Why astros moving to al

Players like Carlos Lee are allowed to remain because of the possibility of the DH. However, we have to be sensible about this. Lee will be gone by the time the Astros move to the American League if they do at all , but there are always logjams somewhere on the diamond. Some teams don't employ a full-time DH at all. They rotate players in and out of the position. The Astros are beginning to stockpile prospects and having the DH gives them flexibility when two or more players can play the same position.

At this point, the DH would not be an advantage for the Astros, but that can change quickly. When you look at the future you see a lot more depth and the DH is depth's best friend. Since the Astros are launching their own network, having an opportunity to televise high profile series as many as eight series in all would bring in extra advertising revenue.

This doesn't even talk about the extra attendance that will come in as many as twelve home games against the two clubs every year. If we conservatively assume that they draw 5, additional fans in those games and that ticket prices are doubled as they were last time , it would be like an extra 10, fans in 12 games. Folks, that's a lot of extra coin.

Of course, this only works under certain scenarios, but at the very worst they would each come into town once a year.

The two-hour time differential is a killer for television. The Astros are starting their own network, so this is a huge consideration. Ratings are way down for west coast games. Of course, in most seasons, that amounts to only a few series a year. Under the unbalanced schedule, you play 18 games within the division and six games outside of the division.

So, for the west coast teams only three in the NL West that amounts to nine games. In the new AL West that would become 27 games. One possible scenario has the leagues disbanding the divisions and simply taking the top six teams as playoff teams.

First they were in the unitary National League then, with the start of divisional play in , they joined the NL West. Finally, realignment came in , putting them in the NL Central. Leagues had to be even, of course, because interleague play had not yet begun. That required some shifting to keep from having an odd number of teams in each league.

This created a new problem: a National League Central division with six teams and an American League West with only four teams. Issues of unfairness emerged and, after several years during which fans became used to interleague play, which began in , Major League Baseball thought it best that they move to two team leagues, requiring someone to leave the NL and join the AL. The Astros were chosen for a couple of reasons.

One reason was that, if they were to join the AL West, a natural rivalry would be created with their fellow Texas team, the Rangers. Another reason was practical: the Astros were up for sale and, since a Major League Baseball needed an owner to agree to move his team; and b any prospective new owner basically had to bend over backwards to please Major League Baseball in order to be allowed into the club, the conditions were ripe for a deal.

Crane also, correctly, realized that Major League Baseball might pay him for his trouble if he held out some. If they move to the American League, the fanbase is going to get really mad. Again, it all comes down to history. The Brewers are historically an AL team and therefore should be the team moving to that league.

But unfortunately for Astros fans, Jim Crane didn't buy the Brewers. This is his decision, and it is officially going to happen. Major League Baseball is a league with storied traditions. Now, with this move, one of those traditions is ending.