MLB Whiffs with 2013 Schedule

First of all, I'd like to give the Rockies some credit:  Within a day of the release of the 2013 schedule in mid-September, they had a printable schedule ready.  I haven't seen any other team release a printable schedule yet.

In 2011, MLB announced that starting in 2013 the National League and the American League would both have 15 teams, and that the Houston Astros would balance the leagues by moving to the AL West from the NL Central.  The mathematically inclined thought that this would lead to a balanced schedule in the following way:

1. All teams would now have 4 divisional Opponents.  Scheduling 18 games with each division opponent (9 home and 9 Away would give each team 72 games.)

2.  There would be 10 League opponents outside of their division.  They could play each one of them 6 times (3 Home and 3 Away) and would provide each team with an additional 60 games.

3.  That would leave 30 InterLeague games.  They could play one division in the other league home and home 3 games each, or two of the divisions 3 games each to reach the 30 games.

But this posed several problems for MLB.

1.  MLB did not want 30 interleague games per team, they would prefer to have 18-20.

2.  "Natural" rivalries would have to be abandoned.  Never mind the fact that there are really only about 5 "Natural" rivalries, the fact that the Yankees were involved in one of them, superseded all sense of  balance for the other 29 teams.

3.  There weren't enough 4 game series to schedule consecutive playing days without also having a bunch of 2 game series, which the teams don't like.

All right fine.  Let's give them their Natural rivalries.  Let each division play another division in the other league 3 games (Home or Away)  giving each team 15 interleague games.  No wait that won't work, so each team plays 4 of the 5 teams 3 times and one team they play home and home in 2 games.  Next year NL West plays AL East, NL East Plays AL Central and NL Central Plays AL West.

It also leaves A home and home series for the natural rivals played on consecutive days 2 home and 2 away. And these 4 game series will all start on Memorial Day.

Okay fine, that still leaves 72 division games and 70 other games in the league which means all the non-Division opponents can play each other 7 times.  Great!

Except that didn't happen either and this is where MLB blew it.  They instead increased division games to 19 per opponent for a total of 76 games.  Then each team will play a random combination of 6 of the other teams 7 times and the other 4 only 6 times.   For the Rockies they will play everyone in the NL East 7 times and everyone in the NL Central other than the St. Louis Cardinals 6 times.  For Arizona it's the NL Central and one team from the East 7 times.  For the other 3 NL West teams, it's a mix of 6 teams from both divisions.

The Rockies will open 2013 in Milwaukee, and then come home for 3 with San Diego before going to the West coast in San Francisco and San Diego.  Their first interleague games are May 3-5 at home against Tampa Bay.  Their "Natural" rival is the Houston Astros (Arizona got Texas).  MLB has all of the natural rivals playing each other in home and home series of 4 games from Memorial Day through May 30th.

So here are the Natural City Rivals:
1. Yankees/Mets
2. Angels/Dodgers
3. A's/Giants
4. White Sox/Cubs
5. Orioles/Nationals

Here are the Natural State Rivals:
6. Indians/Reds
7. Royals/Cardinals
8. Rays/Marlins
9. Rangers/Astros (oops!)

Here are the odd men out.
9.  Mariners/Padres
10. Twins/Brewers
11. Red Sox/Phillies
12. Tigers/Pirates
13. Blue Jays/Braves
14. Rangers/D-Backs
15. Astros/Rockies

In 2013 the Rockies Tough month will be August where they have 11 home games and 17 Road Games. Starting July 29th they play 20 of 26 on the Road.  They do have a stretch from May 16th to June 16th where they have 22 of 29 at home.

A strong start in April and May will certainly help the Rockies be competitive, but from Father's Day to Labor Day things could get brutal.  They will have 5 consecutive 3 city Road Trips starting on June 17th and going through September 15th. During this stretch they will play 48 road games and only 31 Home games.   Also during that stretch they will play no games in the Central Time Zone.  Three of the trips will be eastern time zone trips, while the other two trips are divisional West Coast trips.  In fact they only have 11 central time zone games, and play all of them in April and May.

For the next few months the Rockies will shape the Roster for next year.   The schedule although better next year, again seems to be put together with leftovers from the big market teams.