Too many expansion teams in too short a time span. The National League should've learned that lesson from a century ago.

The last contraction in the major leagues in 1899 essentially erased the expansion of the National League from eight to 12 teams after the 1891 season. All four teams that disappeared at the turn of the century had joined the league eight years earlier out of the failed American Association.

The expansion of 1891 bumped the NL from eight to 12 teams but compounded the league's troubles many times over. Unlike the Arizona Diamondbacks and Florida Marlins, the former American Association clubs had little to no hope of competing with their more established brethren -- or even fellow ex-American Association teams Brooklyn and Cincinnati, which had jumped over in 1890. In the end, some of those clubs were owned by other National League teams.

The concept was called syndicatism, in which one man or group could own more than one team. It started when the National League and American Association were still separate entities in the 1880s. In theory, it was intended to provide financial stability for the entire league. In practice, the league's lesser teams became feeder clubs providing talent for the older clubs.

The Baltimore Orioles lost manager John McGraw along with top players Hughie Jennings, Wee Willie Keeler and Joe Kelley to the Brooklyn Superbas when O's owners Ned Hanlon and Harry Von der Horst bought into the Brooklyn franchise, which promptly won the 1899 NL pennant.

Frank and Stanley Robison owned both the Cleveland Spiders and the St. Louis club, which became known as the Perfectos when the Robisons sent over Cleveland's manager and top players. Yet the Perfectos were far from perfect in 1899, managing a lowly fifth-place finish. Meanwhile, the Spiders went 20-134.

Other teams that didn't give up their best players still couldn't win. The Washington Senators finished no better than sixth during their NL history. No one wanted any players from the Louisville Colonels, who finished ninth or worse every season and merged with the Pittsburgh Pirates when contraction finally arrived.

The reasons given by the NL for contraction ring familiar today -- finances, competitive balance. But players weren't out of work for long. The American League was building its structure in 1900 and swiped many players from the Senior Circuit.

The onetime contraction wasn't nearly as chaotic as the constant changes during the 1870s and 1880s. Every new season brought some sort of change, with some clubs folding in midseason because they didn't have the money to play out the schedule. Here's a year-by-year look at earlier contraction:

1876 -- The New York Mutuals and Philadelphia Athletics couldn't finish their only National League season after jumping from the National Association. The NL expelled the franchises. The A's reappeared in the American Association before their third incarnation in the American League.

1877 -- The Louisville Grays folded, in part because they couldn't find replacements for four players who were who were expelled for throwing games. Those losses cost the Grays first place in their final season. The St. Louis Brown Stockings were forced to resign from the league for agreeing to sign the Grays' expelled players. Also folded were the Hartford Dark Blues, who played their home games in Brooklyn for the final season.

1878 -- The Indianapolis Browns and Milwaukee Grays dissolved after one year.

1879 -- The Syracuse Stars lasted one forgettable season before being replaced by the Worcester Brown Stockings.

1880 -- The Cincinnati Red Stockings refused to comply with league orders banning beer sales and Sunday games. Thus, they were dropped from the National League, but reappeared two years later in the American Association and returned to the NL in 1890.

1882 -- The Trojans of Troy, New York posted their fourth straight losing season before being expelled in exchange for the New York Gothams, later to be called the Giants. Likewise, the league exchanged the Worcester Brown Stockings for the Philadelphia Phillies.

1884 -- The last-place Cleveland Blues folded a year after losing Jim McCormick and two other players to the rival Union Association.

1885 -- Talk about a championship dismantling; The Providence Grays fell to fourth place a year after winning baseball's first World Series. Also, the Buffalo Bisons ended their seven-season run in the NL despite having the league's five-time home run champion Dan Brouthers.

1886 -- The Kansas City Cowboys dropped out after after one season.

1888 -- The Detroit Wolverines repeated the Grays' accomplishment by folding a year after winning the World Series.

1889 -- The Washington Senators and Indianapolis Hoosiers folded after one of the two teams occupied last place for four consecutive years.