washington, Pittsburgh
AL West: Oakland, Seattle, Anaheim (that’s where it plays), Portland(expansion*)
AL North: Chicago White Sox, Cleveland, Detroit, Minnesota
AL South: Texas, Kansas City, Tampa Bay, New Orleans(expansion*)
AL East: NY Yankees, Boston, Baltimore, Toronto
*this is my first inclination as to where expansion should probably go, it doesn’t necessarily have to be the case – in general, we’re looking for some western site and some southern site. Alternate Western sites: Vancouver, Edmonton, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Honolulu, Boise. Alternate Southern sites: Jacksonville, Louisville, Nashville, Memphis, Charlotte, Oklahoma City.
Under this current structure, 6 teams in the AL and NL each shall make the playoffs. The top two teams by record shall have a first-round bye, and each wildcard will play one of the other division winners in a best-of-three playoff, with game 1 at the wildcard site and games 2 and 3 being played at the division winner’s site, with no dedicated travel day between sites. Only second-place teams may be wildcards.
This alignment is useful to contain interleague play to the middle of the season. Each team will play each of their division rivals 18 times, each league opponent 6 times, the same division as your league opponents (ie. AL West vs. NL West) 6 times, and a different division’s opponents (rotating each year) 3 times, for a total of 162 games [(3*18)+(12*6)+(4*6)+(4*3)]
Over the course of some 25 years, we will implement a plan to gradually expand MLB to 40 sites throughout the United States and Canada, with 5 teams in each division. When we are at 36 teams, 18 per league, we’ll expand the playoffs to 8 teams per league, at which time third-place teams will be eligible for wildcard positions and the first round shall become a 5-game series with no byes.
Second, (ownership and player salaries) (partial from italyprof), all teams will be jointly purchased by MLB and the municipality for which the team represents. The league and city will work together to maintain an atmosphere of competitiveness and benefit to the cities. If a city determines that it is no longer able to maintain an MLB franchise, then it should look to sell its half of the team back to MLB, which will flip that to a new city for the team to move to as soon as possible. A city may also diversify the holdings to support the entire region, and is encouraged but not required to do so, as such authorities are difficult to maintain and define.
As such, cities ultimately maintain one-half of the revenue from all local contracts, ticket sales, and other purchases. All national contracts are fully engaged by MLB, and as national contracts tend to be the bulk of the revenue, in practice we will result in many times having similar revenue streams. If a team has a revenue stream significantly higher than the others, ultimately half will go to the League and half will be profit for the city, as the salary caps will be set so that most teams are capable of hitting it. MLB will subsidize teams that are not capable of hitting it. No player may earn more than 1/10 of the salary cap, and all players that play in the majors must earn at least 1/200 of the cap on a pro-rated basis for the number of days on an active MLB roster. If a team uses more than 40 players in a season, they may request cap extensions by the amount needed to spend on each additional player. Teams will be required to spend at least 95% of the cap. Failure to do so will result in all players receiving an equal bonus to their salaries equal to that necessary to have that team reach 95%. No other significant changes will be made to the player earnings structure at the MLB level.
(minor league stuff) All players with minor league contracts will earn a flat rate as dictated by the collective revenue streams of all minor league teams at their level and grade. The minor league system will look similar to the major league system in terms of ownership structure, except MiLB will move around money as needed to ensure all players are earning more or less the same at their level and grade. (Grade: a system used to define the value of a player to his team. This grade is defined by the minor league team’s manager, and must give out seven grade ones, ten grade twos, and eight grade threes. Players with major league contracts fill from grade three, as even though they are technically going to earn more than grade one players, they are paid by the MLB team, not the MiLB team.) Salary structure will vary by revenue, but AAA-1 > AAA-2 > AAA-3 > AA-1 > etc. Injured minor leaguers retain their last grade though they are not using the grade slot from their club. There are no minor league signing bonuses, although contracts may specify grade guarantees for specific results, as long as the team is capable of collectively meeting those guarantees no matter how a team performs.
The Mexican League is kicked out of Minor League Baseball, as are all leagues involving teams outside the US and Canada (or, they must move the teams back into those countries.) The Mexican League needs the freedom to be able to build its caliber, as does the international world in general. This is a move encouraged by IBAF.
Amateur signing bonuses – Through the draft, signing bonuses are set by the round, and are the same for all teams in that round. For international AFAs, the current system will be upheld, except we will not allow teams to go more than ten percent over the international signing bonus cap at all.
