Mar 2, 2015; Kissimmee, FL, USA; Houston Astros manager A.J. Hinch (left) goes over the practice schedule with Lance Berkman during morning work outs at Osceola County Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports
Yesterday, Major League Baseball rolled out the 2017 schedule for all 30 teams. There are some interesting things that could be of some benefit to the Braves – certainly more so than what the 2016 schedule provided.
Believe it or not, 2017 marks the 20th season of regular-season inter-league play. And like it or not (I do not, for the record), it’s here to stay. In fact, with 15-team leagues, it is basically a requirement unless you want at least two teams sitting around to do nothing each and every day of the year.
Otherwise, 2017 will mark the opening of SunTrust Park, and it seems that MLB gave the Atlanta Braves a little more time to get the facility ready – just in case. The season technically opens on Sunday, April 2nd, but the Braves home opener doesn’t happen until Friday, April 14.
There is a preview event scheduled for March 31st when the Yankees come to town and Brian McCann can show off his restored facial hair to his old teammates – KIDDING!.
But with all that said, let’s look at some of the highlights of the schedule from Atlanta’s perspective.
Openers
There will be a lot of standing around on foul lines as Atlanta helps the Mets, Pirates, and Marlins all start their home campaigns – before they finally get their own home opener on April 14th.
Atlanta opens at CitiField on Monday, April 3rd against the Mets – probably with an early afternoon game, but the time has not been announced yet.
After a day off (to allow for rain or snow on the 3rd), the Braves get the Mets twice more before going to Pittsburgh. From there, it’s another off-day before going to Miami for a pair… and then another off-day.
Honestly, I think this start should benefit the Braves quite a bit: 3 off-days in the first week-and-a-half of the year, and all of that on the road when the rigors of travel should be less of a hassle than in the middle of Summer, for instance. So that gets 8 road games out of the way early… and more early trips are coming.
West Coast Swings
I always watch for these, especially since the Braves tend to do very badly in the Pacific Time Zone. It’s a bit magnified this year, though, since the inter-league matchup requires the NL East to face the members of the AL West. So there’s an extra long trip out West for the upcoming season.
#Braves 2017 West Coast trips:
SFG/LAA – end May
SDP/OAK – end June
LAD/ARZ – late July
COL/CIN/SEA – mid-August— AlanCarpenterFS⚾ (@carpengui) September 14, 2016
It is hard to handicap how good teams might be next year. Anything can happen. But when looking at the AL West, you’d have to think that Oakland and the Angels are going to struggle, so facing them in their home parks might not be awful. It might not be a bad schedule, then, with 2-city trips for the most part. We’ll look at that July excursion a bit more as we go along here.
April
In total, Atlanta only has 7 games at home in April. While this might be a little annoying, I’ll suggest again that it’s a great thing to get road games done early. If there’s any chance of this team actually competing for a playoff spot in 2017, this arrangement might seriously help that cause.
Opponents:
May
Finally, the Braves get to really break-in the new digs. And they start with the Mets… again. This will be the third series against them… before the first month of the year is done.
16 home games in the month of May. Of note is that the Toronto Blue Jays are on the schedule. For every year I can recall (too lazy to do the homework), the Boston Red Sox have been added as the “natural inter-league rivalry” series for Atlanta. This year it will be Toronto… which makes zero sense, but … whatever.
I do see that the stupid 2-and-2 home-and-home series is still a “thing” with that natural rival: 2 games in Toronto backed up by two games vs. the Jays in Atlanta… er, Cobb County. Okay.
Opponents:
June
Finally – an off-day on June 1st. But that’s still in the midst of a road trip coming in from the West Coast, so it’s actually almost mandatory to do so… never mind the 20-game string. If there’s a run in this schedule that might wear the team out, it’s this one right here.
After that, there’s a lot of home-cookin’ going on for the rest of the month – 17 games at SunTrust with 10 on the road (all 17 being in a 20-game stretch). This includes… the Mets, for a change: the fourth meeting of the season.
Opponents:
A new San Diego State Aztecs helmet featuring the Aztec calendar. Hey, it’s the closest thing to a “calendar” I could find. Mandatory Credit: Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports
July
I noted that it’s good to get road games stockpiled early on in the season. However July is going to be a rough month after a big run of home games in May and June. 8 home games in July; 17 on the road… and some of the home games are barely worth unpacking for.
Happily, the All-Star Break (July 10-13; MIami) occurs in July to provide substantial recovery time. Nonetheless, the Braves start the month by finishing one West Coast trip, then embark on a second one before it’s done.
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Opponents:
August
Finally – back home. The schedule does provide a substantial break this month, though not necessarily with the opposition. 17 home games; 11 on the road.
9 of the games from the end of July through August will be with the Phillies, 7 are with the Rockies, and there’s also 7 with the Dodgers within 2 weeks.
If you’re gonna go to Colorado, I suppose that piggy-backing that trip with one to St. Louis is about as easy as it will ever get.
Opponents:
September/October
The season ends on Sunday October 1st against the Fish in Miami. Hopefully there isn’t a hurricane hitting there that last weekend (dome or not). The Braves also go to New York that week, so they almost bookend the season at CitiField.
There’s 16 home games and 13 on the road to finish. Typically, the schedule-makers will built in an extra off-day or two for most teams in an effort to allow a chance to make up a rainout from earlier in the year. That could pose some problems for the Braves if this becomes an issue, for they only have 2 free passes in September – both on Mondays; one of those in the midst of a homestand.
Additionally, note that 17-games-in-a-row run wrapped from August. If some brilliant scheduler believes that September 11th is needed for a make-up game, then that would require Atlanta to play 24 games on consecutive days. Not good… and that would require a waiver from the players’ association.
Otherwise it’s all NL East rivals for the last 3 weeks. For the full month, we will see the Mets twice, Nationals twice, Marlins twice, Phillies once.
Opponents:
Projecting Difficulty
The West Coast road trips are not horrible – only one involves 3 cities. Having the ALWest on the schedule could be a net “plus” for the NL East teams. If the A’s and Angels are bad teams, then that’s certainly a help.
My own guess is that Houston, while “All-In” for this season, may not be able to sustain that momentum for next season given that they are struggling to get consistent offensive performers and may not wish to spend the resources to replace their cast-offs. Seattle and Texas are wild-card unknowns for 2017.
The NL East is hard to handicap: Will Washington be able to sustain this year’s performance? Will the Mets be healthy and will Yoenis Cespedes return for them? What can/will Miami do? The Phillies will have plenty of money (upwards of $100 million!), but what would they be inclined to spend it on?
Overall, it looks to be a much more favorable schedule for Atlanta next year – certainly true given the start we had in 2016 and the expectations of having a much better team in 2017. I would guess that we’re all wanting to fast-forward the calendar to next April to see that get started!
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