The MLB, in my humble opinion, has royally screwed up interleague play in baseball. No, I was not a fan of 14 and 16 team leagues but I’m not against 16 and 16 team leagues to give the perfect number of 32 and keep the American League and it’s filthy DH separate from the National League. However, in a commendable effort to make the now year round interleague play work better than in past years which consisted of Commissioner Selig’s pet blind monkey shooting darts to set up series, every division will be matched up against another Division in the opposite league.

However, this does not fill the 162 quota and keep interleague play “juicy” enough for Selig. So they added this “Rivalry” notion that was implemented last year: connect two teams from opposing leagues and do a “home and home” like in hockey to create a rivalry. All of these games will be played in the final week of May to create a “rivalry week” like ESPN manufactures in College Basketball. Some are natural and perfect. Others scream forced worse than Rafael Palmero’s steroid testimony. Because I’m bored at work, here’s the breakdown of all 15 rivalries you’ll be seeing until someone convinced Selig’s blind pet monkey this was a bad idea.

The Cream of the Crop: 

Yankees-Mets, Cubs-White Sox, Dodgers-Angels

I don’t need to go into much detail about these three bad boys. These were the games that interleague play was created for. Three of the largest markets in the country with teams that possess talent or rich history to drive people to the stands. I love that all of these teams can play each other thanks to the current rules, but this is where the fun stops…kind of.

Strong Potential Here

Giants-Athletics, Orioles-Nationals, Indians-Reds

The main theme holding these boys together: regional proximity. The Bay Area Battle, Battle for the Beltway, and Battle for Ohio all have great marketing potential. In two out of the three match ups, previous success makes these baseball series very watchable television. The Indians and Reds may not have the current baseball standing, but it’s a natural rivalry that doesn’t need force. What could vault the Giants-Athletics rivalry into the top tier is the current relocation efforts of Oakland. Last season A’s management made it clear they would love to relocate to the Silicon Vally area, currently a stronghold of Giants season ticket holders.

These Could Work with Help on the Field

Cardinals-Royals, Marlins-Rays, Red Sox-Phillies

All of these matchups have the regional proximity that the above possess, the problem is that none of these matchups jumps out at you with “Wow, this could be cool” or “Good baseball.” For example, the Marlins-Rays conflicting managerial philosophies is humorous, not  intriguing.  The Cardinals and Rays should dominate their series while the Sox and Philles will boringly split. There needs to be some added pizzaz around these games to create a rivalry. Maybe David Price pulls a Roger Clemens against Giancarlo Stanton and throws a shattered bat. Or maybe Jonathan Papelbon hits Dustin Pedrioa for something that happened in Boston.

Nice Try, but Not Happening

Pirates-Tigers, Twins-Brewers, Braves-Blue Jays

This is where I hope the blind monkey started to realize that things were getting forced. Compared to every previously mentioned rivalry, these are weaksauce. Pirates-Tigers have some territorial disputes around the Great Lakes and some great minor league rivalries, but at the major league level it’s all about history that happened before history books were written. Braves-Blue Jays is only interesting if they wear throwbacks (because personally, the two teams have some of the best out there) and because everyone will beat the fact that the Braves have played against the Toronto roster already to death. Twins-Brewers is great northern midwest baseball..if that’s a thing? Yuck. Nice try.

Obviously Leftovers Forced Down Our Throats

Rockies-Astros, Rangers-D-Backs, Padres-Mariners

Gag me, these are awful. Rockies-Astros may single handedly be the worst baseball to come of this season, Spring Training included. Padres-Mariners isn’t much better but at least King Felix has a 95% chance of pitcher a no hitter based off the Padres’ lineup and home park. Rangers-D-Backs is pretty forced by my estimation although if you squint REALLY hard, you could call it Battle of the Deserts or something awful like that.

What do you think? Did I hit the nail on the head or do you (presumably) disagree with my completely subjective rankings? Let us know on Twitter, Facebook or in the comments!