Third, with normalized relations with Cuba, players now have the ability to transfer between the SNC and MLB. To protect the Cuban league while still allowing transition, we will introduce a posting system similar to the Japanese and Korean leagues. This will take Cuba largely out of amateur international signings, although if the player is around 18 it will still apply.
Fourth, a few minor gameplay tweaks.
1) A player that enters the game during a defensive inning (that is, after the first pitch of the defensive inning has been thrown) may not leave the game during that same inning unless: a) the player is injured, in which case they may not participate in the next scheduled contest, or b) the player is a pitcher and the offense has scored at least 2 runs since the pitcher began pitching. Intent: limiting endless one-batter pitching changes, while still allowing strategic decisions and the removal of completely ineffective arms.
2) MLB will adopt the international extra-inning rule. After twelve innings, the last two batters in the batting order shall occupy first and second base to start the inning. Intent: While 16+ inning games sound thrilling to some, in reality most people get tired of them, both player and fan alike, and no one truly wants to stick around to 1AM. You might be saying “yeah, I’m having a great time here”, but we both know you’re thinking “Great Bambino why won’t this game end already?”
3) The flow of the game will not be stopped for potential instant replay issues. If the umpire is ready to begin play and a manager hasn’t asked for a replay yet, he’s waited too long. A manager leaving the dugout has forfeited his opportunity to replay; there will be a signal that can trigger it from the dugout (if all else fails, shout REPLAY from it). Players cannot deliberately delay this, as the twenty second pitch clock will be fully enforced. All calls except balls and strikes can be reviewed as long as the result of the review would not be a live ball.
4) An electronic strike zone will be used at all major league sites. No more of this crap where every umpire’s zone is 3 inches apart from every other’s. If the system breaks during the game, an umpire can make the calls as necessary while waiting for the system to repair, if such repair is possible without delaying the game. Once the system is repaired, the umpire will continue to make calls (or will briefly pause, then resume) so that he has called balls and strikes for the same number of batters for both teams, to prevent a system break from resulting in an unfair advantage. Minor league sites shall be dependent on available funding, but all sites for an entire league (or none) must use the system. MLB shall endeavor to assist in the implementation of these systems when feasible. Systems will be continually assessed for cost-effectiveness. (We will not fall into the same pit that FIFA did, of being locked into a single system that is ridiculously expensive (in their case, for goal-line tech).)
5) A team may only have 25 players active for any individual contest. Games in which more than 25 players are on the “active roster” (ie: during September roster expansion) may still only place 25 players on the lineup card for that game, they simply have more freedom to change the list of 25 on a game-to-game basis.
6) Stolen from pinotfan: No more body armor without legitimate injuries, defensive indifference calls (Why would you be indifferent to a free chance to make an out on the basepaths? As a manager, anyone that’s not the tying run that is running in the 9th is getting screamed at – nothing to gain, everything to lose, once catchers realize this and start throwing. My catcher throws every time even if 1% chance to get – again, nothing to lose), or God Bless America.
7) No more fielder’s choice calls that don’t result in an out. Simplify the scoring; results are either outs or hits. Fielder’s choice is a type of out. If no one was called out that’s either a hit or an error, end of discussion. Throwing to the wrong base is probably an error, unless you couldn’t have gotten the batter out, in which case the result is a hit.
Lastly, a fund will be created to internationally grow the game and attempt to create competitive baseball throughout the world. This fund will be managed by IBAF and explained in part two (directly below).
That’s all that will immediately, directly impact MLB. Of course I’m also president of IBAF. Let’s get started.
A big portion of the profit that MLB produces is going to straight to IBAF to build the game globally. So we’ll get most of our funding from that.
Also, national federations are going to get much stronger. Overall, the goal is to create an IBAF that is as strong, all-encompassing, and profitable as FIFA, without the corruption and asinine stupidity. That’s a long way off, but we’ll take some baby steps.
First, we’ll establish the World Baseball Classic as a major tournament, every 4 years in March. The key point we’re going to make here is that February and March is going to be an international window in which teams will be obligated to permit their players to play on national teams without prejudice. Of course, players still have the freedom to choose whether to play, but players will be earning significant bonuses for playing, especially in the major tournaments. Marketing for these tournaments will be competent and people will watch.
In the year prior to the WBC, continental-level tournaments will set qualification for all teams. If there are a lot of teams in an area, two years prior to the WBC may see lower-ranked teams play in pre-qualification events. All of these events will take place during the international window.
