Natties establish Southeast lineal championship

The Washington Nationals consolidated all the shares of the Southeast Conference lineal championship in late August 2019. At the end of 2019, and entering 2021, that championship belongs to the Atlanta Braves.

The Atlanta Braves ended the 2019 season with the Southeastern lineal championship, which had been consolidated at the end of August. The Braves will take the title into the 2021 season.

A mass of the play-down title shares, five of the seven, congealed in Cincinnati May 27-29, when the Reds and the Pittsburgh Pirates split a four-game series. The Reds, who entered the series with three shares, prevailed in the total runs tiebreaker (26-22), thus claiming the two shares entered by the Pirates.

By then, Tampa Bay had the other two shares, which they guarded until losing by runs in a four-game split on the road against Baltimore August 22-25. In the meanwhile, the five shares belonging to the Reds were transferred to the Washington Nationals, then to the Braves, then back to the Nationals, then Atlanta again, once more to the Reds and Washington in mid-August.

When the Nationals with five shares met the Orioles with the other two (in Washington, Aug. 27-28), a two-game split ensued. The Natties won the total runs tiebreaker, 8-6, and consolidated the championship.

Yanks prevail with interleague baseball traveler for 2019

The New York Yankees had only one shot at the interleague baseball traveling championship in 2019, and did more with that than the Arizona Diamondbacks did in several. The Yankees won the bid for the Elite League, not that they needed it.

Like a good Gleyber, Torres is there — John Sterling (Keith Allison/Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license). 

The 2019 traveling championship across big league baseball went into the books at the end of the regular season with the Chicago White Sox in possession, the Arizona Diamondbacks on top of the pile in games of title and the New York Yankees as the top club across the competition.

The Yankees won on criteria established here in 2018 for determining which clubs should receive the traveling championship bids to the next year's Elite Division. In the old days, we'd just make a valedictory announcement naming a Team of the Year based on the data and the general drift of the season, not unlike how we chose the national champion in college football not so long ago. But the establishment of the Elite Division forced some tighter focus, so we worked up criteria.                                                                                                                                                   

The criteria should naturally demonstrate how we value performance with the traveling championship. It would seem, for example, that simply having the championship for the most games might be sufficient. But what we really value is being good at playing for the championship (that is, winning it) and being good at defending it. Could it be that the club with the most games of championship is not the best at winning it and defending it?

Well, look at our standings. The Diamondbacks are way ahead of everyone else with 28 games holding the title. But the Diamondbacks actually were a middling performer with the traveling title on the line. 

They were reasonably good at winning it, succeeding in four out of five challenges. But their overall record in games for the traveling title is less than stellar, 21-23. They only defended the championship on five of nine occasions. And three of their successful defenses were absolutely the weakest kind. In each of those cases, the series ended in a draw, the other team scored more runs and the DBacks held it because that's how it works with the interleague championship. You have to beat the champion. In the traveling title across either of the leagues, the run totals would have broken these ties away from the Diamondbacks.

Arizona won its second traveling title of the season May 3-5, taking two of three from the Colorado Rockies in Denver, then lost it right away by dropping two of three to the Tampa Bay Rays in St. Petersburg. Next, the Yankees dropped in on Tampa Bay and won two of three, becoming the new champions.

From there, the Yankees tore it up with six defenses, finally losing two of three to the Toronto Blue Jays in Toronto June 4-6. The Yankees never saw another chance at the traveling title. But their output already was 21 games of title, six defenses in seven attempts and a 17-7 record. At that point, the Yankees were well ahead in the main categories. Arizona was 9-9 with two titles, 12 games and only two defenses in four attempts.

The Diamondbacks continued accumulating, but all of it put together didn't seem to match what the Yankees did with just that one turn, and the criteria supports that. Of course, the criteria worked out great for the Diamondbacks in 2018, as it put them ahead of a 48-game season by the Dodgers in the National League traveler and kept the Dodgers out of the Elite Division. This time, the criteria turned back the Diamondbacks.

The criteria before the criteria are the standards for being included in the "stat-off," which are one title with six defenses or at least two titles with three defenses. Only the Yankees and the Diamondbacks made the standard. 

The Cincinnati Reds fell one defense short of six in mid-August, losing to the Washington Nationals. Then the Nationals came through with five defenses before losing to the New York Mets in early September. The Dodgers, Atlanta Braves, Philadelphia Phillies and San Diego Padres each won two titles, but they totaled two defenses between them.

So, here are the criteria, and here is how the two eligible clubs, the Diamondbacks and Yankees, measured up to them.

1. Most championships (Arizona 4, New York 1).

2. Most title defenses per championship (New York 6, Arizona 1.25).

3. Best winning percentage in traveling championship games (New York .708, Arizona .477).

4. Most victories per time playing for the championship (New York 2.13, Arizona 1.5).

5. Most games as champion per time playing for the championship (New York 2.63, Arizona 2).

6. Fewest failed challenges (New York 0, Arizona 1).

7. Head-to-head record in traveling championship games (No head-to-head).

The last of those goes to neither side, and the Yankees carry five of the other six. So, the Yankees get the bid here, but they don't really need it. At this point, they are almost certain to win this year's Elite Division and take the first bid next year as the defending champion. Moreover, there is all but no chance that the Yankees will fall from the top half of the First Division, and they would be in that way.

