The 2006 regular-season schedules for the Nats, Mets, Braves, Phillies and Marlins seem to be pretty well finalized.
So, ignoring the players, managers, what team's better, what team's worse, and other insignificant ephemera, I have been staring at the schedules of the NL East teams, in an attempt to see where the natural up-and-downs occur. I've used the supposedly tried-and-true criteria, such as:
A.) The more home games the better; more away games less so.
B.) More days off to rest up would be good, long streaks of games without days off not so good.
C.) As humans tend to be more tired and make-up days for delayed games tend to be more needed at the end of a season, days off in Aug-tember could be considered to be a better deal as opposed to days off in May-pril.
D.) Then there are the unpredictable weather factors: playing in open-air refrigerators like Colorado and Chicago may be disadvantageous in April (for an example, remember the Marlins last year), while steam rooms like St. Louis could be nasty in August (and let's not get into hurricanes).
E.) And other stuff I'll make up on the way.
Here's what I saw, listed almost-monthly, by home/away game ratios (with days-off) and with probably incorrect observations:
---APRIL---
PHILADELPHIA (16 home - 9 away, 3 days off) - rides high in April, the only question may be how'll the weather'll treat them in Colorado April 14-16.
NEW YORK (12 home - 13 away, 3 days off) - will be at home 12 of their first 15 games, then will fly to a series in (possibly) sunny California; in the middle of the month they play 16 straight days.
FLORIDA (9 home - 15 away, 4 days off) - plays only 6 of their first 21 games at home, and, while they aren't playing in Colorado until June, they do have to be in Cincinatti April 17-19 and Chicago April 24-26.
ATLANTA (9 home - 16 away, 3 days off) - gets to start the season with a West Coast trip; of their first 23 games only 6 are at home.
WASHINGTON (9 home - 17 away, 2 days off) - plays 13 of their first 16 games on the road.
---FIRST WEEK IN MAY, that strange Seligism where all the teams play short strings of 2-game series without any breaks---
NEW YORK (7-0) - Flies home from Atlanta to play 2 against the Nats, 2 against the Pirates and 3 against the Braves, all at home.
PHILADELPHIA (5-2) - Flies from Pittsburgh to Florida for 2, then back home to play 2 against the Braves and 3 against the Giants.
WASHINGTON (5-2) - Flies from St. Louis to New York for 2 games, then back home to face Florida for 2 and Pittsburgh for 3.
FLORIDA (5-2) - Stays at home to play 2 against the Phillies, flies to Washington for 2 against the Nats, then flies back down to Miami for 3 with the Cards.
ATLANTA (2-5) - Stays at home to play 2 against the Rockies, then planes to Philly for 2 games and New York for 3.
OPINION: Even though the Marlins have 3 more home games than Atlanta, I'd say the 2 long plane flights back and forth from D. C. could take as much out of the Fish as the short flights away from Atlanta would the Braves.
---REST O' MAY---
PHILADELPHIA (12-9, 3 days off) - a 6-game Midwest trip looks like the biggest strain schedule-wise on the Phillies until the end of this month, when they begin a 20-game stretch with no-days-off.
FLORIDA (12-10, 2 days off) - those 10 road games are in the middle of a 16-day, 16-game string. (NOTE: Pierre returns to Florida on the 22nd, Delgado and Lo Duca the 26th.)
WASHINGTON (10-12, 2 days off) - starts with a 9-game road trip followed by a 10-game home stand, ending up the month playing 16 straight days (for the last series of the month they'll be the only NL East team playing on the road).
ATLANTA (10-12, 2 days off) - starts with a 16-day/16-game stretch which ends in San Diego, then 2 days later in Chicago they begin a 17-day/17-game marathon (their longest) - from the 12th to the 18th, though, they'll be the only NL East team playing at home.
NEW YORK (9-12, 3 days off) - begins with a 9-game road trip, and then at home for 9 out of 12 games (those 3 days off are all Mondays).
Through April-May the Braves play 20 home and 32 away games, while the Phillies have 33 home games scheduled out of 53.
