Who Has the Tougher March/April?

by jscape2000 on Mar 17, 2008 10:28 AM EDT in News Comment 4 comments

The Yanks play 11 home games, 18 away, with an off day April 1st (immediately after Opening Day) and another on April 21st after a day game in Baltimore.

The Yanks will play evening get-away games without a travel day going from NY to KC (for a 4:05 start!), KC to Boston, Boston to Tampa, then Tampa to NY (love those two game homestands). The getaway game on April 17th against the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium is still TBA, but if it's an evening game at least the Yanks only go to Baltimore. Then they're back on the no rest train from Chicago to Cleveland, then Cleveland to NY against the Tigers.

Meanwhile, the Red Sox fly to Japan on the 19th and play some exhibition games before they open the season against Oakland on March 25th. After the game on the 26th they fly home. From here on they have 15 home games and 12 away games. They'll play two more with Oakland (3:35EST getaway), then have a travel day before going to Toronto (1:07 getaway), then another travel day before a 6 game homestand against the Tigers and the Yanks. They play the evening getaway game with the Yank on Sunday Night Baseball then fly to Cleveland for two (another evening getaway), then to NY for two (if that TBA game is evening it'll be another evening getaway), and home to Boston for a 7 game homestand against Texas and LAAoAoUSA. They have an afternoon game before flying down to Tampa for 3 with the Rays, a travel day, and then close the month back in Boston against the Jays.

So my question is, who has the tougher schedule?

The Red Sox go to Japan, but then have more home games, a kinder travel game times, and an extra travel day.

The Yanks play more games on the road, with late start times, and stretched of 19 and 13 (into May) games in a row.

Which schedule would you rather have? Which team will get off to a quick start? Which team will get more sympathy from ~~Red Sox Nation~~ ESPN?

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Forget April ... look at the whole season

The Yankees get seriously hosed:

Mar (1)/Apr
11 home
18 away

May*
16 home
12 away

June
14 home
14 away

July*
18 home
6 away

Aug
12 home
16 away

Sep
10 home
15 away

I don't know how anyone justifies this schedule. Out of 6 months, the team has more home games than away games in only 2 of them. And, the final two months of the season (always so critical) are unbalanced at 22-31 (home/away)

So in a way, I think the schedule disfavors this team in the long run.

July looks awesome if the Yanks can get a run at home with the +12 home games + the AS break being NY-bound.

As for the early part of the season -- it's a wash for both teams travel-wise. BOS will take 10 days to recover from international travel (at a guess). Yanks are just, well, screwed on the road schedule. I'd be more interested to look at Toronto's schedule instead for possible favorability.

Anyway, key to the season is May-July (48 home / 32 away)...if we get out of April at 17-12, I'd take that going into May.

by detroit yankee on Mar 17, 2008 11:23 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Update

While Boston gets the ugly international schedule early, the schedule-makers clearly took pity on them late:

Mar/Apr
15 home
14 away

May
11 home
18 away

Jun
15 home
12 away

Jul
12 home
12 away

Aug
12 home
16 away

Sept
16 home
9 away

I'd sure like to finish with 16 home games in September :)

May looks doubly important for NY now, with BOS away heavily that month.

For comparison, Toronto is slightly better than NY in terms of Home/Away disparity by month; but August/September they have more games with NY an BOS and their split in Sept is 15 home, 10 away.

Since NY was +23 home and only +3 away last season, I'm interested to see how they handle such a difficult road schedule this year.

by detroit yankee on Mar 17, 2008 12:51 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Agreed

That September schedule will definitely help out in he stretch. I do not agree with the sentiments of some around here that the division will be won or lost early on.

I'm also thinking that the Yanks will get off to a rough start, testing Joe G very early on.

by HarlemUSA on Mar 17, 2008 11:45 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs