Did I count correctly...19 games with the Astros? So who has determined who the Rangers DON'T play this year and, assuming that the Astros are beaten 12 of 19 or so, how nice is that? Additionally, does playing a team in rebuild mode effect things like WAR?

I could be wrong in my counting, but I believe we play Houston 18 times. I also saw we have a scheduled day/night doubleheader. Weird. Because of the imbalanced leagues (15 AL/15 NL), I think we'll be playing 6 teams from the NL (all the NL Central + the Diamondbacks).

Also, I'm not sure what you meant by your last question, if it's anything deeper than I'm reading into, but playing teams in rebuild do not affect WAR. I mean, playing the Astros will certainly help the WAR totals of our players, but other than that, it's all chalk.

Question poorly stated. redux...does strength of schedule, a la BCS rankings, figure into any statistical analysis? In other words, if Houston sucks large are other AL West teams predicted to gain wins? Common sense would say yes but... I do recognize that WAR and most other Sabre things consider the individual player.

No

I do not think LAAA or Oakland or Seattle played Houston last year. Texas went 5 - 1. I would think the other teams in the West will gain some wins vs Houston again this year.

Strength of schedule ultimately has no relevance statistically. I don't think you have any clue what WAR is if you're genuinely asking if that affects it. However, you can see the on-field benefit of playing a weak strength (ie: AL Central) and how a division can be won with terrible records anyhow. Worked out well for the Tigers the last couple years to beat up on the Royals, Indians, and W. Sox and lose a lot to others outside the league.

The only relevance strength of schedule has for us next year is in the "W" column. 12/18 should not be remotely out of question.

It looks like from the schedule that we have replaced the Astros with the D-backs as the geographic throw-in: meaning we will likely play them every year in addition to whichever division we play as the inter-league matchup.

I admit to being among the sabre-clueless, but common sense would suggest that playing a lousy team more would give your players an opportunity to put up better stats, which would be reflected in statistical evaluation. But then, perhaps any relationship between common sense and sabre is random variation.

With 19 games against the Astros we will play 6 less games against the AL east 15 less games against the AL central and 2 more interleague games in 2013.

In 2012 we went
27-30 vs ALW
28-18 vs ALC
24-16 vs ALE
14-4 vs NL

In 2012 we play games
76 vs ALW
32 vs ALC
34 vs ALE
20 vs NL

Wow. Just now recognizing how poorly we did against the ALW last year. Did not realize we were below .500

78-------- i'm confused. shouldn't the two columns ad up to the same number?

903-

I might have a typo in there.... What doesn't add up and I can clarify?

1 typo we went 28-19 vs ALC.

@78
Is your 2nd column for 2013?

Yes. Should be 2013. Wish we could edit posts... Sorry.

Here is it edited. Sorry.

With 19 games against the Astros we will play 6 less games against the AL east 15 less games against the AL central and 2 more interleague games in 2013.

In 2012 we went
27-30 vs ALW
28-19 vs ALC
24-16 vs ALE
14-4 vs NL

In 2013 we play games
76 vs ALW
32 vs ALC
34 vs ALE
20 vs NL

This is a bigger boon to any AL west team that hasn't been afforded the luxury of beating up the Lastros the last few seasons, Houston has allowed 510 more runs than it's scored over the last three years, Shockingly awful.

Now they get to face all the big bad AL offenses. It could be beyond ugly.

Unfortunately that padding of stats will help everyone BUT the Rangers. Better said it will help everyone more, because the Rangers will not gain the number of games on the Stros that everyone else in the division will. I believe the WAR to win the AL West just went up 3 games :)

It will also hurt the Rangers in interleague in that they will play the D-Backs instead of the weak sisters to the south.

So I look for 2 things to happen as a result of the move:
Rangers will drop 2-3 games in interleague W-L record vs the last 2-3 years
The number of wins to be AL West Division Champs will go up 2-5 games, vs the average of the last 2-5 years.