However, the result is fatal, in this limited sense, to the Diamondbacks, who had no other chance of returning to the Elite Division. The Diamondbacks were the only club out of the top eight in this year's Elite Division to miss the Major League playoffs, and they'll finish in second place if the Yankees go all the way. In that event, they would finish second to the Yankees by much more than in the traveling championship. 

But it's still second place, and that's the outside looking in. 

Cards capture 2018 interleague travel title with torrid finish

The St. Louis Cardinals, who once could not lose the traveling championship among the National League clubs, finally have an undisputed crown across the big leagues after a strong finish to their 2018 season.

The St. Louis Cardinals dominated the early years of the National League traveling championship, topping the standings in each of its first five seasons. But their laurels in the traveling title across all of baseball have been limited to a disputed decision over the Boston Red Sox in 2013.

The Cardinals finally won the big league traveler, decisively, in 2018, with a title run that consumed all of August. The Cards knocked the Cincinnati Reds off the top position long before Cincinnati thwarted their ninth defense attempt Aug. 31-Sept. 2 in St. Louis by winning two of three.

The Reds still could have caught the Cardinals with four or five defenses, but they couldn't even start the first one, losing a three-game sweep to the Pittsburgh Pirates Sept. 3-5 in Pittsburgh. The Cardinals finished with 32 games of title defense, compared with 20 for the Reds. The Cardinals were 28-15 in title games, well ahead of the second-place Reds at 15-10.

The title had spent all but 10 days in the American League when the Reds put a two-game sweep on the Detroit Tigers in Cincinnati June 19-20. The Reds succeeded with three title defenses before dropping two of three to the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field July 6-8.

Dodgers drop Cubs at NL traveler finish

The Chicago Cubs stormed through September so fiercely that they went to October with a chance to for Team of the Year in the National League traveling championship. But the Dodgers put a stop to that in the National League Championship Series.

The Chicago Cubs turned a season nowhere near the 2017 National League (NL) traveling championship into a photo finish at the end. But they fell short in their bid to wrest the season title from the Dodgers during the NL Championship Series (NLCS).

The final numbers show the Cubs with 27 games of title defense, compared with 23 for the Dodgers. That puts the Cubs on top of the final standings, but does it make them Team of the Year?

The Cubs won the title twice and defended it five times in seven tries. But the Dodgers won four championships, even though they managed only four defenses in seven tries. The Dodgers played for the title 12 times, fashioning a 27-13 record in those games, while the Cubs were 22-17 in their 11 tries for the championship.

Most of all, though, in the end, when season honors were on the line, the Dodgers thumped the Cubs in a five-game NLCS. So, even though the Cubs are on top of the standings, the Dodgers have most else in their favor, including the prize at the end of the season. The Dodgers are Team of the Year.

But the Cubs were the better story. As the Cubs began a three-game series at Wrigley Field against the New York Mets on Sept. 12, they were a sorry 4-8 in games for the NL traveler, including one title with no defenses, as well as two other failed attempts at the crown.

The Cubs then went streaking, sweeping the Mets, then the St. Louis Cardinals at home, winning three out of four on the road against the Milwaukee Brewers, then winning three of four in St. Louis. Back home to end the regular season, the Cubs beat the Cincinnati Reds two out of three.

Coincidentally, the Cubs held a mere two-game lead in the NL Central as the Sept. 12 games began, so their rally to the end conferred the additional benefit of a division title, which they won by six games. From Sept. 12 to the end of the regular season, the Cubs were 14-3 with five series victories.  

The Cubs took the prize through the NL Division Series (NLDS), defeating the Washington Nationals in five games. But the Dodgers, taking the Cubs down so decisively with four wins in a five-game NLCS, rightly claimed the title at the end.

Any way we slice it, Astros are dominating

Our way of keeping baseball standings has at least one thing in common with the official way: The Houston Astros are ahead, lopsidedly ahead, in every one of their divisions.

George Springer has five homers and 10 RBI on the Houston Astros' present road trip (Keith Allison/Creative Commons Attributon-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license).

The knock against the Houston Astros all year is that they haven't played any good teams. Which raises the question: What counts for a good team in the American League, besides the Astros?

The New York Yankees, you say. They lead the American League East. The Astros beat them three out of four at Yankee Stadium last month.

Who else? Anybody?

The Astros haven't played the Boston Red Sox, who have the third best record in the AL, behind the Astros and the Yankees.

There is one club that has their number. The Cleveland Indians, defending the AL pennant, have beaten the Astros in five of six meetings this year. The Astros are 41-11 against everyone else.

In August, the Astros will play three at home against the Washington Nationals, who are trouncing the National League East. But that's really about it when it comes to "good teams" still to play the Astros. Maybe the Red Sox are that kind of team, but maybe they aren't. Same with the Baltimore Orioles.

When we consider that the Astros play in the American League West, which doesn't have another .500 team and probably won't have one before the end of the year, it's not hard to imagine a run at 116 wins, which the Seattle Mariners reached in 2001.

But it is a lot easier to imagine than it is to achieve. At this point in their 2001 season, the Mariners were 46-12, nearing the end of a 15-game winning streak. The Astros are merely on an 11-game winning streak.

