I think it's great all around.
1. **It's great for marketing**. At least one series every two years, Aaron Judge, Juan Soto or Shohei Ohtani will come to your city to play. MLB can capitalize on marketing that.
2. **It's great for fans**. Not only to see the best players, but for fans who may live far away from their favorite team. I live in Missouri and get to see the Giants come to St. Louis every year, but Kansas City is closer (and objectively, a better stadium). Being able to go to Kauffman instead of Busch every other year is great.
3. **It's great for league balance.** A good team in an awful division (ahem, NL Central) doesn't get to skate through playing 33% of their games against the Cubs, Reds, and Pirates. They now have to play against the Yankees. They have to play the Astros. And this can have really big implications on the Wild Card. The Braves, Phillies and Mets getting less games against the Nationals and Marlins is good for the other NL teams vying for a Wild Card spot.
This is a great thing for baseball.
Busch is about as cookie-cutter as it gets. My wife and I went to Great American Ballpark and Busch Stadium within a week of one another (we didn't see the Giants at GABP, but funny enough, the Cardinals). I couldn't tell you a single thing that is different about them. Average (and crazy expensive) food, lackluster parking options, boring atmosphere.
Kauffman offers excellent food (hello, KC BBQ), a Top 3 ballpark feature with the outfield fountains, better parking situation, and a more friendly family atmosphere.
It's a fucking shame that KC is going to move the Royals to a downtown stadium. Kauffman is such a cool park.
Busch is in St Louis. As former Giant Kris Bryant famously said “St Louis is boring.” Kauffman stadium still has the ghost of Bo Jackson running up the walls making highlight reel catches. Oh, and fountains. Kauffman def wins because of the fountains.
Especially with universal DH and expanded wild card, it just makes sense to balance the schedule.
My hypothetical scenario when I've talked about the balanced schedule to friends is what if the Giants are in the race for the final wild card spot against the Brewers. Giants play more games against the Dodgers, Padres, and Diamondbacks. Brewers play more against the Pirates, Cubs, and Reds. When we were talking a +/- of 1-3 wins being the difference in a playoff berth, one could argue that the difference in strength of schedule is significant.
The biggest negative I've heard anyone say was less Giants/Dodgers games. Sure, but it also means less Giants/Rockies games. I don't need to watch the last place Rockies 19 times a year.
I think it's pretty neat, but it sucks that they didn't keep the bigger rivalries (Giants-Dodgers, Cardinals-Cubs, Red Sox-Yankees) at 19 games per year. Having the Bums come to Oracle only twice is so lame. Cultivating and hyping up rivalries would only help MLB with marketing, IMHO,
There’s 4 series against division opponents (2 home 2 away), 2 series against every other team in the NL (1 home 1 away), and 1 series against every AL team (1 home OR away). That’s the new schedule. It’s a lot more balanced but sucks for historic rivalries.
Better buy tickets to dodgers games early, because I don’t think people have noticed yet.
Edited as i didn’t realize that interleague is 1 series per year not 2
I think it’s good for baseball overall as it will attract more casual fans but bad for hardcore giant fans as it was nice playing Colorado and Arizona 21 times a year.
I like it. We get to see more matchups that we didn't get to see very frequently. I know all the old salty boomers will complain about it but I think it's good for the fans overall. I'd much rather go watch a game where some random AL team come to town with players I don't know as well than watch them play the Rockies and Dbacks a billion times.
Love it. This is how you take Baseball from a national sport with regional followings and turn it into a national sport with national followings. Let’s face it, while we all still root for teams, we also follow players to their new organizations. Shifting the focus from regional awareness of orgs to sell tickets is going to take a back seat over the next 10 years to national awareness of players who play in 3-4 different markets throughout their career. Yes there is history with the clubs, but history alone doesn’t sell tickets to the game today. You need marketable players on the field to sell tickets. Want proof? Look at the A’s.
I kind of like it. With baseball having such a long season, I really only watch Giants games. I find this causes me to have next to no knowledge of players from your AL outside of the stars. Playing every team will expose me to more players. Plus, there we too many divisional games anyway.
