I feel like being the 50,000th person to write about this screwy realignment plan. It just galls me that things like this get considered, even for a minute, but I guess we can't choose what Bud Selig will do next.
Moving the Houston Astros to the American League just doesn't make sense. For all the talk of a new rivalry with the Texas Rangers, there really is no upside for Houston. You want rivalries? Hearken back to when the Astros were good, and they had killer rivalries with both the St. Louis Cardinals and the Cincinnati Reds. Oh, and you think those games against Milwaukee haven't brought some good rivalry games over the years? Like the Cubs and the Braves don't light Astros fans' fire?
Moving the Astros to the AL is too drastic of a move. Baseball has backed itself into a corner with these unbalanced leagues, but the solution isn't to move a team over. Even if that happened, why would the solution be to move the Astros? Why not move a team like Milwaukee, who was in the American League until 1994?
Oh, and the move to the National League hasn't exactly helped the Brewers be more competitive or develop better rivalries. It was just a way to balance the scales. That's all this would do, for all the talk of making things more fair.
Add in the fact that the revenue gained from more games against the Yankees and Red Sox, they'd lose from the big draws in the National League, like the Phillies, Cubs and Braves. You could make an argument that the schedule might be more fair, but then, the bump from the American League teams wouldn't be as great, so you're not really getting any more help than interleague play.
I won't get into the silliness of the designated hitter, even if some who write for the site are actually pro-DH (listen to the podcast...). It just seems like this whole proposal is being brought up because the Astros are in the process of being sold and are very bad currently. That's why it makes sense, not for any of the reasons brought up that I've seen.
I ultimately don't think this plan has any legs, since the idea of big 15-team mega-leagues where there are no divisional titles is too radical to fly with owners (even if it's similar to how the leagues existed back in the 20's and 30's). So, all this is probably paranoia talk, but it's gotten loud enough that I wanted to respond. Let's hope it doesn't go past this point.