The American League West is one of three divisions in Major League Baseball's American League. The division currently has four teams, but it has had as many as seven teams before the 1994 realignment. Although its teams currently only reside along the west coast and in Texas, historically the division has had teams as far east as Chicago. It is the only division in Major League baseball to have only four teams in one division. The defending champion of the AL West Division is the Los Angeles Angels. Current members:

1. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim - Founding member (as California Angels)
2. Oakland Athletics - Founding member
3. Seattle Mariners - Joined in 1977 as an expansion team
4. Texas Rangers - Joined in 1972; formerly of AL East (Washington Senators)

The National League Central is one of three divisions in Major League Baseball's National League. The division currently has six teams. It was created in 1994, merging teams from the NL West (Cincinnati, and Houston) and NL East (Chicago, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis) divisions of the National League. In 1998 it became the largest division in Major League Baseball, with the addition of a sixth member (Milwaukee). The defending champion of the NL Central Division is the Chicago Cubs. Current members:

1. Chicago Cubs - Founding member; formerly of the NL East
2. Cincinnati Reds - Founding member; formerly of the NL West
3. Houston Astros - Founding member; formerly of the NL West
4. Milwaukee Brewers - Joined in 1998; formerly of the AL Central
5. Pittsburgh Pirates - Founding member; formerly of the NL East
6. St. Louis Cardinals - Founding member; formerly of the NL East

With every division in Major League Baseball (MLB) comprised of 5 teams, with the exceptions of the AL West and NL Central, the majority of teams in the MLB have a 20% (1/5) chance of making the playoffs at the start of every baseball season.

With Bud Selig and all the bureaucrats in charge of baseball so worried about the competitive balance in Major League Baseball, why don't they start by evening out the divisions so teams in the NL Central won't be at a innate disadvantage as they have been for the past ten years, NL Central teams have a 16.6% (1/6) chance to make the playoffs when the baseball season starts. On the other hand teams in the AL West have an innate advantage every season, having a 25% (1/4) chance to make the playoffs. How the hell is that fair and why the hell aren't people in Cincinnati, Chicago, Houston, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis complaining about this problem? At least Reds and Pirates fans should start complaining, the last time they were both in the playoffs was 1990 when they met in the NLCS.

Does any NFC or AFC teams in the NFL have imbalanced divisions? No, every team, every division, the AFC and NFC South, East, North, and West, all comprised of 4 teams in each division. Every team in professional football has a 25% chance to make the playoffs at the start of every regular season.

How about the NBA? No, the Eastern Conference has 15 teams and the Western Conference has 15 teams. Every team in the NBA has a 53.3% (8/15) chance of making the playoffs each season. The NHL, the MLS, even the WNBA, all have balanced divisions. Everybody is always talking about how great those AL West teams are, well they have one less team to compete with in their division in comparison to every other team in baseball, except those in the NL Central who they have two less teams in comparison. How they hell aren't people getting pissed about this?

My remedy, lets move the Houston Astros to the NL West, then move the Arizona Diamond Backs (D'Backs) to the AL West. Why? Because the Astros original division was the NL West and their franchises home city is farther west than any other NL Central team by geographical location. To the D'Backs, well they have only been in Major League Baseball for 10 years (founded in 1998), so seniority rules therefor it's not their decision to make or argue against. Why would baseball want to give the ten year old team based in Phoenix an innate advantage over the one hundred and  twenty six year old, 5 time World Champion Cincinnati Reds in the first place (founded in 1882)? This who dilemma, in my opinion, makes no sense, especially with MLB Commissioner Bud Selig coming from Milwaukee and the Brewers organization, how about help out your hometown Bud!

In the end there should never be an answer to the question "What is the largest division in major league baseball?" In my mind it is absolutely outrageous this has been accepted since 1998 by the fans of teams in the NL Central. Fans in those cities need to start voicing their anger with baseballs imbalance and unfair set up. The only other way we could fix this problem other than moving the Astros to the NL West and the D'Backs to the AL West would be to add six expansion teams to Major League Baseball which would result in every division having an even six teams in , just as the current NL Central has.

The first option is much easier and more likely than the second, so people of Phoenix better live with it and Houston, your divisional away game travel will be shorter and you don't fit in with the Midwest cities anyway. As a Reds fan, I have traveled to watch the Reds in every other city in the NL Central but yours, its just too far. If Houston and Arizona refuse the change and won't allow competitive balance by those means then simply adjust the NL Wildcard to make it automatically go to the second place team in the NL Central (rather than the team with the best record among divisional second-place teams), that would give NL Central teams a 33% chance to make the playoffs, any complaints?

*Team playoff probabilities do not account in the AL and NL Wild Card.