Astros moving to the American League?

Buster Olney is reporting today that there has been some preliminary talks of possibly moving one National League over to the American League to make it an even 15 in each. In the article he states that the chances of this happening are less than 50 percent but two sources said that the Astros make the most sense to switch over to the American League. And no it isn’t because Carlos Lee can’t play defense and is a perfect fit at DH.

There is also talks about eliminating the divisions and just having the 15 teams compete for five playoff spots. Five teams for a playoff is a weird number and the only scenarios that I can come up with that makes this work is either the top team in each league would get a bye or the fourth and fifth place teams would play a sort of play-in series to get into the playoffs.

I think a move to the American League would be a great move for the Astros and no it isn’t because I wouldn’t have to watch Carlos Lee try and play defense anymore. Like the article states this could create a natural, geographic rivalry between the Astros and the Texas Rangers. If they didn’t eliminate the divisions, the Astros would be placed in the AL East and play the Angels, Mariners, the A’s and the Rangers which I think is much easier than the Cardinals, Reds, and Brewers.

I have never understood why this hasn’t been discussed earlier considering statistically it is harder to get into the National League playoffs compared to the American League because of the two extra teams in the National League. This is still in the early stages of discussions but I think this would be a great move for Major League Baseball.