Second, let’s create a worldwide Tournament of Champions, for all championship clubs. This tournament will take place in late October and early November. (Phase One will actually run simultaneous with the end of the World Series, although it will generally be day games US time so as not to conflict with the World Series itself.)
Under the current formats, leagues that enter their champions in Phase One: Australian Baseball League, Mexican League, Chinese Professional Baseball League (Taiwan), European Champions League of Baseball. Phase One is a double-elimination tournament at a neutral site in which the top two teams qualify for Phase Two.
Phase Two, beginning a few days after the World Series, will consist of the two teams that qualify out of Phase One, plus the champions of the American League, National League, Nippon Professional Baseball, Korean Baseball Assocation, Serie Nacional de Cuba, and Carribean World Series. (Players that appear on both a Carribean or Cuban roster and an American or National league roster will have a choice to make.) This will be a double-elimination tournament to crown a single Global Champion.
As the games continue to grow and league parity begins to change, the format will be reassessed. More competitive leagues might move up in phase, new leagues that become competitive might be added to Phase One, or the entire format may need changing based on the needs of world baseball as it continues to grow.
Third, let’s actually grow the game internationally. Begin investing in baseball academies and local teams not with the sole intention of finding MLB talent, but, as the fund is an IBAF fund, with the intent of improving leagues worldwide. Some of the details of what we will do here are beyond the scope of this page, but the intent is for there to be many competitive leagues around the world. The intent will be to have significant presences with multiple competitive professional leagues on every inhabited continent. We will draw inspiration both from the new setup of MLB and from the styles of sports as played in the regions in question. A brief plan for many different regions is displayed.
Mexico and Central America: Continue to build the strength of the Mexican league through vigorous youth programs and marketing. Create a single Central American Baseball League to encompass the top level of baseball for all seven countries, and work primarily from the ground up to build it slowly.
South America: Create leagues in each of the ten major countries, if they do not already have a league. It is likely that many of these will have to start as amateur leagues while players continue to build. Have most players in amateur leagues have a goal first of getting to Venezuela, Colombia, or Brazil to play, then possibly to Mexico, then the Major Leagues. As baseball grows in interest, the leagues may eventually become professional. The key is simply to play ball and provide an alternative to soccer. Ultimately the individuals of the countries will determine the course of most nations here.
The Caribbean: Create single teams on many different Caribbean islands to form a semi-pro Caribbean-wide summer league. Include a couple of teams from Puerto Rico in this league to encourage competitiveness. Due to excessive discrimination occurring in the DR right now, they shall not be permitted into this league. Once the turmoil settles, Hispaniola-based expansion will be considered. Cuba shall continue to build its own league without regard to the rest of the Caribbean, although if the Caribbean-at-large manages to catch up to Cuba in terms of level of play, a unification attempt might be made.
Europe: Generate a series of regional/national leagues to build up the sport. Regional leagues will be prevalent in most of the continent to begin because baseball will not be significant enough to support an entire country worth of a high-level baseball league. As baseball continues to get better, the regional leagues may split. Champions of all leagues, and possibly other berths based on quality, shall also participate in European Champions League competition, leading to Phase One of the World TOC.
The Middle East and Africa: Create and utilize leagues in countries and groups of countries as deemed feasible. Due to hostile climates, regional instability, and economic troubles, it is recognized that baseball – a sport that is not cheap to get into – may have difficulties. Slow building is key. It might be that expanding international play to the entire year in these areas might also be intelligent.
South Asia: Draw on the parallels to cricket, and recruit players that are struggling to make their leagues. The potential for money-making in cricket is high enough, and the skill set is similar enough, that any progress in here is likely to be painful. As such, this is not really a priority.
Southeast Asia: Build a league to stretch across Southeast Asia, drawing heavily on the already existing Thai federation. Build from the ground in many countries with the intent of creating a competitive league.
East Asia and the Pacific: Many places in this region already have high quality baseball, or at least some presence – continue to build those leagues in their quality, both the already excellent leagues of South Korea and Japan, and the rather lower level leagues of China, Australia, and the Philippines. Expand the Australian league to cover New Zealand and have more teams in general as feasible.
In general, we would like each of these areas, within reason, to have their own championship (or be part of a larger area that has a championship) that would eventually feed into the world’s TOC. (MLB teams will likely always qualify directly for that world TOC.)
There is actually one other fairly major thing I would like to do, but I’m not sure which category it goes under (I suppose both, ultimately), and I think there’s actually quite enough to digest here. So that might be a later post.