Understood, but the main thing is the schedule itself and how it looks.
I suggest, in essence, a four step plan to creating a schedule:
1) Determine the format (that is, how many times a club plays each of its opponents).
2) Break that format down into series. Note that the numbers arrived at may change but the first breakdown serves as a starting point.
3) Compare the number of series to the number of weeks in the season.
4) Adust the series breakdown to fit the number of weeks available.
5) Lay out the series in the schedule.
Here's an example using a 12 team league split into two 6-team divisions playing a 162 game schedule over 26 weeks in an 18-12 format (18 games against each divisional rivals and 12 games against each interdivisional rival).
The 18-12 format yields a total of 90 divisional games and 72 interdivisional games. The first breakdown splits the 18 games into 3-3-3 3-3-3 and the 12 interdivisional games into 3-3 3-3. This yields a total of 30 divisional series and 24 interdivisional series, and a total number of 54 series being played in the season with it initially all being 3-game series.
The 26 weeks in the season, using the normal MLB system of two series per week, means a total of 52 "slots" into which series can be placed. An All-Star Game break would remove one slot, leaving a total of 51. But we have a total of 54 series, meaning we need three weeks during the season in which three series are played instead of two. But to play three series in a week we need some 2-game series which we haven't yet created in our series breakdown. Three series in a week means a 2-2-3 series pattern, and since we need three such weeks, we now know that we need a total of at least six 2-game series.
With this information in hand, we can rework the series breakdown. We can split some of the 9 home or away divisional matchups into 4-3-2 instead of 3-3-3, and/or we can split some of the 6 home or away interdivisional games as 4-2 instead of 3-3.
Doing a bit of both might result in a revised series breakdown like this:
4-3-2 4-3-2
4-3-2 3-3-3
3-3-3 4-3-2
3-3-3 3-3-3
3-3-3 3-3-3
4-2 3-3
3-3 4-2
3-3 3-3
3-3 3-3
3-3 3-3
3-3 3-3
We still have a total of 54 series, 30 of which are divisional and 24 interdivisonal. But we've now altered the series distribution into a total of 6 2-game, 42 3-game, and 6 4-game series. And now with the six 2-game series we can have three weeks where three series are played fitting our schedule into 26 weeks without problem.
The above, incidentally, is exactly what the National League schedule looked liked for the years between 1982-1992. Most teams had either a 6-42-6 or 7-40-7 distribution of 2-, 3-, and 4-game series; a few had 8-38-8.