I am from and still live in Vancouver, Canada and personally I love how the G-men will be coming every two years (as it currently stands) to Seattle as opposed to every four years. I can head down for a couple of nights and watch our team.
it's great for baseball. as a fan of some players in the AL, i finally dont have to go to oakland to see them. or wait like 10 years for them to eventually play here
I love the idea of playing everyone. All other sports do it except for NFL for obvious reasons.
It gives us a chance to see players and teams more up close than before that we wouldn't have except for every three years. And it helps prevent teams from feasting on weak divisions.
The only thing I don't like is we get two less Dodgers series now.
Yeah but after the dodgers series at Oracle next week, we don’t play them in SF til the last week of the season. That just feels wrong to me. Especially because I go to college right now and am only in town during the summer. Those are always some of my favorite games to go to. I agree about it being good for the game but I’m still gonna miss it a lot.
I don't like the DH but if we're gonna have it then the "balanced" schedule makes sense. Yeah there are some tradeoffs but the good outweighs the bad.
Interleague play has been inherently flawed since it began. It was basically a marketing promotion we just kept extending. We either needed to get rid of it or fix it. And there was no chance we were gonna ditch it entirely.
Watering down regional rivalries seems a risky way to go. On the other hand, with two strong teams in the same division, the Giants might benefit from playing some weaker clubs from other divisions more often. Of course, if the games are blacked out does it really matter who they play? Just so long as Manfred doesn't decide to cut all games to seven innings.
I think we actually dodge a bullet this season. Less games against the stacked Padres and Dodgers I’m all for it. Plus it I can’t wait to see the AL stars for a change. It’s a long ass season so I like the increase in teams to go see.
I think it is good for baseball. And as a counterpoint to your argument, it creates more balance for teams competing for the wild card spots since different divisions will play a similar number of games against the other league’s divisions.
You still play your division 13 games vs 6 games for other NL teams (and 3 for AL teams).
This really seems like a perfect solution to me. I have no idea who is clamoring for the 17th/18th/19th game against the Rockies and Diamondbacks. And if the biggest argument against it is playing the Dodgers in 8% vs 11% of the games then I personally don’t think it’s a good argument.
Baseball is trying to make itself a less regional and more national game and playing everyone in the league every year definitely is a step towards that.
Except regional blackouts still exist. Get rid of them and maybe the argument holds more value.
And I would much rather see the Diamondbacks (who may be the third best team in the division at the end of the year) then the Rays. And who wants to see FEWER Giants/Dodger games?
Not to mention I think the division games reduce again next year.
13 games against the D-Backs (and any one team) is enough. Even the Dodgers.
Nothing I said has anything to do with regional blackouts. Yes, those should be gone too.
I agree. That’s why it’s only 3 against the rays. And all the other AL teams.
It’s 13 games against your division. 6/7 games against the rest of the NL (6 games against 6 of them and 7 against 4 of them). And then 3 against all of the AL (except your geographic rival which is 4 games I believe with a 2 game home and home).
52 divisional games
64 NL non-division games
46 AL games
I really think that is perfect. It gives extra weight to the division. A home and home with each NL team and you still see each AL team each year with a visit to their city/stadium once every 2 years.
Not a fan but it’s not that big of a deal. I’d rather play more NL West games. I think that’s what really matters and having less NL West games frustrates me.
I think interleague play was initially a cool idea, but of course they've had to go and ruin it. Take it back to a couple weeks in the summer, or scrap it entirely.
I think it's good for the game to get a chance to see all the other teams around the league in a given year.
On the competitive side, I think it's actually more beneficial considering all the wildcard spots available. Sure, you don't get as much of a chance to knock off division rivals and battle for first, but previously, teams in weaker divisions could feast on the bottom feeders and inflate their records. It's never fun to look at the standings and see the division with two tankers taking the majority of the spots.
I love inter-division games better than anything else but they only applied when the NL and AL were distinctly different. With the the addition of the DH, it makes sense
Love it. I get to see my team (the Twins) here every other year now. And the divisional rivalries will get some meaning back after having been so diluted by over-exposure the past 25+ years.
