Houston Astros May Move To the American League. Why?

I don't get it.

The Houston Astros are for sale and the prospective buyer wants in on the condition that the team move to the American League.  I don't understand why, or how it is good for Baseball.

In 1997 the Milwaukee Brewers, the Commissioner's team, moved from the American League East to the National League.  The main/official reason for this was to ensure that there were an even number of teams in each league.  They could have placed the expansion Tampa Bay Devil Rays in the National League but they didn't want both Florida teams in the same league.  That meant someone had to move.  It's good being king.  Selig's team was given the task of 'evening' out the leagues.  The fact that the American League salary structure and power dynamics were starting to form a two-tier system of haves and have-nots certainly had nothing to do with the decision to bail to the lower-payroll and more evenly balanced National League.  (Selig also desired to move Milwaukee to the National League because the city had previously been a National League team, when they were the home of the Milwaukee Braves.)

So, for all those reasons, both the official and 'double secret probation' reasons, I get why the team moved.  This time, I don't get it.

I've thought about it and can come up with lots of changes that will happen as a result of the move.  Some are good, some are bad and some are pretty much neutral.  Here are the reasons I've been able to identify:

1) Increasing the number of games with intrastate rivals the Texas Rangers
Moving to the 4-team American League West with the Texas Rangers would increase the number of times they play against one another from 6 games to 18 games, or when only considering home games, from 3 to 9.  Is the incremental gate for 6 games really that important?  I suppose this is good for Houston, but is a relatively small gain.

2) Increasing the number of games with America's favorite teams, the Yankees and Red Sox
Currently, Houston has no real relationship with either of these teams.  That means that on average they meet once every three years for a 3-game series.  This might be at home and it might be on the road.  I suppose you can count on a home series against these teams once every 6 years (on average).  If they move to the American League (West) they will play 4 - 6 games against each other each year.  That works out to one home series of 2 or 3 games each year.  The Yankees and Red Sox are the biggest road draws in MLB so this benefits Houston, but again, not by much.  After all, it actually hurts their chances of on-field success.

3) Getting out of a crowed division
Currently, Houston is in the Majors only 6-team division.  In theory, that makes it harder to make the playoffs than if they'd been in any other division.  I say in theory because the 5 other teams of the National League Central Division are habitual dogs and under-performers.  It is considered one of the easiest divisions to win in Baseball, and the increased number of games against weaker teams means it is a good place to qualify for the Wild Card playoff spot, too.  They would be moving to Baseball's only 4-team division, making the size all 6 of MLBs divisions a uniform 5 teams.  The American League West is also a relatively weak division, but is considered tougher than the NL Central.  Currently, the Rangers are in ascendancy.  In recent years, the LA Angels of Anaheim (I hate that name) have been strong, winning the World Series once, the Oakland Athletics have been over-achievers with one of the lowest payrolls in Baseball, and the Seattle Mariners have also been strong off and on through the years, though they are certainly in 'off' mode right now.  In addition, the Astros will now have to face the Red Sox and Yankees 8 - 12 times a season, a trial they haven't had to deal with before.  All in all, I can't see how moving makes it easier for the Astros to win.

4) Balancing the divisions, leagues
As I mentioned earlier, moving a team from the NL Central to the AL West would balance the 6 divisions at 5-teams apiece.  It would also balance the leagues at 15 teams apiece.  If the standard 162-game schedule is going to be maintained, all 30 teams have to be playing most of the time.  The only way to achieve that is for there to be at least one Interleague series happening all the time.

In my humble opinion, this is a terrible situation!  For one, it likely means that there will be yet MORE Interleague games than there are currently.  Outside of the natural rivalries, like Houston-Texas(Arlington), Interleague play is suffering declining popularity.  The only reason that IL games appear to have decent attendance is that they take place during the prime part of the season schedule (e.g. no cold April games while kids are still in school) and often fall on weekends.  Also, the few popular natural rivalries boost the overall numbers making IL play seem more popular than it really is.  So, more is bad!  Further, MLB would lose the natural IL rivalry of Houston-Texas as they would become divisional rivals.  Further still, the requirement to have at least 1 IL series running at all times almost assuredly means that the games WON'T be between natural rivals.  I assume that MLB will still have the 2 stretches of games where all the teams are playing IL games.  (Currently, with 16 NL teams and only 14 AL teams, 2 pseudo-random NL teams play each other on any given day during the IP section of the schedule.)  Finally, if there's always at least 1 IL series happening the 'specialness' or 'novelty' of IP with be eroded even more than it already has been!  This is a big, fat negative for all of MLB.

If this is unavoidable, and of course it is not unavoidable, they are choosing to do it, then there is one thing that MLB can do to renew the 'freshness' and popularity of Interleague play.  They can reverse the rules.  Instead of playing the rules variation according to the home team's league, play the rules according to the road team's league.  This way, American League fans will have an opportunity to watch teams playing National League rules and vice versa.  Other than the multi-franchise cities (NY, Chicago, LA, the Bay Area) fans never get this opportunity in their home city, even during the World Series (since the home park determines the rules set there, too)!  Even if they do this, I still think the 2 15-team league model is a terrible idea.

5) Diluting the relevancy of Interleague play
This is completely detailed in point #4, but is worth naming specifically as an independent effect.

So, as near as I can see it, there are slight positives for Houston to change leagues and huge negatives for the other 29 teams if they move.  In fact, the negatives are so horrendous they may even outweigh the positives for Houston, too!  I don't even see how it benefits any of the owners or Selig himself!  So, again I have to ask "why?"  If you know, please fill me in.  I'd love to understand why this is good for MLB.

If it happens, and it probably will, it won't be the first thing that Selig has done that has been nothing but bad for Baseball.

[editors note:  My bad!  I totally forgot #6...

6) Time Zone changes
In the NL  Central, Houston faces two teams in the Eastern Time Zone (Cincinnati and Pittsburgh) and three in the Central Time Zone (Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Louis).  With Houston being in the Central TZ this is a good fit.  It is reasonably easy to travel East as this is not the direction that causes jet lag.

With Houston in the American League West, they play one team in the Central TZ (Texas) and three teams in the Pacific TZ (LA of Anaheim, Oakland & Seattle).  This is quite bad for Houston.  Instead of traveling one time zone East for 18 games they will now travel 2 time zones west for 27 games!  West is the direction that is considered hard to handle and hard and thus harder to succeed.

Forget what I said before -- the net effect of moving to the AL West is BAD for Houston, and BAD for the other 29 teams.  Tell me again why this is good for Baseball, Bud.  Please, tell me!

End editor's note.]