The last seven of those wins have come on a road trip during which the club is batting .326 (87-for-267). Jose Altuve is batting .484 on the road trip (15-for-31) and he has reached base now in 32 consecutive road games, going back to last Sept. 19.

George Springer is batting .457 (16-for-35) on the road trip with five homers and 10 RBI. Catcher Brian McCann had a mere one hit on the road trip before Monday, when he smashed a two-run homer in the fourth inning to give the Astros a 4-2 lead against the Kansas City Royals.

Ever heard of Yuli Gurriel? He hit a back-breaking three-run homer in the top of the ninth Monday night against Kansas City relief ace Kelvin Herrera. The Royals still had a little of a chance before then, but that homer gave the Astros a 7-3 lead. On the road trip, Gurriel is eight-for-18 (.444) with two homers and eight RBI.

The point of all this is that the Astros have it working, not just in the official Major League standings, but just about however you want to slice it. 

The way we slice it around here, we've got the Astros in three divisions, and they are dominating all of them. Last we checked, that wasn't quite so. The Astros were tied with the Texas Rangers on top of the Southwest Conference, 2 1/2 games ahead of the Arizona Diamondbacks in the West League South and one game ahead of the Dodgers in the South League West. Now, the Astros have leads of two, six and 4 1/2 games, respectively, in those competitions.

Here's a look at the conferences.

We can see that the Colorado Rockies have cooled down a little bit in the Northwest, where the Chicago Cubs have moved to within two games. In the Southeast, the Cincinnati Reds have come down a little after losing two of three at home against the Atlanta Braves last weekend.

We know Brandon Phillips didn't especially hurt the Reds in that series, and we also know that Jose Peraza homered for the Reds. But we're still going to say that, unquestionably, the dumbest off-season move for any club this year was the Reds giving the Braves Phillips, plus $13 million of the $14 million needed to pay him.

The Reds had tried for years to dump the salary, but Phillip refused to be traded. So, the Reds dumped the player and ate the salary, which defeated the whole purpose of trading him. In return for Phillips (who is from Stone Mountain, GA), the Reds received Andrew McKirahan and Carlos Purtuondo. Okay.

The Reds saved $1 million in the exchange, but when you consider that whoever took his roster spot was going to cost at least the big league minimum of $535,000, the savings becomes $465,000. For $465,000, the Reds removed Brandon Phillips from their lineup.

In his place, they're trying Peraza. At 23, Peraza may become a good player. If you're saving $13 million by playing him instead of Phillips, this year is a good time to find out. If you're only saving $465,000, it isn't. With Phillips in their mix, the Reds might have a good enough club to reach 85 wins and shoot for the playoffs. With Peraza in his place, they probably don't.

The metrics say that Phillips has a 0.6 WAR and Peraza is at 0.3, according to the reckoning on baseball-reference.com. The same metrics say that Peraza is 0.3 WAR to the good offensively, even though his OPS-plus is 64, which is really a minus, The only good offensive numbers for Peraza are his stolen bases, 14 for 16. Offensively, he's Billy Hamilton Lite.

More likely, in the rattle and hum of the Cincinnati offense, the Reds would be a couple games better right now with Phillips in their lineup. That would have them breaking even. More to the point, this trade probably will end up costing them a good amount of money. 

Figuring that the average paid admission runs $100 through the cash register between the ticket, parking, concessions and souvenirs, the Reds would make up the $465,000 they saved by putting an extra 4,650 people in their stadium, total, through the course of the season. Does a playoff contenting Reds club with Phillips in their lineup lure an extra 4,650 people to Great American Ball Park during the course of the season? It probably lures 20 times than many. 

We'll never know, but it could be that this deal costs the Reds about $10 million in lost revenues, and a chance to contend. In these days when 85 wins makes a playoff contender, no club should ever give up on the season before it starts. The Reds did that with the Phillips trade, and it could cost them a lot more than they saved.

Hey, though, the Reds are still right there with the Washington Nationals on top of the East Division in the South League. In the West Division, no one is with the Astros.

In the West League, it appears that the Astros are packing that South Division away. But the North Division race between the Colorado Rockies and the Minnesota Twins remains interesting and tight. We keep waiting for the Chicago Cubs to make a move, but they've actually lost a game against the lead since we last checked.

In the East League, we see the Indians and the Detroit Tigers so far are lightly scheduled in that North Division. That will change. Meanwhile, the Baltimore Orioles are stinking up the South League just a little, but they've opened up a two-game lead on the Nationals in the South Division of the East League.

Among the Northeast Conference clubs, the Tigers have slight leads in the stand-alone competition and in the East League North. But the Yankees are two games ahead of the Indians and the Tigers in the North League East. In the North League West, the Rockies are four games in front of a big scrum in the middle.

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Jays quickly reclaim interleague traveler for AL

The Cincinnati Reds defended the interleague baseball traveling championship for only three days before losing it back to the American League. The Toronto Blue Jays took it from the Reds with a prodigious surge of home run power.

Russell Martin batted .500 with two homers as the Toronto Blue Jays reclaimed the interleague traveling baseball championship from the Cincinnati Reds with a three-game sweep (Keith Allison/Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license).

