Posted By:
David SmithHere is what I would do:
1) Contract the Florida Marlins and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. People go to Florida in the Summer for everything BUT baseball. I would add two players to the remaining teams' rosters for three years. I would then take all of the contracted teams players and have a Draft. The key feature being that once a team drafts a player, they have to keep him until his contract expires. They can not get rid of him FOR ANY REASON!!! This would keep a team like the Royals from drafting a player and then trading him to the Yankees or Red Sox.
2) In Inter League play, instead of Division playing Division, I would have the teams play against each other based on their record the prior season. This way the Yankees and Red Sox don't get to feast on both the Devil Rays and Pirates every year. Maybe this way, an above average team would make the Play-Offs when otherwise they wouldn't.
3) Make a rule that ESPN CAN NOT televise ANY Yankees, Red Sox or Mets games until after the All-Star break. There are more teams in MLB than just these three but if one is just looking at ESPN coverage EVERY year, you wouldn't be able to notice it.
How many casual fans know that a player from Pittsburgh (Sanchez?) won the NL Batting Title last year?? Maybe if more Pirates games were televised on ESPN, people would know and they could make a more informed decision about All-Star voting instead of just picking the most well-known players. This DOES have an effect on the game because home field advantage in the World Series is determined by which team (NL or AL) wins the All-Star game.
Also, the Detroit Tigers went to the World Series but I don't think any of their games were televised on ESPN until WELL after the All-Star break. Disgraceful.