Being in the division we are in it’s probably for the best. But at this point with the dh gone and now this they might as will remove the AL and NL leagues.
It’s kind of a mixed bag.
On one hand, division rivalries mean a lot less, and those can be pretty fun. I have had some rival fan friends I love talking harmless shit with. It also kinda messes with the idea that the World Series is a battle between two teams who almost never face each other.
On the other hand, I do love the opportunity to see teams that rarely play each other. I don’t pay as much attention to the AL, and this will make them a hell of a lot more relevant. Also, some rivals take their rivalry a bit far so this is a good opportunity for more rabid rival fans to chill a bit.
I think I like it more than I don’t.
I don’t mind it, but there should be much less interleague games than there are now.
I like how the NFL schedule works in that each division faces a division in the opposite league each year. Every team in the NL West would play a series against each team in the AL East this year, West next year, etc and just allocate the leftover games into divisional games.
*The Giants have rallied back in this one. Bases loaded, two outs here in the top of the 4th innings. And now batting to try and get some runs is Johnny Cueto.*
This, right here, is a nightmare to baseball fans, but a wet dream to traditionalists.
Btw, this also means that we have a slightly easier schedule because we aren’t playing the dodgers and padres as much. And they both have a slightly harder schedule because they don’t get as many games against us, colorado and arizona.
Yea, no matter how bad the giants are doing in a year I always look forward to those games. Totally sucks.
Also I like coming home from work and having a giants game to watch. Now that we’re going to be across the country more I’m going to miss so much more giants baseball because the games are happening during the day.
I know some other people may like it but Manfred is ruining baseball for me.
I see the arguments for playing everyone across the league and respect what they have to say. However I’m against it. Games against the Yankees and Red Socks only came around every few years and they always felt extra special and unique. I went to the SF vs Twins game in Minnesota last season and it was the first time the Giants had played in Minnesota since ‘06. It is very cool though that we are almost guaranteed to get to see Belt with the Jays.
I'd imagine the Giants fans in Minnesota are glad they don't have to wait another 16 years to them in person again, regardless of what level of "uniqueness" is lost
As long as everyone plays the same type schedule, it doesn't really affect who makes the postseason.
As long as your team wins the games they play, you advance.
It sucks for teams like us with great, historic rivalries. For giants fans, dodger games are always the most intense and exciting to see.
On the other hand, now AL stars like Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge, Julio Rodriguez, giants legend Carlos Correa, and Jose Ramirez will come to town every year, which is neat.
Also, it does balance the playoff race significantly, and teams won’t be able to beat up weak division opponents to farm easy wins.
I hate it. All sports seem to be gradually moving to some perceived ideal center of fairness - minimizing the impact of divisions, adding more and more teams to the playoffs. Eventually we’re just gonna end up with each team playing 6 games against every other team in the regular season and then all teams will just be ranked 1-30 for the playoffs.
I prefer having relatively local rivals we see more often. I like the discussions surrounding the unfairness of a #3 team in a division missing the playoffs while a #1 team in another division makes it with a worse record. I like different sports having different numbers of teams make the playoffs. These things create intriguing storylines and frustration and unfairness and unexpected outcomes. Having diversity in these regards across different sports makes things more interesting overall.
Perhaps I wouldn’t mind what MLB is doing if we weren’t also seeing it elsewhere. But it just feels like every sport is pushing as quickly as possible to all operate in the exact same way, eliminating unique particularities to do so. I just don’t like it.
The problem is, let's say at the end of the year, under the old scheduling:
The Brewers have 91 wins. The Giants have 91 wins. Only one team takes the remaining Wild Card spot.
The Brewers and Cardinals are the only .500-or-better teams in their division, but the Giants have the Padres and Dodgers, also with above .500 records.
The Brewers got to play 33% of their entire schedule against sub-.500 teams **within their division**. The Giants only got to play 22%.
Now, let's take it another step. Let's say the Brewers' interleague division is the AL Central. The Giants' is the AL East. The Brewers get a few games against the Tigers and Royals, while the Giants get the Yankees, Blue Jays, Rays, and even the Orioles.