It was fun while it lasted, perhaps, but it didn't last for very long.

About as quickly as the Cincinnati Reds won the traveling championship across big league baseball, securing it for the National League for the first time since the middle of last August, they lost it.

The Reds did defend it once. After winning the title by capturing the only game of a rain-shortened one-game series against the Cleveland Indians on May 24, they defended it by winning two of three on the road against the Philadelphia Phillies.

But the schedule then sent the Reds to Toronto for three games to be played May 29-31. The Toronto Blue Jays were waiting with their home run bats. The Jays beat the Reds in all three games they played, outscoring their visitors by a combined 28-10. A 17-2 win in the opener had a lot to do with that total margin.

Here is the rendering from baseball-reference.com of how the Jays hit against Cincinnati. The Jays hit nine homers – two by Russell Martin and one each by seven other players. Ezequiel Carrera had six hits for Toronto in the series, followed by Martin, Kendrys Morales, Jose Bautista and Devon Travis with five each.

The Jays are at home against the New York Yankees this weekend, with the Yankees winning two of the first three games. The final game of the series is on Sunday. If the Jays win, they will gain a split in the series and maintain the interleague championship, which does not change hands in a split series.

Pray for rain: Reds take baseball traveler (finally) to NL

The Cincinnati Reds captured the continental baseball traveling championship in an unlikely way, by a combination of Billy Hamilton's mad dash from first base one day, and a rain out the next. Now, the Reds are locked in a split series with the Philadelphia Phillies with the rubber game coming on Sunday.

Billy Hamilton scored from first base on a ninth-inning single to left field on May 24, carrying the Cincinnati Reds to baseball's continental traveling championship (Public domain image).

It took a rain out, perhaps (we'll never really know), but the traveling championship in baseball finally crossed over to the National League last week for the first time since the middle of last August.

It happened when the Cincinnati Reds beat the Cleveland Indians in what ended up as a one-game series in Cleveland.

After the Indians won the championship last weekend against the Houston Astros by sweeping three on the road, the schedule set them up for their interleague series, two of them, against the Reds this week.

The first, a two-gamer in Cincinnati, went down in a split. Because the continental traveler doesn't change hands in a split series, the Indians kept it for the return series between the two clubs in Cleveland.

So, they commenced in Cleveland on May 24 for the second two-game series, and the Reds prevailed in the first game, 4-3, when Billy Hamilton scored the winning run all the way from first base on a single to left field in the ninth inning.

The next day, May 25, rain. The game was postponed until July. Of course, the traveling championship isn't postponed. It goes to whichever team leads the series, if that's the end of it.

So, the Reds finally took the traveling championship on their fourth try this season, and on the sixth try for the National League.

This weekend, the Reds took the prize to Philadelphia, where they have split their first two games with the Philadelphia Phillies entering the games of May 28. So, the continental traveler stays in the National League for at least a couple of more games, whichever teams leaves Citizen's Bank Park with it Sunday afternoon.

But maybe for not much longer than that. The Reds will go from Philadelphia to Toronto for three against the Toronto Blue Jays, an American League club. Could be that the AL will snatch it right back. Or maybe not. The Phillies will open a series on the road Monday against the Miami Marlins.

Tigers, Reds lead regional divisions in alternate scheme

Our regional leagues and conferences, which we propose in lieu of a radical baseball realignment that would obliterate the American and National Leagues in all but name, show some fascinating results. These aren't your father's baseball standings.

Alex Avila is batting .471 (eight-for-17) with two homers and 17 RBI in the Detroit Tigers' Northeast Conference games (GabboT/Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license).

We're looking at the Major League Baseball standings and ... try to keep your eyes open.

Over here, the Houston Astros lead the American League West by seven games. Over there, the Washington Nationals have a 7½-game lead on the Atlanta Braves in the National League East.

That's 7½ games. It's May 25. 

But, you say, look at the National League West. Torrid race there. The Dodgers, Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks all are really ripping it up with three of the seven best records in baseball. That should be a hot one. 

Except, it isn't a hot one because it doesn't really matter. Under the present playoff arrangements, all three would go to the postseason today, at no real great advantage for the division winner over one of the other two clubs. Those other two clubs would meet in a one-game playoff, one wins and the other loses, but the winner continues on about the same footing as the division champion.

It's the same problem every year. The lords keep fooling with stop watches and pitch clocks, which, at least, distract them from baseball-hating ideas like starting extra innings with a runner on second base or that ill-advised float from back when about making defensive shifts illegal. Meanwhile, one's loudest snore as a baseball fan issues from the broken connection between 162 games and the World Championship, along with insufferably boring playoff races that reduce us to seeing which clubs can nudge themselves to a couple more than 85 wins to nab that last wild card before outlasting better teams through the World Series.

When fans know that teams with brains angle to peak in October, it makes April and May feel inconsequential. With all of these wild card positions available, a good team can lose a bunch in April and May and it's still fine. Then, when October feels so disconnected from April through September, October feels inconsequential. 

The only way for a World Series game to attract television audiences that were common before expanded playoffs is to put on an event like Game 7 of the 2017 World Series between the Chicago Cubs and the Cleveland Indians, in which somebody was going to win it for the first time in more than 60 years.

