AL East                     Central                  West
   ---------------------------------------------------------------------
   Baltimore Orioles        Chicago White Sox       Arizona Diamondbacks
   Boston Red Sox           Cleveland Indians       LA Angels
   New York Yankees         Detroit Tigers          Las Vegas A's
   Norfolk Virginians       KC Royals               Mexico City Conquistadors
   Washington Nationals     Toronto Blue Jays       Monterrey Combatientes
                                                    Texas Rangers

   NL East                     Central                  West
   ---------------------------------------------------------------------
   Atlanta Braves           Chicago Cubs            Colorado Rockies
   Havana Cubans            Cincinnati Reds         LA Dodgers
   Miami Marlins            Houston Astros          San Diego Padres
   NY Mets                  Milwaukee Brewers       San Francisco Giants
   Philadelphia Phillies    Pittsburgh Pirates      Seattle Mariners
                            St. Louis Cardinals


The 20 year evolution of baseball (this article was originally written in 2005):
1) (2010), once Fidel Castro leaves this earth, then the US will lift the trade embargo against Cuba. The Tampa Bay Devil Rays will then move to Havana and call themselves the "Cubans". The two leagues then swap the Cubans with the Washington Nationals. This maneuver instantly creates new inner-divisional rivalries between the Baltimore Orioles and the Nationals, and the Florida Marlins and the Cubans.

2) (2011), the Florida Marlins change their name to the Miami Marlins to help secure financing for a new stadium, which has been brewing for years.

3) (2012), the Minnesota Twins finally get frustrated with trying to build a new venue, so they up and leave to Norfolk Virginia and call themselves the "Virginians". The Commish of Baseball (Bob Costas) swaps them with the Toronto Blue Jays to create even more rivalries in the Baltimore, Washington DC and Virginia areas. (see stadium proposal here)

4) (2014), the Oakland A's follow the Twins example and move to the desert of Nevada. There's talk of trying to get them into the NL West, but the point becomes mute once number 5 comes up in 2020.

Addition (11/14/06): It appears as though this prediction will prove false with the new ballpark announcement of the A's CISCO Field slated for 2009. They will instead move to Fremont California.

5) (2020), Baseball expands into Mexico. This solves a few things that had been brewing for a few years. First, this expansion evens up the two leagues at 16 a piece. And second, ever since the Devil Rays moved to Havana, Cuba, Mexico has been lobbying for a team of their own so Baseball goes one step father and gives them two new teams. One into Mexico City and another into Monterrey. Both are placed in the AL West.

6) (2025) Five years after expansion into Mexico and a million complaints later, the Baseball Gods decide to make an adjustment. You might think the major problem would be getting major league players to sign with the Mexican teams because of the living conditions. Let's face it, Mexico City is basically a third-world country.  However, that concern never really comes up much because the Mexican government realizes that they must show the western world they can keep up. They implement many security measures and make sure the teams personal have ample opportunity to live in the upscale areas they have become accustomed to. Mexico is able to pull this off because of the millions of US dollars that begin to flow into the country.

So, what's the problem then? Well, the complaints instead come from travel demands. From Seattle to Mexico City is over 2300 miles, which makes even inner divisional games a long and tedious affair. Combine that with travel to the east coast a few times each season and you have ball players who are totally worn out by the dog days of August. So baseball makes a simple adjustment. They swap the Arizona Diamondbacks, who are currently in the NL West with the AL West, Seattle Mariners, thereby reducing miles flown by half.

The only division that will look the same today as it will in 20 years is the NL Central. For those of you who think the Marlins are moving out of Miami soon... well forget it. As you can see above, there might be as many as three other teams that'll relocate before they do.

11/15/06
Article on the new A's stadium here.

11/7/06
The Oakland Athletics are expected to announce next week that they will build a new stadium in suburban Fremont, Calif., according to a San Francisco Chronicle report.

The Chronicle citing sources close to negotiations on the deal, reported the team wants to acquire a 143-acre site near the former Baylands Raceway Park and build a privately-funded 36,000-seat park at an estimated cost of $300 million.

10/28/06
Sun-sentinel.com: With labor negotiations completed, Major League Baseball officials plan to focus on the Marlins' unresolved stadium issue during the next two months.

MLB President Bob DuPuy said two representatives of baseball were in Miami this past week. DuPuy also has spoken recently with Miami-Dade County Manager George Burgess and Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina.

LocalLinks
"I expect that we will, in fact, turn our attention to this over the next 60 days to try to get something done," DuPuy said while attending the World Series at St. Louis. "Now that [the labor deal] is done, the Florida stadium situation remains a critical one for us."

9/21/06
Palm Beach Post: "Orange County Commissioner Mildred Fernandez is calling for an exploratory committee to look into luring the Marlins to Orlando, according to Orlando telelevision station Web site wftv.com."

5/16/06
San Antonio's offer to pledge $200 million toward the cost of building a new stadium for the Florida Marlins was dropped Monday, after Major League Baseball decided it could not meet the city's May 15 deadline for a firm deal to move the struggling franchise there. AP

5/09/06
Contra Costa Times: "The A's are said to be in the final stages of negotiating to build a new ballpark in Fremont just off Interstate 880. Co-owner Lewis Wolff started his search outside Oakland after saying the city likely didn't have the land available to build a mixed-used development that would include a stadium, homes and retail."