---JUNE TO ALL-STAR BREAK---
ATLANTA (23-13, 3 days off) - completes the 17-day gamefest they started at the end of last month - they Go Into The All-Star Break after finishing a 10-game home stand
WASHINGTON (21-15, 3 days off) - starts June off with a 20-game streak without a day off (their longest), and also GITASB after a 10-game home stand.
NEW YORK (17-19, 2 days off) - starts off at home, goes on a 9-game West-Coast swing, back home for 7 games, then a 9-game road trip.
PHILADELPHIA (15-20, 4 days off) - begins the month on the West Coast in the middle of their longest stretch without a day off; then they GITASB after 15 out of 24 games at home and 4 days off.
FLORIDA (12-22, 5 days off) - Blech! A West Coast trip, followed by interleague games packed with more recently former Marlins, followed by the start of hurricane season at home. At least they get a lot of days off to recover.
---INTERMISSION: WHO ARE THE NL EAST PLAYING IN INTERLEAGUE?---
PHILADELPHIA - Red Sox, Devil Rays, Yankees at home - Red Sox, Orioles, Blue Jays away
ATLANTA - Red Sox, Blue Jays, Orioles at home - Devil Rays, Yankees away
WASHINGTON - Orioles, Yankees, Devil Rays at home - Red Sox, Orioles, Blue Jays away
NEW YORK - Yankees, Orioles at home - Blue Jays, Red Sox, Yankees away
FLORIDA - Blue Jays, Devil Rays, Red Sox at home - Devil Rays, Orioles, Yankees away
---ALL-STAR BREAK---
The Mets, Nats, Phillies and Braves get 4 days off but the Marlins get only 3. Boo Hiss.
---REST O' JULY---
PHILADELPHIA (11-6, 1 day off) - begins with their last West-Coast swing of the year, then spends the rest of the month at home.
FLORIDA (11-7, 1 day off) - gets a break for the first 2 series, as they will be the only NL East team playing at home, which will be the start of their longest home stand of the year (followed by the day off).
NEW YORK (6-9, 2 days off) - goes out to the Midwest for 2 series, back home for 2 more, then away again.
ATLANTA (6-10, 1 day off) - starts off with the Pads (that's the end of their scheduled West-Coast trips for this year), then spends a bit of July in St. Louis heat; from the 21st to the 24th they will be the only NL East team playing away games.
WASHINGTON (6-10, 2 days off) - after a 6-game road trip will have a couple of off-days during their home stand, finishing up the month on the West Coast.
---AUGUST---
FLORIDA (16-12, 4 days off) - will be the only NL East home team from the 1st to the 3rd; their 9-game road trip from the 8th to the 16th will include their last West-Coast games this year; followed by 11 games at home (hurricanes) and 3 games at St. Louis (heat).
ATLANTA (15-13, 3 days off) - after the first 6 games will be 15-7 the rest of the month, never going farther west than Cincinatti.
NEW YORK (15-13, 3 days off) - plays up-and-down the East Coast until the last series of the month, when they'll shoot off to Colorado.
WASHINGTON (13-14, 4 days off) - begins the month in the middle of their West-Coast trip, then after a day's rest they play 16 days straight, then get days off on the 24th and 28th.
PHILADELPHIA (10-19, 2 days off) - starts off the month sweating in St. Louis at the beginning of a 9-game road trip; then they play for 17 straight days, the first 10 at home.
---SEPTEMBER TO THE END---
WASHINGTON (17-11, 3 days off) - continues another 16 straight games/days begun on 8/29, which ends with their last games out West this year - after that they'll play 11 out of 15 games at home till season's end.
ATLANTA (16-12, 3 days off) - is the only NL East away team from the 4th through the 6th; after that it's 16 home games and 6 away to finish the season.
FLORIDA (16-13, 2 days off) - continues a 20-day, 20-game streak that started on 8/25; after that the Fish have a 10-game road trip, then 6 games at home to close it out.
NEW YORK (15-15, 1 day off) - finishes 16 straight days of games Sept. 13, gets a scheduled day off, then finishes the season playing 17 straight days of games (their longest streak of the year, 8 games at home).
PHILADELPHIA (12-16, 3 days off) - will be playing 10 games against the Marlins this month, including the season-closing series at Florida.
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