Expansion teams since 1961 are dead weight. Super League!

Swap Seattle for Colorado? A prelude to full geographic realignment.  Monday, March 27, 2017

Both Seattle and Colorado are in the West division in their respective conferences. Swapping them would be a step in the right direction of geographic realignment.
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Part of the geographic problem is that the new teams created in 1961 through 1997 are in smaller markets spread out across the 48 contiguous states. This spread started in 1953 when the Braves moved from Boston to Milwaukee, then Atlanta in 1966. The As moved from Philadelphia to Kansas City in 1955, then later to Oakland in 1968. The Dodgers and Giants moved to California in 1958.

But it was expansion that really diluted things. The table below supports that. This post is not intended to be a detailed analysis of market sizes or wealth. New York is number one in both, with Chicago and Los Angeles probably the next two. Since the Colt 45s (Astros) joined the old National League with the Mets in 1962, the Houston metropolitan area has grown a lot. So has Phoenix. Expansion teams start with little talent yet some have been successful pretty quickly.

The Mets won the World Series in 1969. The Angels were 86-76 in third place in 1962, their second year. The Marlins started in 1993 and won the WS in 1997 and 2003. Blah, blah, blah. So simply comparing winning percentages may have some bias against the expansion teams but it's probably not as great as one might suppose.

Not surprisingly, the Yankees won the highest percentage of their games, the most WS and pennants and have by far the best rate of WS and pennants won since 1961: WS about every 6 years, pennants about every 3.7 years.

Of the 30 teams, 13 won more regular season games than they lost. The table below is sorted on percent of games won. Of the 13 winning teams, only number 13, the Angels, is an expansion team.

Cruise through the table and you'll see a clear pattern. While the teams in existence in 1960 are saddled with the Chicago teams, which have each won only one WS since 1961, most have been uniformly successful. Those teams are in bold.

The solution obviously is a Super League of about 8, maybe 10, teams, first proposed eight years ago.

Super League  Sunday, March 29, 2009

I really don't care whether Kansas City has a MLB team.  Nor Toronto.  Nor Pittsburgh.  I'm tired of junk like small market teams and revenue sharing.  There's a reason it's called MAJOR league.  It does not mean that Kansas City cannot have a baseball team.  It means that Kansas City is not entitled to a MAJOR league team, subsidized by fans of the Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, Dodgers, etc.

Why don't those teams drop out of MLB and form a super league of their own?  They could form their own television network and/or cut deals with existing networks.  Ten teams would do  it.
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Team	Year1	W	L	W%	WS	P	Y/WS	Y/P
New York Yankees	1961	4,979	3,946	55.79%	9	15	6.11	3.67
Los Angeles Dodgers	1961	4,807	4,130	53.79%	4	8	13.75	6.88
St. Louis Cardinals	1961	4,731	4,194	53.01%	5	10	11.00	5.50
Boston Red Sox	1961	4,736	4,199	53.01%	3	6	18.33	9.17
Cincinnati Reds	1961	4,652	4,279	52.09%	3	6	18.33	9.17
Baltimore Orioles	1961	4,637	4,282	51.99%	3	6	18.33	9.17
San Francisco Giants	1961	4,642	4,297	51.93%	3	6	18.33	9.17
Atlanta Braves	1961	4,601	4,319	51.58%	1	5	55.00	11.00
Oakland Athletics	1961	4,502	4,435	50.37%	4	6	13.75	9.17
Chicago White Sox	1961	4,490	4,439	50.29%	1	1	55.00	55.00
Detroit Tigers	1961	4,477	4,461	50.09%	2	4	27.50	13.75
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim	1961	4,477	4,465	50.07%	1	1	55.00	55.00
Toronto Blue Jays	1977	3,167	3,188	49.83%	2	2	19.50	19.50
Philadelphia Phillies	1961	4,437	4,495	49.68%	2	5	27.50	11.00
Pittsburgh Pirates	1961	4,422	4,498	49.57%	2	2	27.50	27.50
Minnesota Twins	1961	4,416	4,517	49.43%	2	3	27.50	18.33
Cleveland Indians	1961	4,362	4,558	48.90%		3		18.33
Houston Astros	1962	4,290	4,491	48.86%		1		54.00
Arizona Diamondbacks	1998	1,503	1,575	48.83%	1	1	18.00	18.00
Kansas City Royals	1969	3,704	3,933	48.50%	2	4	23.50	11.75
Washington Nationals	1969	3,705	3,935	48.49%
New York Mets	1962	4,215	4,555	48.06%	2	5	27.00	10.80
Chicago Cubs	1961	4,287	4,633	48.06%	1	1	55.00	55.00
Texas Rangers	1961	4,277	4,649	47.92%		2		27.50
Milwaukee Brewers	1969	3,642	4,001	47.65%		1		47.00
Seattle Mariners	1977	2,984	3,371	46.96%
Florida Marlins	1993	1,793	2,026	46.95%	2	2	11.50	11.50
Colorado Rockies	1993	1,784	2,042	46.63%		1		23.00
San Diego Padres	1969	3,540	4,110	46.27%		2		23.50
Tampa Bay Rays	1998	1,420	1,656	46.16%		1		18.00