This used to be what kept me up at night:
Orioles
Red Sox
Expos
Mets
Yankees
Phillies
Blue Jays
AL Kind of South:
Braves
Reds
Indians
Tigers
Marlins
Devil Rays
Pirates
NL Central:
Cubs
White Sox
Astros
Royals
Brewers
Twins
Cardinals
Rangers
NL West:
Angels
Diamondbacks
Rockies
Dodgers
A's
Giants
Padres
Mariners
Just spitballin' here, but here's my guess as to what the best teams in the NL West would have been under the new alignment:
1999: Diamondbacks
2000: Giants
2001: Mariners
2002: A's
2003: Giants
2004: Dodgers
In 2000, the NL playoff teams would have been the Giants and the White Sox, with the A's and Cardinals as the wild cards. No Al Leiter. No Bobby Jones. No Timo F. Perez.
In 2003, the NL playoff teams would have been the Giants and the Twins, with the A's and the Cubs as the wild cards. No Ivan Rodriguez. No Derrek Lee. No Brad F. Penny.
The Giants would have won the World Series in one of those seasons.
Ergo, Peter Magowan is the reason the Giants didn't win a World Series during the tenure of Barry Bonds. Well, the whole reluctance to bump up payroll earlier in the Giants' successful run didn't help. Sidney Ponson and Mark Gardner didn't help, either. But the realignment thing for sure. It's, like, mathematically provable.
If anyone knows Scott Bakula's home number, please send me an e-mail.