I've ranted about this before, but I think it deserves a topic to itself: the current American League schedule is not fair to the Blue Jays.
There have been three major problems with this year's schedule:
1. Too many tough games early on
2. Poor holiday scheduling
3. Too many easy games in September
As we all remember, the Jays opened this season with April's Tough Twenty: they played Minnesota six times, Boston seven times, and the Yankees seven times. All three of these teams have gone on to the postseason. The Jays did about as well as could be expected in these 20 games, going 7-13.
It's all well and good to say that things eventually even out, but stacking the schedule hurt the Jays. On the field, the confidence of the Jays' younger players was affected by being beaten up regularly early in the season. And, off the field, casual fans would have taken a look at the standings and written off the club, which undoubtedly cost the club some badly-needed revenue.
Poor holiday scheduling is another problem, and one that is easy to fix. This year, the Jays played away on Victoria Day, away on Canada Day, away on the August Civic Holiday, and at home on Memorial Day. Why is that? That decision alone cost the Jays and/or SkyDome at least several hundred thousand dollars in revenue: for example, the Jays drew 37,354 for their June 29th date against Montreal, and only drew 15,448 in Detroit on July 1st. It would cost the other owners nothing to rearrange the schedule so that the Jays played at home on Canadian holidays - heck, to make it fair, the Jays could always be on the road on Labour Day. (They were at home on Labour Day this year.)
The final problem is the Jays' soft September schedule. Once the Yankees left town on September 4th, the Jays were scheduled to play nothing but cruddy teams the rest of the way (though they did play a makeup game with the Yanks on the 8th). And, sure enough, the Jays are 16-6 this month. But weak September opponents make it difficult for the Jays to use September callups to evaluate their minor-league talent. Virtually anybody can look good pitching against the Tigers or the Orioles, so J.P. Ricciardi can't really tell whether Josh Towers, for example, is going to be useful next year. Is Towers going to be a valuable rotation starter, or is he going to become the next Brandon Lyon? Your guess is as good as mine - and examining sabermetric indicators such as K/IP isn't useful, as these ratios will be better against bad teams.
To conclude: if I were a Jays front office executive, I would be lobbying the Powers That Be for a schedule overhaul. A revised schedule would benefit the Jays enormously, and would bring more revenue into baseball's coffers - which, as we all know, is the only reason baseball owners do anything.
(Aside: when I think of a baseball owner, I picture a desiccated old man spending his days sitting in a vault, sifting gold coins through his fingers and chuckling quietly to himself.)
Comments?
There have been three major problems with this year's schedule:
1. Too many tough games early on
2. Poor holiday scheduling
3. Too many easy games in September
As we all remember, the Jays opened this season with April's Tough Twenty: they played Minnesota six times, Boston seven times, and the Yankees seven times. All three of these teams have gone on to the postseason. The Jays did about as well as could be expected in these 20 games, going 7-13.
It's all well and good to say that things eventually even out, but stacking the schedule hurt the Jays. On the field, the confidence of the Jays' younger players was affected by being beaten up regularly early in the season. And, off the field, casual fans would have taken a look at the standings and written off the club, which undoubtedly cost the club some badly-needed revenue.
Poor holiday scheduling is another problem, and one that is easy to fix. This year, the Jays played away on Victoria Day, away on Canada Day, away on the August Civic Holiday, and at home on Memorial Day. Why is that? That decision alone cost the Jays and/or SkyDome at least several hundred thousand dollars in revenue: for example, the Jays drew 37,354 for their June 29th date against Montreal, and only drew 15,448 in Detroit on July 1st. It would cost the other owners nothing to rearrange the schedule so that the Jays played at home on Canadian holidays - heck, to make it fair, the Jays could always be on the road on Labour Day. (They were at home on Labour Day this year.)
The final problem is the Jays' soft September schedule. Once the Yankees left town on September 4th, the Jays were scheduled to play nothing but cruddy teams the rest of the way (though they did play a makeup game with the Yanks on the 8th). And, sure enough, the Jays are 16-6 this month. But weak September opponents make it difficult for the Jays to use September callups to evaluate their minor-league talent. Virtually anybody can look good pitching against the Tigers or the Orioles, so J.P. Ricciardi can't really tell whether Josh Towers, for example, is going to be useful next year. Is Towers going to be a valuable rotation starter, or is he going to become the next Brandon Lyon? Your guess is as good as mine - and examining sabermetric indicators such as K/IP isn't useful, as these ratios will be better against bad teams.
To conclude: if I were a Jays front office executive, I would be lobbying the Powers That Be for a schedule overhaul. A revised schedule would benefit the Jays enormously, and would bring more revenue into baseball's coffers - which, as we all know, is the only reason baseball owners do anything.
(Aside: when I think of a baseball owner, I picture a desiccated old man spending his days sitting in a vault, sifting gold coins through his fingers and chuckling quietly to himself.)
Comments?