Every few years, the notion of realignment is raised as a cure for what ails baseball. The proposals usually are monstrous, amounting to the abolition of the American and National Leagues in all but name, favoring regional "leagues" that would obliterate the few remaining traditions and make baseball less different than ever from pro hockey and pro basketball.

One understands the advantages of an Eastern Conference and a Western Conference. Scheduling would be much simpler, travel would be much less expensive, more games in local time zones is better for TV, etc. 

But the American and National Leagues include one feature what no other league can claim – rivalries that are well more than a century old. Ripping them apart is an unnecessary and destructive approach. Baseball by now has all but erased most of its history. Who even cares anymore about home run records and milestones?  New measurements pepper the popular imagination. Why would a game that brags about tradition eliminate that one remaining historical thread?

We have proposed, for years and in these pages, alternatives to realignment that preserve the American and National Leagues and establish regional championships. The concept is to overlay the regional schemes on top of the traditional American and National Leagues.

One such idea, proposed here, plays out three regional leagues overlaid on the two nationwide leagues. It makes some sense to follow it during those years when the interleague schedule pits AL East vs. NL East, AL Central vs. NL Central and AL West vs. NL West. That was the arrangement in 2015, so we followed those proposed leagues during that season. Here are the results in 2015 for the East League, the Central League and the West League.

We made another proposal last season to divide the big league teams into regional quadrants and use those quadrants as the basis for four regional leagues. We played that out last season. Here is a longer explanation and how it played out in 2016.

Without further prologue, how are those races looking in 2017? We begin with the quadrants, which we now will call "conferences." Through May 24, they look like this.

Working with the schedule baseball gives us, we see some imbalances here, but they can easily be corrected by scheduling. We also see some interesting standings. These conference standings account only for the games each club plays within its conference.

Notice that the Astros and Nationals aren't so dominant in the Southwest Conference. The Astros are tied on top with the Texas Rangers and barely ahead of the Dodgers and Diamondbacks, who are both one-half game down.

Where are the Nationals? Well, they're not leading the Southeast Conference by seven games. They're in fourth place. In first place, the Cincinnati Reds. Imagine that. On top of the Northeast Conference, we find the Detroit Tigers. Neither the Reds nor the Tigers are in playoff position by dint of the actual Major League standings. 

We say, get rid of wild cards and replace them with champions. Overlay regional conferences to determine those additional champions.

Of course, there's more. The Southwest Conference not only is just that, but it's also the South Division of the West League and the West Division of the South League. In the West League, for example, we take the Southwest Conference results and add the results for those teams against the Northwest quadrant, and vice versa.

Here's how the West League looks right now.

Again, rather interesting. In addition to following these races for their own sake, they also give us another perspective on how each club is performing across the big leagues. 

Look where the Dodgers sit in the West League. They have a losing record. Why are the Dodgers right there in the Southwest Conference while they're under water in the West League? Because they are 9-13 combined against the Cubs, the Rockies and the San Francisco Giants, the three clubs they have played from the Northwest Conference.

The South League is a bit of a different story.

We have a couple of real races in this configuration. In the West, it's the Astros, Dodgers and St. Louis Cardinals. In the East, it's the Reds and Nationals.

You see what's happening here. Divide the country into four regional conferences, overlay those conferences into regional leagues, and each conference is simultaneously three distinctive playoff races. So, each team is campaigning in three different competitions, in addition to its official big league playoff race. 

Quick proposal: Change the schedule so each team plays each team within its conference six times in the western conferences and seven times in the eastern conferences. Then, play each team six times against the teams that complete its two regional leagues. That gets each team to 132 games.

Next, each team plays two teams per year from its "crossover" conference twice each, home and home, and rotate those pairings over four years. The crossover conferences are the pairings that don't figure in regional leagues. That would be Southwest vs. Northeast and Northwest vs. Southeast. Notice, these are, in the extreme cases, the longest trips. Now, your clubs are taking those trips once every four years.

Now, you've got a 140-game regular season schedule, reasonably balanced, certainly no worse than the present arrangements and better in a lot of ways. You can add a couple of off days and still shorten the regular season by three weeks.

At the end of it, around September 7, begin a grand tournament with all of the champions and only the champions. Using all of the divisions proposed here, along with the traditional American and National Leagues with their divisional alignments, each club begins the season with four gates of entry. 

Inevitably, some clubs will win multiple championships. Fine. Seed those clubs on top. We now have 18 divisions (conferences included) from which to pluck champions. No need to have so many wild cards, if any. There's more to be worked out here, but this is a start.

If your goals include shortening the regular season, intensifying regional rivalries across the land, realigning while simultaneously preserving the American and National Leagues, eliminating wild cards, reducing travel, having more games in local time zones, strengthening the regular season and tightening the connection between that season and the championship, this is a good path.

Let's look at the other two regional leagues. First, the East League.

Imagine a league in which the division leaders are the Reds and the Tigers. We don't have to. We have the East League. It's not in the bag for either team, obviously.

And the North League.

Notice that the Twins both are in the same conference, the Northwest, which the Twins lead by percentage points while the Oakland Athletics are in last place. But the Twins are much better than the A's in the West League, while the A's are much better than the Twins in the North League. 

