A Better MLB Schedule
On Tuesday morning, San Diego Padres television analyst Mark Grant took to Twitter to complain about the unbalanced Major League Baseball schedule.
Looking at the 2020 Padres schedule. WAY too many games within our own division. Please go back to balanced schedule. That is all. Carry on...
— Mark Grant (@Mudcat55) January 28, 2020
A reply by Twitter user @PadresNation brought light to another glaring problem with the current MLB schedule.
It’s sad that there’s 162 games and the MLB can’t find a way for every team to play each other even at least one time 🤷♂️🤔 https://t.co/dgXzO7qHgx
— Padres Nation (@NationPadres) January 28, 2020
With 15 teams in each league, interleague play is not going anywhere, but there are minor changes that Major League Baseball can employ that will vastly improve its current schedule. For the purposes of this exercise, we will use the San Diego Padres as our sample team for how the new schedule would look.
QUICK BREAKDOWN
•14 games against each division opponent (7 home, 7 away)
•6 games against each league opponent (3 home, 3 away)
•4 games against interleague “rival” (2 home, 2 away)
•3 games against each remaining interleague opponent
DIVISION GAMES
Instead of playing the current 19 games each against division opponents, under the new format, each team would play 14 games (7 home, 7 road) against each division opponent. The series’ could be 4 and 3, or 3, 2 and 2, based on travel considerations.
PADRES at NL West Opponent - 3 game series and 4 game series.
NL West Opponent at PADRES - 3 game series and 4 game series.
•14 games against each division opponent
•Total of 56 games against 4 opponents (28 home, 28 away)
•35% of regular season schedule
Fernando Tatis Jr. facing the Padres’ NL West rival Los Angeles Dodgers in 2019. (©Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press)
LEAGUE GAMES
Under the new format, each team would play 6 games (3 home, 3 road) against each league opponent.
PADRES at National League Opponent - 3 game series.
National League Opponent at PADRES - 3 game series.
•6 games against each league opponent
•Total of 60 games against 10 opponents (30 home, 30 away)
•37% of regular season schedule
Fernando Tatis Jr. homers against the St. Louis Cardinals in 2019. (©Scott Kane/Associated Press)
INTERLEAGUE GAMES
Under the new format, each team would play 4 games against their designated “regional rival” (2 home, 2 road) and 3 games against each remaining interleague opponent. Of the 14 remaining interleague opponents, 7 series’ would be at home and 7 on the road. Interleague opponents would rotate home and away series’ each season.
PADRES at Seattle Mariners - 2 game series.
Seattle Mariners at PADRES - 2 game series.
PADRES at Interleague Opponent - 3 game series.
Interleague Opponent at PADRES - 3 game series.
•4 games against interleague regional rival
•3 games against each remaining interleague opponent
•Total of 46 games against 15 opponents (23 home, 23 away)
•28% of regular season schedule
Chris Paddack dominated the Padres interleague regional rivals, the Seattle Mariners, in 2019. (©Nelvin C. Cepeda/The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Under this proposed schedule, every MLB team will get two home series’ against each division opponent, one home series against each league opponent, and a home series every other season against every interleague opponent.
Let’s make this happen, MLB.