MLB realignment plan will need some strong-arming

The advisory committee appointed by Bud Selig to address on-field matters hasn't been sitting on their hands - they're talking about small things (instant replay, for example) and much bigger ones, such as realignment of the divisions.

And the latter has components that will be considered radical.

One plan was a floating realignment, similar to soccer's Premier League, in which teams would teams could move around according to the previous year's standings, in order to prevent having three of the best teams in one division with one missing the playoffs (such as the AL East last season).

Another one coming through in labor talks, first reported Saturday by ESPN.com's Buster Olney, is having a NL team move to the AL to make two 15-team leagues. Under this scenario, MLB could eliminate the division system and have teams play for five playoff spots in each league.

Two major problems are interleague play (two teams would always be playing interleague games, even in the pennant race), and then the big one: Which NL team would be the sacrificial lamb?

Let's face it: No NL team is going to want to do this, breaking up traditional rivalries and changing the rules. If a team has built an NL club, switching to the AL rules (with a DH) would require some adjustment.

The Astros have been floated, because they're changing ownership. (And it makes sense on a few levels.) And the Brewers were an AL team until 1997, if you'd recall. But some teams will be sacred - you'll never see a possible movement for the Reds (the original NL team), or the Dodgers, or the Giants, or the Cubs, or the Mets.

For anybody, it would be a kicking-and-screaming kind of move.

"I'd still say the odds of it happening are less than 50-50," one source told Olney.

I'd say less. Much less.