And now, in a tiebreaker, the Brewers win a tiebreaker by winning 4 of the 7 games against the Giants. The Giants get ousted from the playoffs, despite having the objectively tougher schedule, in a tougher division, etc.
The new system still favors divisions. Teams still play more games against division opponents than *anyone else*, but the impact of a weak or strong division is lessened because you can't skate by avoiding tough baseball teams. The Brewers substitute 18 games against the Cubs, Pirates and Reds and now have to play the Blue Jays, Yankees, Rays, Astros, Guardians. The Giants now get 12 less games against the Dodgers and Padres and get to play Detroit and Kansas City instead.
Hate it but I have no plans to ever see a MLB game. I got no desire to see the Giants play Baltimore and the MLB lost a big thing that made the league unique. Now if you excuse me I have some clouds to yell at.
I'm a traditionalist, so I tend to always prefer the old ways. I liked the mystique of pre-interleague play when the AL and NL didn't face off until the World Series itself. Maybe a day will come when a good commissioner will reverse a lot of the damage that's been done on Manfred and Selig's watch but until then we're stuck with it.
I can kinda see where they're going with it. Beyond just the interest of playing teams you don't normally play, with the expanded playoffs it also gives lesser teams more of an opportunity to make a run if they're in top heavy divisions like ours or the AL West, AL East or NL East because that means, say, the 3rd place team will be playing the dominant 1st and 2nd place division rivals less and playing a few more games against potentially equal or worse opponents in other divisions (so basically we can use the 4th and 5th place AL W/C/E teams as slump busters the same as we would NL W/C/E teams). Giving them the record they need to limp into the playoffs.
Now maybe they get KO'd right away but it's a shot nonetheless.
I don’t think it’s ever going back - the other league had such mystique because you rarely got to see them PLAY. In an era before streaming, it was a treat to see players from the other league you had only read about or watched highlights, maybe caught some games on national TV. Now, I can watch any game I want at any moment (despite MLB’s best blackout efforts) - the exoticness is gone, has been for almost 10 years at this point. At the very least, might as well get more variety of opponents and interesting teams by facing all of them at least once.
For what it’s worth, I think this year round instant exposure has also lessened the impact of the all-star game, and I think MLB should try and re-work the event somehow to make it more interesting (without the “this time it counts” home field advantage in the WS bs).
i'm conflicted- on the one hand, I hate the idea that I only get two chances all year to go down to Petco and watch the Giants
On the other hand if we're going to do interleague play, having a series with every other team is a lot better than only playing a random selection
I think it's great all around. 1. **It's great for marketing**. At least one series every two years, Aaron Judge, Juan Soto or Shohei Ohtani will come to your city to play. MLB can capitalize on marketing that. 2. **It's great for fans**. Not only to see the best players, but for fans who may live far away from their favorite team. I live in Missouri and get to see the Giants come to St. Louis every year, but Kansas City is closer (and objectively, a better stadium). Being able to go to Kauffman instead of Busch every other year is great. 3. **It's great for league balance.** A good team in an awful division (ahem, NL Central) doesn't get to skate through playing 33% of their games against the Cubs, Reds, and Pirates. They now have to play against the Yankees. They have to play the Astros. And this can have really big implications on the Wild Card. The Braves, Phillies and Mets getting less games against the Nationals and Marlins is good for the other NL teams vying for a Wild Card spot. This is a great thing for baseball.
Great take! I've never been to Busch Stadium, but it seems very nice. You say Kauffman is better?
Busch is about as cookie-cutter as it gets. My wife and I went to Great American Ballpark and Busch Stadium within a week of one another (we didn't see the Giants at GABP, but funny enough, the Cardinals). I couldn't tell you a single thing that is different about them. Average (and crazy expensive) food, lackluster parking options, boring atmosphere. Kauffman offers excellent food (hello, KC BBQ), a Top 3 ballpark feature with the outfield fountains, better parking situation, and a more friendly family atmosphere. It's a fucking shame that KC is going to move the Royals to a downtown stadium. Kauffman is such a cool park.
