Subj : Re: Astros
To   : Grease
From : Digital Man
Date : Thu Oct 24 2019 12:42 pm

  Re: Re: Astros
  By: Grease to Dumas Walker on Thu Oct 24 2019 10:34 am

 > -=> Dumas Walker wrote to ALL <=-
 >
 >  DW> I have not been following baseball real close for a few seasons, but
 >  DW> how was it decided that the Astros would move to the AL?  Was it so
 >  DW> they could play the Rangers more often?
 >
 > That was part of it. They wanted to balance teams overall in MLB. Also
 > to creaste more geographic rivalries.

Prior to the last MLB realignment, there were 4 teams in the AL west (14 teams total) and 6 teams in NL central (16 teams total). Having an even number of teams in each league made sense when they never played against each other during the regular season, but with inter-league play, it made more sense to have the same number of teams in each league (15, an odd number) which meant that ever day, there had to be at least one inter-league game.

So the Astros were picked (or volunteered?) to move from the NL central to the AL west which coincided with a rebranding of the team. It certainly made more sense for a Texas team to be in a "western" division, regardless of league. And the move to the AL has been good for the team, it appears (and bad for the Angels). The Astros have been very successful since 2015 and I don't think there are any regrets regarding the league-move.

                                            digital man

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