The reason for the flurry of Statis-Pro card updates is that I plan to make use of my first true vacation in a few years - with no cell coverage in the mountains - as a chance to catch-up with the AL Statis-Pro cards. The Montana Commissioner is playing off the AL with these cards, but we like to play a little interleague so we catch up on who is on which AL team this year, and if they are having a good or bad year (based on card adjustments in a recent blog).
This does create our one "unbalanced" part of the season. The other 14 series we have scheduled has each of our 11 NL qualifiers playing the other 14 NL teams each in a series. Therefore our season is actually much more balanced than the MLB season, where teams must play more games in their division due to travel consideration (no travel issues in pulling the Statis-Pro cards out of my desk).
With each NL team playing only two interleague series, we tried to balance.
We started by ranking each AL team based on the record in my friend's Statis-Pro standings with a little adjustment for whether the cards on their team are now better or worse based on the adjustments in the recent blog.
Because the four NL Statis-Pro teams who were relegated at the 36-game mark will not be playing series, we only needed 22 total interleague series. Therefore we decided to have all 15 AL teams play one series with their top two starting pitchers. In addition, our top seven AL ranked teams will play a second series with their 3rd and 4th best starters, and for that series we rank each slightly lower.
Once we ranked how tough the AL team would be, we formed an S-curve so that whichever NL team gets the toughest AL opponent, also gets the easiest opponent (22nd best) in their second series, while the team that gets the 11th toughest opponent also gets the 12th toughest opponent, basically the middle two opponents.
We could not resist sending the Los Angeles Dodgers into Houston for the grudge match, but since the Astros with their top two starters are ranked as the toughest AL opponent in the game, the Dodgers will then travel to Detroit, since the Tigers are ranked as the easiest opponent.
The Nationals will visit the middle two, which are the Yankees and Angels, but with their No. 3 and No. 4 starting pitchers in the two series, so not facing the aces for each team - including Ohtani on the mound.
The Mets will also visit Boston as we remember the late, great Billy Buckner's known miscue that unfortunately drew attention from his fantastic career.
All series are listed below, and we will play all games in the AL Park with DH, so we can also see the park factors on each AL team cards to see if deep drives leave the ballpark or not.
| NL | 1st (tougher) series | 2nd Series | Opp Rank |
|---|
| ARI | TB (3rd,4th) | OAK | 8, 15 |
| ATL | CWS | BAL | 2, 21 |
| CHC | HOU (3rd,4th) | TEX | 3, 20 |
| CIN | CWS (3rd,4th) | KC | 4, 19 |
| LAD | HOU | DET | 1, 22 |
| MIL | BOS | SEA | 5, 18 |
| NYM | BOS (3rd,4th) | TOR (3rd,4th) | 7, 16 |
| SD | TB | MIN | 6, 17 |
| SF | NYY (3rd, 4th) | LAA (3rd, 4th) | 11, 12 |
| STL | LAA | TOR | 10, 13 |
| WSH |
| CLE | 9, 14 |
We also updated the
grid google sheet to leave a place to record the record against the AL, and list these two opponents there as well.
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