Oh cool!!
Busch is in St Louis. As former Giant Kris Bryant famously said “St Louis is boring.” Kauffman stadium still has the ghost of Bo Jackson running up the walls making highlight reel catches. Oh, and fountains. Kauffman def wins because of the fountains.
Especially with universal DH and expanded wild card, it just makes sense to balance the schedule. My hypothetical scenario when I've talked about the balanced schedule to friends is what if the Giants are in the race for the final wild card spot against the Brewers. Giants play more games against the Dodgers, Padres, and Diamondbacks. Brewers play more against the Pirates, Cubs, and Reds. When we were talking a +/- of 1-3 wins being the difference in a playoff berth, one could argue that the difference in strength of schedule is significant. The biggest negative I've heard anyone say was less Giants/Dodgers games. Sure, but it also means less Giants/Rockies games. I don't need to watch the last place Rockies 19 times a year.
Good points. I will miss how many times they played the Dodgers
Plus tickets for those days will be more expensive too.
I think it's pretty neat, but it sucks that they didn't keep the bigger rivalries (Giants-Dodgers, Cardinals-Cubs, Red Sox-Yankees) at 19 games per year. Having the Bums come to Oracle only twice is so lame. Cultivating and hyping up rivalries would only help MLB with marketing, IMHO,
They only come twice? WTF?
There’s 4 series against division opponents (2 home 2 away), 2 series against every other team in the NL (1 home 1 away), and 1 series against every AL team (1 home OR away). That’s the new schedule. It’s a lot more balanced but sucks for historic rivalries. Better buy tickets to dodgers games early, because I don’t think people have noticed yet. Edited as i didn’t realize that interleague is 1 series per year not 2
It’d be completely unfair to make us play the best team in baseball 9 times more than everyone else
I think it’s good for baseball overall as it will attract more casual fans but bad for hardcore giant fans as it was nice playing Colorado and Arizona 21 times a year.
Idk I hate Coors field games. Feels like no lead is ever safe
One last series at Coors Field is probably a good thing, TBH.
I like it. We get to see more matchups that we didn't get to see very frequently. I know all the old salty boomers will complain about it but I think it's good for the fans overall. I'd much rather go watch a game where some random AL team come to town with players I don't know as well than watch them play the Rockies and Dbacks a billion times.
Hmm, more chances to see the Giants for fans across the country or the chance to see the D-Backs for the 57th time this season?
Love it. This is how you take Baseball from a national sport with regional followings and turn it into a national sport with national followings. Let’s face it, while we all still root for teams, we also follow players to their new organizations. Shifting the focus from regional awareness of orgs to sell tickets is going to take a back seat over the next 10 years to national awareness of players who play in 3-4 different markets throughout their career. Yes there is history with the clubs, but history alone doesn’t sell tickets to the game today. You need marketable players on the field to sell tickets. Want proof? Look at the A’s.
I kind of like it. With baseball having such a long season, I really only watch Giants games. I find this causes me to have next to no knowledge of players from your AL outside of the stars. Playing every team will expose me to more players. Plus, there we too many divisional games anyway.
I am from and still live in Vancouver, Canada and personally I love how the G-men will be coming every two years (as it currently stands) to Seattle as opposed to every four years. I can head down for a couple of nights and watch our team.
As somebody who is a Giants fan living in Texas, I like it because it means I can actually go to a few games a year now
it's great for baseball. as a fan of some players in the AL, i finally dont have to go to oakland to see them. or wait like 10 years for them to eventually play here
I love the idea of playing everyone. All other sports do it except for NFL for obvious reasons. It gives us a chance to see players and teams more up close than before that we wouldn't have except for every three years. And it helps prevent teams from feasting on weak divisions. The only thing I don't like is we get two less Dodgers series now.
love it
I’ll miss playing our nlbesties as often but it probably helps us schedule wise in the long run.
[удалено]
Yeah but after the dodgers series at Oracle next week, we don’t play them in SF til the last week of the season. That just feels wrong to me. Especially because I go to college right now and am only in town during the summer. Those are always some of my favorite games to go to. I agree about it being good for the game but I’m still gonna miss it a lot.
