The sort of balanced schedule
In the apparent interest of fan interest, MLB has “balanced” every team’s schedule this year, which doesn’t exactly mean it is 100 percent balanced or even 95 percent so, but does mean that every team will get to play every other team at some point.
Significantly, however, competition against division opponents will drop from 76 games a season to 52.
That every-team-seen set-up is nice for Phillies fans since legendary Eagles fan Mike Trout will play in Citizens Bank Park in August. More importantly, however, this means 24 fewer games against the loaded Braves, the loaded-but-underachieving Mets, the upgraded Marlins, and unfortunately, the struggling Nationals.
Phillies manager Rob Thomson is on the record as liking this balance, saying that it’s “fair for everybody. Especially when there are all these wild cards….” However, as Todd Zolecki points out, the 12 “lost” games for Philadelphia against the Braves and Mets will be replaced by the Astros, Yankees and Mariners, all 2022 playoff teams still playing or starting play in the Divisional round, and the Rangers, who now feature Corey Seager and Jacob deGrom.
There’s not a lot to be said about six of those games in ’22 (against New York and Seattle) except that they will feature lineups facing pitchers they’re likely not too familiar with, in the cases of both teams. Unfamiliar pitchers tend to dominate MLB hitters except when those hurlers really don’t quite belong at the MLB level.
However, for the Phillies, they can probably count on seeing the familiar deGrom in one of those games against Texas, indeed very likely in the season-opener in Arlington, as well as … um … Houston pitchers who just dominated them when it counted in the last World Series.
The Phillies will also see, like all other MLB teams, a huge increase in games against teams from that other league. Interleague games for each team will jump from 20 to 46.
Somewhat annoyingly, this will mean for the Phillies 14 games in April alone against these American League teams: Texas, New York (back-to-back to open), Chicago, Seattle, and Houston.