A’s unsuccessfully attempted to have 2016 schedule altered due to travel concerns
The Oakland A’s likely cringe every time the next season’s schedule comes out. Along with the Seattle Mariners, they travel the most miles annually due to their location and the location of other teams in their division, and they knew 2016 would be no different.
Only this time, it kind of was different.
As Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reports, the A’s were truly upset after learning of their 2016 travel schedule, which they considered to be brutal in comparison to previous seasons.
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Among the biggest issues: for the second year in a row, the A’s do not play back-to-back series at Houston and Texas, meaning Oakland will make 12 trips to that state in 2015 and 2016. When the Astros joined the AL West in 2013, one of the suggested “benefits” was that teams would travel to play both in succession.
Next month, the A’s do play Texas and Houston on the same trip — but not back-to-back. In a puzzling bit of planning, they go from Dallas to Chicago and then to Houston.
That is puzzling to say the least, and it obviously planted a seed for their frustration. Slusser adds that the A’s were upset enough with next season’s schedule that team president Mike Crowley tried to push for changes during the recent owners meetings in Chicago. They were denied, meaning the A’s will have to deal with the road that lies ahead.
Here’s more from Slusser’s report.
More galling are two particular stretches next year. From April 18 to May 15, the A’s will be on the road for 22 of 28 days — and they’ll spend off days at Milwaukee and at Cincinnati on the same trip, lengthening their time away.
In fact, the club will wind up with three days off in an eight-day span, which barely skirts the collective bargaining agreement that limits days off to two in a seven-day span. That’s terrible from a competitive standpoint because it will disrupt the pitching schedule.
The trips to Cincinnati and Milwaukee represent another scheduling quirk, in that the A’s are repeating interleague trips from 2013. That flies in the face of the supposed interleague policy that every team visits cities in the other league every six years. The exception in the A’s case would be the Giants, whom they play home and away every season.
It sure seems like the A’s have good reason to be annoyed, but there’s really nothing they can do other than point out the issues and hope they aren’t repeated.
“Every year there are challenges with the schedule, and, unfortunately, a number of teams either have or will find themselves with similar scheduling/travel challenges,” MLBPA head Tony Clark wrote via e-mail. “I say that with a complete understanding as to just how challenging it is to put the schedule together. As always, we look forward to discussing and addressing as many of these scheduling challenges and issues as possible, which will invariably be beneficial to everyone involved.”
The planning and logistics that go into formulating the MLB schedule have to be overwhelming, even with a computer assisting in the task. Between limiting miles, adhering to the CBA and simply lining up opponents, it doesn’t sound like much fun to figure out. All things considered, the league does a good job piecing it together. It’s just too bad that some team’s will always be victims of geography.
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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Townie813
