[FuzzyRussianHat]

Chinese League Baseball joined the big expansion craze for 2030, although theirs was far more humble with only two new teams. CLB’s first expansion had added six teams back in 2009 to get to 30 overall teams. Joining the Northern League would be the Lanzhou Lava and the Nanchang Crickets entered the Southern League, giving CLB 32 overall teams.



CLB did make a monumental realignment though with the additions. Previously, CLB had been division free, but officials decided to change from that now that both leagues were up to 16 teams apiece. The decision was made to separate into four divisions of four teams each. With this also came a more unbalanced schedule, which was certainly a controversial decision.

The playoff formatting remained similar with four teams advancing to a round robin in each league, followed by a best-of-seven league championship for the top two and the best-of-seven China Series. The Round Robin had previously been a double setup with each team playing each other twice for six total games. For 2030, it was expanded to a triple round robin with each team now playing nine total games with three against each opponent.

Instead of simply the top four teams by record advancing as previously done; now it would be the four division winners. Supporters liked having a team guaranteed from various regions and felt the new setup would intensify regional rivalries. Detractors worried about great teams missing the playoffs in a loaded division while a weak team could advance out of a bad division.

The Northern League’s alignment now had the West Division (Zhengzhou, Urumqi, Xi’an, Lanzhou); Southeast (Shanghai, Hangzhou, Qingdao, Nanjing); Northeast (Harbin, Changchun, Shenyang, Dalian); and the East Central (Jinan, Beijing, Tianjin, Shijiazhuang). The Southern League had the Southwest Division (Guangzhou, Nanning, Foshan, Kunming); Southeast (Hong Kong, Xiamen, Shenzhen, Macau); Central (Chongqing, Changsha, Wuhan, Chengdu); and East (Wenzhou, Dongguan, Nanchang, Shantou).