Rather likewise, the Toronto Blue Jays are last place in the AL East and terrible in the East League, but they're right there in the North League.

It's all about who you play and how well you play them. But it's also about which games count and how. By dividing up the teams as we propose, we make those matters matter more, and give more clubs more chances by doing it. All without ridding ourselves of the one traditional entity baseball has left to keep, which is the American and National Leagues.

Will the NL ever regain the traveling championship?

So far, the National League is zero-for-four this season in its efforts to snatch the continental traveling baseball championship from the American League, which took over the championship last August.

Yan Gomes drove in five runs Sunday for the Cleveland Indians, who took baseball's continental traveling championship from the Houston Astros (Keith Allison/Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license).

Six weeks into the baseball season, the traveling championship across the game has been stubbornly unwilling to cross into the National League.

The same could be said for the final six weeks of the 2016 season. Which is to say that the traveler hasn't been in the senior circuit since last Aug. 12-14, when the San Francisco Giants lost two of three to the Baltimore Orioles in San Francisco.

No other NL team even took a crack at it for the rest of 2016. But that hasn't been the case this year.

First, the Orioles took the title to Cincinnati during their long April run and won two of three from the Cincinnati Reds to hold it. After the Yankees took the championship from the Orioles by winning two of three at home this April 28-30, the Orioles put it on the line at Wrigley Field against the defending World Championship Chicago Cubs the next weekend. It wasn't even close. The Cubs swept three games.

Next, the Yankees went to Cincinnati and gave the Reds another shot. Though the Yankees and Reds split that series, the Yankees kept it because the continental champion holds the title in case of a tied series.

Right after the Houston Astros prevailed against the Yankees, they went to Miami to give another National League club a try. It ended with a Astros sweep.

Now, another opportunity presents itself for the National League. The Cleveland Indians took the traveling championship from the Astros by sweeping three in Houston during the weekend.

So, the Indians now will put the title up against the Reds this week in two separate two-game series, back-to-back. The first series will open in Cincinnati Monday night.

While the traveling championship and the National League can't get together, another stubborn trend for the continental traveler has ended. 

The Astros broke a five-year run without the title, the longest ever for any team, when they won three of four from the New York Yankees in New York last weekend. And they even defended it once, a first, by sweeping the Miami Marlins on the road in their next series.

The Astros held the traveling championship only one other time in history, claiming it with a two-game sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers at home May 16-17, 2012. Five years is a long time in baseball these days. The Astros were a National League club in 2012.

That Astros club finished the year 55-107, the second of three consecutive Houston clubs that failed to win 60 games. The heroes of that title for the Astros were Carlos Lee, who went three for four with two runs, three RBI and a homer in an 8-3 win on May 16, and J.A. Happ, who pitched six shutout innings in a 4-0 win the next day.

The Astros failed to defend that title, immediately losing two of three at home to the Texas Rangers.

Being fair to the Astros, the traveling title hasn't often crossed their path in the last five years. In fact, they never again played for it until Aug. 3-5, 2015, when they lost three straight on the road to the Rangers.

The Astros also failed in their only crack at the prize last season, losing three of four to the Rangers in Arlington June 6-9.

Following are the standings and results in the national traveler through May 21.

BoSox, DBacks win Second Division bids for 2016

The Boston Red Sox rallied and the Arizona Diamondbacks held firm to finish 2015 as the top two clubs in the Third Division and win promotion for 2016. But the Colorado Rockies and Oakland Athletics are going down.

The Boston Red Sox won five of their last six games in the Third Division and rallied to the championship in 2015, overtaking the Minnesota Twins for promotion.

The Red Sox finished 16-10 in the Third Division to prevail over the Arizona Diamondbacks (21-16)  by one-half game.

The Arizona Diamondbacks finished second in the Third Division to take the second promotion to the Second Division for 2016. Ordinarily, placement is decided by winning percentage, but the Diamondbacks made it in on a rule that went into effect before the season to compensate for the inequities in baseball scheduling.

The rule says that if the third-place team by percentage finishes within one-half game of the top, plays 150 percent as many games as the second-place team by percentage, finishes ahead of that second-place percentage team in the games column and is within 20 percentage points of that second-place percentage team, then that third-place team by percentage gets second place and the promotion.

In this case, the Diamondbacks played 37 games, compared with 24 for the Twins. The DBacks finished one-half game behind the Red Sox, while the Twins finished one game behind. The Twins had the better winning percentage, .583 to .567.

The rule isn't ideal, but we have to work with what's really there. The Diamondbacks participated more fully in the Third Division than the Twins (or the Red Sox, for that matter) and won at a rate just below the Twins. We can argue with the rule, but we can't argue that the Diamondbacks don't deserve promotion.

The Twins led for much of the year, but stumbled out of a promotional spot by losing three of their last four while the Red Sox surged. The Chicago Cubs also came up fast, winning six of their last eight games.

The Cubs (12-10) and Seattle Mariners (22-20) finished in fourth, two games out.

The Colorado Rockies and Oakland Athletics were, without contest, the two lowest teams in the Third Division. Both are being relegated to the Fourth Division in 2016. Coming up from the Fourth Division are the New York Mets and the Chicago White Sox.

