2011 Schedule Announced, Interleague Brutal; Update -- Maybe not?

[Polish Falcons]

Based on the comments above I took a closer look at the overall schedule and found it interesting that there is a fair share of imbalance even within the NL.

 

Within the Central, the Brewers play an extra series against the Cards for a total of 18 games, whereas they play the rest of the teams within the division 15-16 times. The Reds 18 game division mate is the Cubs. Advantage Reds. Outside the division but within the NL, the Brewers have 8 games against the Braves, while the typical total is 6 or 7 games (to make up for it we only get 5 games against the Padres). But the Reds have to play the Phillies 8 times, so that's good. And due to the interleague scheduling quirk the Brewers play the Rockies 9 times while the Cards play the Phillies 9 times, and the Reds have an extra interleague series. That's pretty good for the Crew.

 

All in all I'm not sure what it means, other than that the schedule makers are lazy at doing their job, but I found it interesting. At least provide an even balance within the NL Central. They should do 16 games against all division rivals not 18 vs the Cards and 15 vs the Pirates & Astros.

[brwrsfan]

If you take out the "natural rival" part of it

You can't, though.

 

My point is that those rivalry games are out of scheduling control...those are predetermined every year. And almost every year, the Twins make our schedule harder. I realize this is something that can change year to year, who will be bad and good and whatnot, but that leaves 3 series that can be controlled. And of the ones that MLB picked, it's virtually impossible to get any harder than Yankees, Red Sox and Rays. Arguably the of the top teams in the AL and all of MLB and you'd be hardpressed to find a tougher threesome in any division. And we get to play all 3.

 

[Polish Falcons]

If you take out the "natural rival" part of it

You can't, though.

 

My point is that those rivalry games are out of scheduling control...those are predetermined every year. And almost every year, the Twins make our schedule harder. I realize this is something that can change year to year, who will be bad and good and whatnot, but that leaves 3 series that can be controlled. And of the ones that MLB picked, it's virtually impossible to get any harder than Yankees, Red Sox and Rays. Arguably the of the top teams in the AL and all of MLB and you'd be hardpressed to find a tougher threesome in any division. And we get to play all 3.

Agreed you couldn't get much tougher than BOS/NYY/TAM. But it appears the Twins might be going into a decline phase while the Indians and Royals on the verge of becoming good teams if they aren't already. There was a pretty interesting fangraphs article about how bad the Twins are right now, how they have very little talent in their system, and how nobody on their roster has any trade value. http://www.fangraphs.com/...hat-do-the-twins-do-now/

 

[SoCal Brew Crew Fan]

Thanks vgmastr...I missed that 2 game set against Rocks in Sept. So we play 2 extra games against the Rockies over the Reds...that extrangame outside of the added series is likely a rounding error.