MLB: Grapefruit League a version of NBA Western Conference

The Grapefruit League might be based out of Florida, but feel free to start thinking of it as the MLB version of the NBA’s Western Conference.

For all of the issues MLB allegedly has with fan interest, low ratings, pace-of-play, and the like- predictability is most certainly not among them.

Sure, the NFL might rule supreme in terms of overall parity. The NBA might let more than half the league make the playoffs. But it has also been a long time since the entire NFL season didn’t seem like an extended training camp for the New England Patriots. Or in the case of the NBA, a bunch of pickup games for either “LeBron James Team” and one of the same few Western Conference powers.

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MLB stands in stark contrast to those foregone conclusions. Not since the end of the 2000 season has MLB crowned a repeat champion. In MLB, 11 different teams have won a title since 2003. In the NBA, 11 different teams have won a title….since 1983.  Fast-paced, sure. But surprising? Not so much for the NBA.

Sports fans are also familiar with one other thing about the NBA- the historic imbalance between the Western and Eastern Conferences. Since that 1983 season referenced above, the Western Conference holds a 20-17 edge in titles, and a 6-5 edge in teams earning them. However, those numbers fail to tell the whole story. Michael Jordan and LeBron James were essentially Eastern Conference cheat codes, responsible for 9 of those 17 Eastern titles.  The reality is there have been countless seasons where the No. 7 seed in the West would have challenged for a division title in the East.

If MLB realigns in 2020, that same amount of jolting disparity could be coming to the Cactus and Grapefruit Leagues.

Over the past week, we’ve broken down the East, North, and South divisions of the Grapefruit League, and the consequences for some of the teams thrust into them. It was not until concluding that though it jumped out to me just how imbalanced the Cactus and Grapefruit Leagues are, at least based on last year’s results and this year’s projections.

Of the ten teams to make the postseason last year, seven of them play in the Grapefruit League.

Of those three 2019 playoff squads in the Cactus, none of them are slated to play in the same division under the most recent realignment proposal. Instead, they get to ride roughshod over a field of fifteen teams only six of which even posted a winning record last year.

Again, that’s in comparison a total of nine winning teams in 2019 playing in the Grapefruit, seven of which won enough to make the playoffs. That list includes the past three World Series champions by the way. And for good measure, MLB’s lone .500 team from last season, the Philadelphia Phillies.

In other words, a Grapefruit League that plays meaningful baseball becomes the new Western Conference overnight.

Even if an expanded postseason field is adopted by MLB in 2020, chances seem high that at least two more talented teams in the Grapefruit will be left out for subpar performers in the Cactus. Exciting for some smaller markets, but not necessarily good for the sport.

But if nothing else, much like the Eastern Conference of old, the Cactus can at least claim having the best player overall. Mike Trout‘s path to winning an MLB postseason game has never looked clearer.