While the Red Sox and Diamondbacks go up to the Second Division in 2016, the Cincinnati Reds and Detroit Tigers are coming down from the Second Division to the Third Division.

Royals complete quick climb to top tier

It took the Kansas City Royals a few years to get moving in the promotion and relegation arrangement, but they finally made it all the way up to the First Division for 2016 by splitting the Second Division title with the Texas Rangers in 2015.

The Kansas City Royals were one of the original Fourth Division clubs when this accounting began in 2010, and they were the last team to escape the dungeon, advancing as the second-place team in 2013.

But when the Royals did advance, they advanced quickly. All the way to the First Division in two years, the shortest possible climb.

The Royals earned their First Division stripes for 2016 by splitting the Second Division title with the Texas Rangers in 2015. The Rangers finished 17-10 (.630) for the leading percentage, but the Royals (35-27, .565) finished one-half game up in the games behind column.

Thus, the Rangers and the Royals are the two teams gaining promotion for 2016. Replacing them in the Second Division for 2016 are the Angels and the Atlanta Braves, both of which were demoted from the First Division.

Kansas City spent 2010 through 2013 in the Fourth Division, seemingly with no chance to escape until it finished second in 2013. In 2014, the Royals rallied to finished second in the Third Division and gain another promotion, sweeping the Baltimore Orioles in a four-game American League Championship Series to secure that raise.

The Cincinnati Reds and Detroit Tigers both tumbled through the Second Division standings in the final two months of 2015 and finished in the bottom two. The Reds and Tigers are relegated to the Third Division for 2016. Rising from the Third Division to the Second Division are the Boston Red Sox and the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Race is on, to the top and from the bottom

The Second Division is shaping up as a tight race to the top and away from the bottom in the final few weeks of the season. The Kansas City Royals and Texas Rangers are the top clubs bucking for promotion right now, with the Cincinnati Reds in the best position to overtake one of them before it all ends.

Can Joey Votto lead the Cincinnati Reds to a First Division promotion? (BubbaFan/Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license).

By BILL PETERSON
Big Leagues in Los Angeles

Of all the competitions across this ersatz universe we're cooking up here, none is tighter than the race for promotion to the First Division for 2016.

Right now, the front runners for those coveted top two spots in the Second Division are the Texas Rangers and the Kansas City Royals. The Rangers have the top percentage at .600 (12-8), but the Royals (27-20, .574) lead in the games column by 1½. The top two clubs by percentage are promoted, unless one team wins by percentage and a different club wins by games, in which case those are the clubs promoted.

Sometimes, the rules will bite a team, like the Angels in 2012, but the Angels bounced back and other clubs can do that, too.

It remains that anything can happen in the Second Division, in which the eight clubs are separated by five games. Additionally, most of the clubs still have around 20 games remaining, so there's much left to shake.

Of the clubs looking to gun up and overtake the Rangers or Royals, the Cincinnati Reds are in the best position. The Reds are 17-17 (.500), with the New York Yankees (12-11, .522) right ahead of them. But the Yankees have only four games remaining in this tier, a set at home against the Cleveland Indians later this month. The Reds have 18 games left.

The Yankees almost have to sweep their remaining games against the Indians for any chance at promotion. If the Reds can win two-thirds of their remaining games, they would finish 29-23 (.558), while the Yankees would be 15-12 (.556) if they win only three of their remaining four against Cleveland.

In those events, the Reds still would need the Rangers or Royals to drop a bit, and they would need the clubs beneath them to stay cool.

All the Rangers have remaining is seven games against Detroit. If the Rangers win only three of those, they would finish 15-12 (.556). Then, we have the Royals, who, at this moment, are .602 across their Major League schedule and .574 in the Second Division. The Royals have 15 games left in the Second Division. If the Royals win eight of them, they finish .565, but if they win only seven, they come in .548.

So, the Reds have some wood to chop, and they also need the clubs in front of them to be a little less than even down the stretch. At the same time, the Reds are in clear danger of demotion. That's the fate of the bottom two clubs in the Second Division, which both fall to the Third Division in 2016.

Right now, the Tigers, Indians, Pittsburgh Pirates and Milwaukee Brewers all are at or within a half-game of the demotion zone, but the Reds are only a game better than that.

Taking the bottom club in this group, the Brewers, they would have to win two-thirds of their remaining 18 games to finish 26-23 (.531). That probably wouldn't make them promotion material, but it would keep them safely in the Second Division for another year.

In short runs of games, though, wild fluctuations are always in play. During the course of 162 games, no one is going to win three out of four. Over the course of 18 games, it happens all the time.

So, buckle up. We won't be hearing much from any of these clubs, except for the Royals and the Pirates, in the Major League playoff scrum. But in the Second Division, they've all got a lot still on the line.

Second Division standings (through August 12)

	W	L	Pct.	GB
Texas	10	6	.600	1½
Kansas City	27	20	.574	—
New York (AL)	12	11	.522	3
Cincinnati	17	17	.500	3½
Detroit	21	23	.477	4½
Cleveland	20	23	.465	5
Pittsburgh	17	20	.459	5
Milwaukee	14	17	.452	5

Remaining games

Cincinnati (18 games): August 18-19, two at home against Kansas City; August 24, one at home against Detroit; Augut 28-30, three at Milwaukee; September 4-6, three at home against Milwaukee; September 7-9, three at home against Pittsburgh; September 18-20, three at Milwaukee; October 2-4, three at Pittsburgh.

