Quote:
Originally Posted by gmo
The balance will not be perfect, especially for the 16-team subleague. That works out to 10.8 games per opponent, while the ~12.5 for the 14-team subleague figures to be a little simpler to work out. Ideally the variation will be no more than one game (either 10 or 11 games per opponent in the 16-team subleague and either 12 or 13 games per opponent in the 14-team subleague)...
|
Well, for the 14-team AL any of the actual AL schedules from between 1979-1993 would fit fine since they are a balanced format (6 opponents played 13 times each and the other 7 opponents played 12 times each). The 13 games have a home-away split of either 7-6 or 6-7. There would a total of 52 series.
For the 16-team NL, another option would be to use a balanced schedule which focuses on 3-game series. One method would have 12 opponents played 12 times each and the other 3 opponents played 6 times each. Another method would have 9 opponents played 12 times each, and the other 6 opponents played 9 times each (with the home-away split either 6-3 or 3-6). Both of these methods would have a total of 54 series.
For what it's worth, were MLB to adopt a balanced, non-interleague schedule, the NL's almost certainly would use one of the two methods I mentioned (since MLB prefers to work with 3-game series and keep 2-game series to an absolute minimum).