Interleague.

[Guest attgig]

reading Jason Stark's blog, and he had this little tidbit about the mets interleague sched.

� The Mets play all 15 of their interleague games against teams that made the playoffs last year -- six against the Yankees, three each against the Tigers, Twins and A's. Meanwhile, three NL teams -- the Cubs, Dodgers and Padres -- play zero interleague games against clubs that made the playoffs.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I fear no Cubs.

[metirish]

Just another reminder why aside from beating the yankees interleague play is bullshit.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

Well, Atlanta this year plays the Red Sox (home and away) plus the Twins, Indians, and Tigers. Their schedule may be tougher than the Mets interleague schedule.

[TransMonk]

Is there any rhyme or reason to how this works anymore? Seems to me it used to be that rivals played rivals and then rotated divisions for the remainder of the games. Now each team plays their rival plus just random teams from any old division in the opposite league. I figured based on the Mets IL schedule that this must be based on how you finished the year prior...similar to how the NFL used to do it. But seeing how the Dodgers don't play any playoff teams from last year I guess I just don't get it.

[Guest Edgy DC]

The real crime is having a six-team division and having a four-team one.

Dumb luck chances of making the playoffs.

AL West Teams: 34.09%
AL East Teams: 29.09%
AL Central Teams: 29.09%
NL East Teams: 27.69%
NL West Teams: 27.69%
NL Central Teams: 24.36%.

The hell? Who signs on for that sort of deal?

All those whiney shmoes crying that they want to go to a team heading for the post-season should be heading for the Mariners.

[Frayed Knot]

]Is there any rhyme or reason to how this works anymore?

Not much of one.
The idea is that - in addition to setting up the "natural" rivals (and isn't THAT a flexible term) - it's supposed to be a specific division vs another ... but that doesn't work for several reasons:
* the odd number of teams between divisions
* that some teams have the extra series against their 'natural rivals' while others don't.
* that the NL has more teams than the AL so there's always 2 NL teams playing within league while the rest of MLB is going inter-league.

So when the intended tidyness breaks down they just start throwing teams together based on who's left standing when the music stops and maybe on who hasn't played each other in a few years. There is no NFL-style "weighted" schedule based on last year's finish (iow, the Mets are just unlucky here and not being picked on) but they are willing to swap things around for various reasons. The Yanx, for instance, were penciled in to go to San Diego this season until Colorado specifically requested a NYY visit for attendance reasons and MLB agreed. For that reason alone it would serve the Rox right if they lost a playoff spot by just a game or two.

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

This year I like interleague play. I get to see the Mets in person when they play the Tigers at Comerica in June!