Cleveland (20 games): August 20-23, four at New York (AL); August 25-26, two at home against Milwaukee; September 4-6, three at Detroit; September 10-13, four at home against Detroit; September 14-17, three at home against Kansas City; September 25-27, three at Kansas City.

Detroit (21 games): August 20-23, four at Texas; August 24, one at Cincinnati; September 1-3, three at Kansas City; September4-6, three at home against Cleveland; September 10-13, four at Cleveland; September 18-20, three at Kansas City; September 28-30, three at Texas.

Kansas City (15 games): August 18-19, two at Cincinnati; September 1-3, three at Detroit; September 14-17, four at Cleveland; September 18-20, three at Detroit; September 25-27, three at home against Cleveland.

Milwaukee (18 games): August 25-26, two at Cleveland; August 28-30, three at home against Cincinnati; September 1-3, three at home against Pittsburgh; September 4-6, three at Cincinnati; September 10-13, four at Pittsburgh; September 18-20, three at Cincinnati.

New York (AL) (four games): August 20-23, four at home against Cleveland.

Pittsburgh (13 games): September 1-3, three at Milwaukee; September 7-9, three at Cincinnati; September 10-13, four at home against Milwaukee; October 2-4, three at home against Cincinnati.

Texas (seven games): August 20-23, four at Detroit; September 28-30, three at home against Detroit.

Dick Allen Award: Marlins making runs matter

With Giancarlo Stanton having his best year and Dee Gordon adding juice to the top of their lineup, the Miami Marlins are much improved offensively. They are defending their first Dick Allen Award in two years this weekend against the Cincinnati Reds.

Giancarlo Stanton has 10 homers in June, approaching his own Miami Marlins records for most home runs in a month (Arturo Pardavila III/Creative Commons Attribution Generic 2.0 license).

By BILL PETERSON
Big Leagues in Los Angeles

The Miami Marlins are defending the Dick Allen title for the first time in two years this weekend, which makes this a worthwhile time to look at two players on that club who really are ripping it up.

The Marlins took the Allen by winning three of four at home against the Colorado Rockies June 11-14 before going into four interleague games against the New York Yankees. The Marlins picked up their National League schedule this weekend in Cincinnati, where they were 35-55 all-time against the Cincinnati Reds.

The Reds won the opener Friday night, 5-0, marking the 11th straight time the Reds held Miami to four runs or fewer going back to May 14, 2013, about a month before the Marlins last won the Allen. The Marlins returned the favor Saturday with a 5-0 win against the Reds behind seven shutout innings by Justin Nicolino, who allowed only four hits in his Major League debut.

So, the Marlins and Reds will meet Sunday for the Dick Allen. The Reds are taking their third crack this year at the Allen, but they have yet to win it and they are 2-6 this season in Allen games.

After giving the impression of being a team on the rise last season, the Marlins are only 30-40 overall this season playing in the weak National League East. The problem is not their offense.

In 2013, the Marlins ranked last in the National League with only 39 games in which they scored five or more runs. Last year, they improved to 56 such games, raising their ranking to ninth in the NL. This year, they have reached five or more runs in 28 games, which ties them for fifth with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Their best hitter is Giancarlo Stanton, who is one of the best hitters anywhere. Stanton leads the Major Leagues with 25 homers, reaching that mark in only 67 games. Stanton became the fourth player in the last 10 years to reach 25 homers that fast, behind Albert Pujols (who did it in 49 games in 2006), Alex Rodriguez (63 in 2007) and Jose Abreu (67 in 2014).

Stanton has 10 home runs in June, approaching his own club record for most home runs in any month (12 in May 2012). The most home runs in a month by any player this year is 13 by Bryce Harper of the Washington Nationals in May.

Then, there's Dee Gordon, who went to Miami from the Dodgers in a batch of trades that ended with the Dodgers getting Howie Kendrick from the Angels to play second base. A lot of people around the Dodgers like Kendrick at second base, but it's hard to say they're better off without Gordon.

Friday night, Gordon reached 100 hits this season in his 65th game, becoming only the sixth player in the National League since 1961 to get there that quickly. The fastest was another speed merchant, Ralph Garr, who reached 100 hits for the Atlanta Braves in his first 62 games of the 1974 season. Gordon entered this weekend's series on a pace to have 131 hits at the All-Star break, averaging 1.5 hits per game. He had one hit in each of the first two games of the Cincinnati series.

The Marlin last won the Allen June 20-23, 2013, on the road, taking three of four from the San Francisco Giants. The Marlins defended the prize twice before losing three straight on the road to the St. Louis Cardinals July 5-7 that year. Historically, the Marlins are 24-24 in games for the Allen, winning the prize three times and defending it in three of five attempts. This weekend's series is their 15th series for the prize all time.

Between their last successful title defense and this year's Allen victory against the Rockies, the Marlins were 4-12 in Allen games, failing four attempts to win it.

All-time in the Allen games, the Reds are 53-53. This weekend's series is their 36th for the Allen. They have won nine titles since the prize began during the 2011 season.