Schedule Quirks and Hope

For those owners like me, frustrated at a lackluster start, I have some good news.

• To date 94% of the games we've played are of the intra-divisional variety, games between division rivals
• Yet, over the course of the season 60% of the games are INTER-divisional, games between teams in differing divisions.
• Put the two together, about 65% of our remaining games are against opponents each team has not yet seen.

A lot can change!

Sim Schedule Posted

http://www.alltimebaseballsim.net/SimSchedule.htm

Perma-linked to the right as well

Weekly Sim Schedule Posted

I never updated - but here is how the regular season will shake out.  3 days per min sim, execpt for 12E which only has 2.

Team Schedules Announced

Interleague play caused much scheduling difficulty last year, with odd series and odd off days sprinkled in haphazardly.  We are eliminating interleague this year and going with an unbalanced schedule like that of the 1990s.  Teams will play 66 intra-division games and 96 inter-division games.  This equates to 22 games against division rivals and 12 games against opponents from other divisions.

Schedules are posted via the normal league results page, linked here and to the right on the blog.

Interleague Play Starts Tonight; Terrible July Schedule

Schedule makers definitely erred this year, with July begins a mess of off-days and sputtering interleague games.  Looking at my own team's schedule, I play just 12 games in the first 26 days in July and they are all one game sets with National League opponents.

Each team is in the same boat.  Rest up everyone, between the All Star Break and interleague, players will be fresh for the home stretch.

Next year we'll can Interleague Play or figure out a better way to handle it.

Team Game Schedule Change

I found a greivous error in the way the DMB engine was producing the schedule, giving virtually all teams about 10 days off between 7/14 and 7/25.  Can't have that!

I had to redo the schedule and while it is not ideal, it is the best we can do.  Interleague play is causing the issue.  Previously I had interleague play between divisions - 3 games for each team vs another division:  AL East vs NL West, NL Central vs AL CEntral, and AL West vs NL Eeast.  This apparantly was too much for DMB to handle.

Now we have 1 game against each interleague team as opposed to a 3 game set.  This extends our season a bit though.  It was a choice of scrapping interleague play vs a few extra off days.  People drafted with interleague play in mind, so it was the lesser of two evils.  There are 162 total games per team.

The new schedule has been loaded up to the website for each team.

Team Schedules Announced

And has been posted in the league reports section (permanently linked to the right).  In summary:

• 18 games against each intra-division team
• 12 games against each inter-division team
• 3 games against all teams in one interleague division. The Random Number generator came up with the following (AL East vs NL West; AL Central vs NL Central; AL West vs NL East)

Strange Start

Hoplite owner Sean S pointed this out to me last night.  Currently across the league there is little doubt which team is the best in each division (as of now, things will look different in August I am sure).  The six division leaders are a combined 152-84 (.644 wpct).

Aside from the division leaders only one other team in the entire league is above .500, the Colorado Green Sox barely slip in at 20-19.  In total, an incredible 17 teams are below .500 and just 7 are above.

Strange.

One reason is certainly the young schedule.  Many divisions simply haven't faced each other yet which means the same teams have faced each other over and over in April and May.  When 1 or 2 teams go on a run, it effects the standings of all the teams they played.

• AL East and AL Central have not faced off
• AL Central has played itself 116 times but the AL West only 43
• The AL West has played the east 102 times, but themselves only 4

• NL East and NL Central have not faced off
• The NL West has played within their division just 6 times

Team by Team Schedule

Here it is if anyone's curious.

Sim Schedule

Our season schedule has been posted - link to the right and here.

Season start date is Sunday, February 26.  There is a chance this might be pushed out a week, as I will not be available much the week leading up to opening day.  The volume of new players and handling of owner submitted lineups might be too much to accomplish in a few days after the draft ends (Feb 21st).  We'll give it a shot though.

In a nutshell.

• Lineups due every Sunday by 8PM except the first week.  First week they are due by Saturday 8 PM.
• I sim 2-3 games per night on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday
• The process starts again

We have a 12-week regular season, ending on May 18th.  The playoffs start that Sunday, May 20th and run 3-weeks, ending the first week in June.

Of course, I will not be able to post sims 5 days a week for 12 weeks without missing a night.  When occasions like that do occur, I will catch up on the sims the next night.  (If I miss 3 games on Monday, 6 Games will be run on Tuesday). 

Playoffs are simmed 1 game per series per night only.

Regular season lineup changes are permissible during the week only if an injury has occurring.  If one has occurred, you can change any part of your lineup.  

Playoff lineup changes can be made for each game.

Any questions let me know!

Team Schedules Posted

Teams schedules have been posted and can be found under the normal league reports links.  There are 18 games against teams in your own division, and 12 games against teams in the other.  There are no inter-league games and we play 162 between April 5 and October 2 (Sim time, not real life).

We're keeping 8 playoff teams in total, 4 from each league.  There will be two division winners obviously, and the 2 Wild Card teams from each league.  The Wild Card is specific to a division, meaning two teams from each division makes the playoffs.  This is because of the unbalanced schedule.

Looking around the league, something quite remarkable has taken place, entirely without planning for it in advance.  Every season ending series is an intra-division rivalry.  With 4 of the 6 teams in each division heading home, it promises to be a nerve racking last week to the season.

Prediction Division Winners Based Upon Strength of Schedule

Here is a quick snapshot of how we can expect our Divisional races to play out. Based upon a teams current Pythagorean Win Percentage, their opponents Pythagorean Win Percentage, and the number of Home vs Away contests, we can predict the final records for each team, and thus the most likely to move onto the playoffs.

Here is how the National League looks to shape up:

• All three hopefuls have virtually the same strength of schedule remaining
• The Handbasket's have the best chance at winning those remaining games because they have the best run differential and the most home games
• This should allow them to make up ground and the numbers predict a divisional tie
• The Slam Dumps have a good team, but play so many road games they likely won't be able to catch the division leaders
  

Here is a summary of the remaining schedules for each team.


Of course, teams will go on major w-l streaks an excel sheet can't predict, so this is akin to playing the averages and has marginal true predictive value.


League Reports

No Games This Sunday

Due to the holiday weekend, sim 6 will start on Monday night instead of Sunday night. Lineups are still due Sunday 8 PM.

We'll push everything back one day, with sim 6E being played Friday.

"The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it"
...Pericles' Funeral Oration as quoted in History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides

Playoff Schedules

Playoffs will commence Sunday night, 8 PM. 2 Games per series will be run each night. Each round will be a 7 game series. You may submit as many lineups as required - no limits.

In sim time

10/08 - Last Regular Season Game
10/09 - Day off
10/10 - Game 1 (at higher seed)
10/11 - Game 2 (at higher seed)
10/12 - Day Off
10/13 - Game 3 (at lower seed)
10/14 - Game 4 (at lower seed)
10/15 - Game 5 (at lower seed)
10/16 - Day Off
10/17 - Game 6 (at higher seed)
10/18 - Game 7 (at higher seed)
10/19 - Day Off