AL West Is Now Astro Turf

Last night Major League Baseball Commissioner, Bud Selig, announced that the sale of the Houston Astros from Dayton McClane to a group lead by Houston businessman Jim Crane.

The deal is reportedly for $610 million, which originally was slated to be $680 million, but was discounted because the Astros will be moving to the American League West division starting in 2013.

This takes Texas entirely out of the National League, bringing the Astros into the same division as their state rivals, the Texas Rangers, who play in Arlington. Aside from the elimination of the state of Texas in the National League, this approved sale, and switching of leagues is going to have substantial impact on how the game is both played and managed starting in 2013.

First things first, with Houston joining the American League, that now offers both leagues 15 teams/three 5-team divisions. In having this odd number of teams per league that will force there to be at least one inter-league series going on at a time. There are both pros and cons to this move.

The pros are pretty obvious - you get to expand the audience for every team in Major League Baseball. As a baseball fan, I can personally sit down and watch a game between the Kansas City Royals and Milwaukee Brewers and be perfectly content. Most people can only do that if one of those two teams is their home team. Most, in fact, probably could not name more than 1 or 2 players from teams that they do not see on a regular basis. This is going to change that instantly.

The beautiful thing of this for me, is that while I live in an American League city, people around here are not familiar with truly how good the National League and its players are. There is a sense of superiority in the American League. I mean, it is hard not to think that way with teams like the Yankees and Red Sox in this division.

Now, the spectrum of talent will be eye opening to many. People who have no idea how brilliant players like Justin Upton are, for example, will finally get to see him play, albeit maybe once or twice a season. Those that don't know how Cole Hammels would handle American League batters, be prepared, his day is coming.

The cons - this will force inter-league play every day. To me, I don't see the down side to this. However, there are many American League teams that will feel the pain of it, much like the Boston Red Sox complained about in 2011 - not being able to play their DH in the National League parks. While I think in the long run, Major League Baseball will inevitably turn to the designated hitter across the board, for now, the rules are simple - you play by our rules in our house.

This can lead to the demise of the last of the one-dimensional designated hitters. David Ortiz anyone? Players like Ortiz will have little value in 2013 baseball. He is not the best fielder in the world, so teams would only be looking at him for his bat - something that will only be utilized X amount of times during the season, depending on how many inter-league games are actually played.

This brings back my argument from a week or so ago that the modern DH has to be one of versatility. It is the way baseball is headed, and I think it is the right way to go. While I have a deep appreciation for National League game play, I think that the American League has it right. Let your pitchers worry about pitching, and not being an almost automatic out, and leave the hitting to the position players.

Now, along with the announcement of the sale of the Astros, Selig also announced the addition of 2 wild card teams, starting presumably at the end of the 2012 season. This brings a total of 10 teams into the mix at the end of the season for a shot at going to the World Series. If this isn't incentive for those borderline teams to make moves this off season, I don't know what is.

By all accounts it appears that the 2 wild card teams would have a one game playoff to determine who would move on to play the division champions. This is a fantastic idea. How many times have teams been shafted, specifically in the American League, because one division has been so strong that the wild card gets locked up fairly early on? This gives teams a reason to fight, and I love it.

There we have it folks, Selig changing the game for the better right before our eyes. The landscape is changing. How the game is going to be played is changing. Everything is just going to be getting more and more exciting for the sport of Major League Baseball.