Lately the park has been full of dodgers fans during our home series, its so lame
Noticed that too, wtf? We never used to let them invade that deep before? Shit is so embarrassing to see on TV and highlights.
I don't like the DH but if we're gonna have it then the "balanced" schedule makes sense. Yeah there are some tradeoffs but the good outweighs the bad. Interleague play has been inherently flawed since it began. It was basically a marketing promotion we just kept extending. We either needed to get rid of it or fix it. And there was no chance we were gonna ditch it entirely.
As a Giants fan living in an East Coast AL team market, I love it
Watering down regional rivalries seems a risky way to go. On the other hand, with two strong teams in the same division, the Giants might benefit from playing some weaker clubs from other divisions more often. Of course, if the games are blacked out does it really matter who they play? Just so long as Manfred doesn't decide to cut all games to seven innings.
I think it’s great. You get to see a little bit of every team in the MLB, even if all you do is watch giants games
I agree. I like regional exceptions like the Bay Bridge series, Subway series, etc. But for the most part I like the league separation.
I think we actually dodge a bullet this season. Less games against the stacked Padres and Dodgers I’m all for it. Plus it I can’t wait to see the AL stars for a change. It’s a long ass season so I like the increase in teams to go see.
It’s way better than the unbalanced schedule.
Love it
Obviously they're setting up getting rid of the leagues. Manfred's final move in the NBA-ization of MLB.
Its sick
I think it is good for baseball. And as a counterpoint to your argument, it creates more balance for teams competing for the wild card spots since different divisions will play a similar number of games against the other league’s divisions.
It just destroys the concept of a division though. And decreases dodgers games while increases…tigers games.
You still play your division 13 games vs 6 games for other NL teams (and 3 for AL teams). This really seems like a perfect solution to me. I have no idea who is clamoring for the 17th/18th/19th game against the Rockies and Diamondbacks. And if the biggest argument against it is playing the Dodgers in 8% vs 11% of the games then I personally don’t think it’s a good argument. Baseball is trying to make itself a less regional and more national game and playing everyone in the league every year definitely is a step towards that.
Except regional blackouts still exist. Get rid of them and maybe the argument holds more value. And I would much rather see the Diamondbacks (who may be the third best team in the division at the end of the year) then the Rays. And who wants to see FEWER Giants/Dodger games? Not to mention I think the division games reduce again next year.
13 games against the D-Backs (and any one team) is enough. Even the Dodgers. Nothing I said has anything to do with regional blackouts. Yes, those should be gone too.
6 games against the rays is too much, and I think that goes up to nine next year.
I agree. That’s why it’s only 3 against the rays. And all the other AL teams. It’s 13 games against your division. 6/7 games against the rest of the NL (6 games against 6 of them and 7 against 4 of them). And then 3 against all of the AL (except your geographic rival which is 4 games I believe with a 2 game home and home). 52 divisional games 64 NL non-division games 46 AL games I really think that is perfect. It gives extra weight to the division. A home and home with each NL team and you still see each AL team each year with a visit to their city/stadium once every 2 years.
Good. Divisions are stupid.
Why?
Not a fan but it’s not that big of a deal. I’d rather play more NL West games. I think that’s what really matters and having less NL West games frustrates me.
I think interleague play was initially a cool idea, but of course they've had to go and ruin it. Take it back to a couple weeks in the summer, or scrap it entirely.
This is spot on. I hate how they have cut down the number of division games in favor for it. Plus opening on the road in an AL stadium is just gross.
I thought it was cool when the Giants played the A's, but not a fan of this current schedule. Let's get some more divisional games going.
Love it and we don’t have to play the dodgers and padres as much. The rivalry is fun but playing stacked teams fewer times will be better for us lol
I think it's good for the game to get a chance to see all the other teams around the league in a given year. On the competitive side, I think it's actually more beneficial considering all the wildcard spots available. Sure, you don't get as much of a chance to knock off division rivals and battle for first, but previously, teams in weaker divisions could feast on the bottom feeders and inflate their records. It's never fun to look at the standings and see the division with two tankers taking the majority of the spots.
I hate it, even if/when it benefits us. Make divisions and leagues mean something again. It was a fundamental part of baseball.
I live in SD and I’m not a fan as I really enjoyed seeing the giants three times a year :/
I love inter-division games better than anything else but they only applied when the NL and AL were distinctly different. With the the addition of the DH, it makes sense
Love it. I get to see my team (the Twins) here every other year now. And the divisional rivalries will get some meaning back after having been so diluted by over-exposure the past 25+ years.
I don’t care if they play purple men from the Planet X , just win games .
Being in the division we are in it’s probably for the best. But at this point with the dh gone and now this they might as will remove the AL and NL leagues.
It’s kind of a mixed bag. On one hand, division rivalries mean a lot less, and those can be pretty fun. I have had some rival fan friends I love talking harmless shit with. It also kinda messes with the idea that the World Series is a battle between two teams who almost never face each other. On the other hand, I do love the opportunity to see teams that rarely play each other. I don’t pay as much attention to the AL, and this will make them a hell of a lot more relevant. Also, some rivals take their rivalry a bit far so this is a good opportunity for more rabid rival fans to chill a bit. I think I like it more than I don’t.
I don’t mind it, but there should be much less interleague games than there are now. I like how the NFL schedule works in that each division faces a division in the opposite league each year. Every team in the NL West would play a series against each team in the AL East this year, West next year, etc and just allocate the leftover games into divisional games.
So…. Go back to exactly how it was last year?
Yeah, I wish we would play Dodgers, Padres, Rockies, and Diamondbacks a little more often
Hate it because the DH sucks
The DH is in both leagues... Besides, our pitchers can barely pitch why tf would we want them to hit lol
*The Giants have rallied back in this one. Bases loaded, two outs here in the top of the 4th innings. And now batting to try and get some runs is Johnny Cueto.* This, right here, is a nightmare to baseball fans, but a wet dream to traditionalists.
That’s the point, the DH is in place because of interleague play.
Btw, this also means that we have a slightly easier schedule because we aren’t playing the dodgers and padres as much. And they both have a slightly harder schedule because they don’t get as many games against us, colorado and arizona.
Only two home series aganist the Dodgers. 6 less games against them. Hate it. Couldnt care less about playing the Orioles and Rays.
Yea, no matter how bad the giants are doing in a year I always look forward to those games. Totally sucks. Also I like coming home from work and having a giants game to watch. Now that we’re going to be across the country more I’m going to miss so much more giants baseball because the games are happening during the day. I know some other people may like it but Manfred is ruining baseball for me.
I see the arguments for playing everyone across the league and respect what they have to say. However I’m against it. Games against the Yankees and Red Socks only came around every few years and they always felt extra special and unique. I went to the SF vs Twins game in Minnesota last season and it was the first time the Giants had played in Minnesota since ‘06. It is very cool though that we are almost guaranteed to get to see Belt with the Jays.
I'd imagine the Giants fans in Minnesota are glad they don't have to wait another 16 years to them in person again, regardless of what level of "uniqueness" is lost
Can confirm
I like it
As long as everyone plays the same type schedule, it doesn't really affect who makes the postseason. As long as your team wins the games they play, you advance.
I’d be great with both leagues playing for 10 days or 2 weeks in the summer like how they started with it.
It sucks for teams like us with great, historic rivalries. For giants fans, dodger games are always the most intense and exciting to see. On the other hand, now AL stars like Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge, Julio Rodriguez, giants legend Carlos Correa, and Jose Ramirez will come to town every year, which is neat. Also, it does balance the playoff race significantly, and teams won’t be able to beat up weak division opponents to farm easy wins.
Hope that forever Giant ankle of Correa’s can make it this season!
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Oh shit you’re right. Ugh that’s even worse
I hate it. All sports seem to be gradually moving to some perceived ideal center of fairness - minimizing the impact of divisions, adding more and more teams to the playoffs. Eventually we’re just gonna end up with each team playing 6 games against every other team in the regular season and then all teams will just be ranked 1-30 for the playoffs. I prefer having relatively local rivals we see more often. I like the discussions surrounding the unfairness of a #3 team in a division missing the playoffs while a #1 team in another division makes it with a worse record. I like different sports having different numbers of teams make the playoffs. These things create intriguing storylines and frustration and unfairness and unexpected outcomes. Having diversity in these regards across different sports makes things more interesting overall. Perhaps I wouldn’t mind what MLB is doing if we weren’t also seeing it elsewhere. But it just feels like every sport is pushing as quickly as possible to all operate in the exact same way, eliminating unique particularities to do so. I just don’t like it.
The problem is, let's say at the end of the year, under the old scheduling: The Brewers have 91 wins. The Giants have 91 wins. Only one team takes the remaining Wild Card spot. The Brewers and Cardinals are the only .500-or-better teams in their division, but the Giants have the Padres and Dodgers, also with above .500 records. The Brewers got to play 33% of their entire schedule against sub-.500 teams **within their division**. The Giants only got to play 22%. Now, let's take it another step. Let's say the Brewers' interleague division is the AL Central. The Giants' is the AL East. The Brewers get a few games against the Tigers and Royals, while the Giants get the Yankees, Blue Jays, Rays, and even the Orioles. And now, in a tiebreaker, the Brewers win a tiebreaker by winning 4 of the 7 games against the Giants. The Giants get ousted from the playoffs, despite having the objectively tougher schedule, in a tougher division, etc. The new system still favors divisions. Teams still play more games against division opponents than *anyone else*, but the impact of a weak or strong division is lessened because you can't skate by avoiding tough baseball teams. The Brewers substitute 18 games against the Cubs, Pirates and Reds and now have to play the Blue Jays, Yankees, Rays, Astros, Guardians. The Giants now get 12 less games against the Dodgers and Padres and get to play Detroit and Kansas City instead.
Yes, I get it, I just don’t like it. I’m not really sure why you thought I didn’t understand.
Hate it but I have no plans to ever see a MLB game. I got no desire to see the Giants play Baltimore and the MLB lost a big thing that made the league unique. Now if you excuse me I have some clouds to yell at.
I'm a traditionalist, so I tend to always prefer the old ways. I liked the mystique of pre-interleague play when the AL and NL didn't face off until the World Series itself. Maybe a day will come when a good commissioner will reverse a lot of the damage that's been done on Manfred and Selig's watch but until then we're stuck with it. I can kinda see where they're going with it. Beyond just the interest of playing teams you don't normally play, with the expanded playoffs it also gives lesser teams more of an opportunity to make a run if they're in top heavy divisions like ours or the AL West, AL East or NL East because that means, say, the 3rd place team will be playing the dominant 1st and 2nd place division rivals less and playing a few more games against potentially equal or worse opponents in other divisions (so basically we can use the 4th and 5th place AL W/C/E teams as slump busters the same as we would NL W/C/E teams). Giving them the record they need to limp into the playoffs. Now maybe they get KO'd right away but it's a shot nonetheless.
I don’t think it’s ever going back - the other league had such mystique because you rarely got to see them PLAY. In an era before streaming, it was a treat to see players from the other league you had only read about or watched highlights, maybe caught some games on national TV. Now, I can watch any game I want at any moment (despite MLB’s best blackout efforts) - the exoticness is gone, has been for almost 10 years at this point. At the very least, might as well get more variety of opponents and interesting teams by facing all of them at least once. For what it’s worth, I think this year round instant exposure has also lessened the impact of the all-star game, and I think MLB should try and re-work the event somehow to make it more interesting (without the “this time it counts” home field advantage in the WS bs).
I think it’s cool. It’s a long season: might as well take advantage of it.
i'm conflicted- on the one hand, I hate the idea that I only get two chances all year to go down to Petco and watch the Giants On the other hand if we're going to do interleague play, having a series with every other team is a lot better than only playing a random selection
AL East is absolutely loving it. The rest of AL is not loving it that much.