Why are the rangers playing the D-backs this year? It looks like they are playing the NL central in inter leauge play. Also, Ive never known of a scheduled day night double header followed by a day off then play the same team in a 2 game series a 2 days later. Does this look odd to anyone else?

i guess it must be a memorial day thing. still strange scheduling.

wait...... are the diamondbacks the new astros? since the astros moved to the AL are we now forced into forming a new rivialry with the dbacks?

Alan Butthead Selig has deemed that the Arizona Diamondbacks are our new "Natural Rival", much in the same way our Silver Boot buddies down IH-45 were represented as being fierce rivals. So annually the Rangers will play inter leaguer games against AZ much in the same way it was with Astros. I am still looking for the subway that runs between Phoenix and Arlington. Not quite Yankees/Mets; Cubs/White Sox; Dodgers/Angels, etc. another reason to impeach the moron.

Selig is dumber than Eric Reining.

^^^^^ okay, it's mean, but that's FUNNY

vs Royals would be better, or anyone in the Central or same time zone. Worst mistake by Hicks was not moving the Rangers to the Central or same time Zone so we do not have to watch west coast games.

Weird schedule but the overall answer is simple. The Rangers play pretty much a different round robin with different teams each year. We played the Braves two years ago I think. We play a different group of teams each year. The Astros team every year was a marketing tool.

so, the bottom line here is, yes, the Diamondbacks are our designated rivals in the National League. Because MLB wanted it set up to have Yankees/Mets, Dodgers/Angels, A's/Giants, Cubs/WhiteSox every year in additional to the round-robin interleague play, they created the designated rivals games that get played against the same team every year. In the past, that has been the Astros for us, which is why we always played the Astros every year, even when our designated interleague games were against the NL East or NL West.

However, with the Astros move to the AL West, we lose our designated rival and have to be assigned a new one. Furthermore, that rival need come from the NL West, because that's they way things are set up (which makes sense since designated rivals are typically geographically close). Now, candidates in the NL West would be Dodgers (already taken by LAA), Giants (already taken by OAK), San Diego, Colorado, and Arizona. Mind you, these teams have to match up with AL West teams as well. Subsequently, Seattle was matched with San Diego, Colorado was matched with Houston, and we were matched with Arizona. Could arguments be made for alternative matchups? sure... i guess, but this is the way the chips fell...

Arizona and Texas being "Natural Rivals" is almost as dumb as Seattle and San Diego being natural rivals.

apparently, San Diego and Seattle have Spring Training in the same place and have developed a friendly rivalry over the past decade or so... again, somewhat arbitrary, but I don't see San Diego as a worse rivalry for Seattle than either Colorado or Arizona.

Maybe they based the "natural rivalry" thing on what I assume is a ton of arguing over Justin Upton.

It's a bunch of yankees sitting in offices thinking Texas and AZ have got cactus and cowboys and western prairies, six-shooters and rattlesnakes in common. So that makes us rivals?
Ti yi yippie yi o!

Yee haw.

BEWARE: Rush on the Borders during pre-game. "I keek a Hhomron!"

Eric if your baseball intelligence is compared to Selig take it .as a complement. Selig was chosen years ago from the Brewers to be the new Commissioner of the MLB precisely because of his knowledge and intelligence of the workings of the MLB Not everyone is going to agree with his decisions, but those decisions are heavily weighed before acting on. The game schedule has drastically changed with the Astros moving to the AL, which compels at any given series that at least one NL team must be playing one AL, now that there is a 15 / 15 split.

Hey, at least we get to see Justin Upton play!

After the Astros line up with Colorado, Arizona is the only real choice. I do not know, but the Astros for moving to the AL were probably given a choice of rivalry and logically took Colorado. LA-LA and SF-Oakland are givens. This leaves a choice of SD OR Arizona. The Rangers already have a significant interest in the Phoenix area. That is their home base two months a year for the whole team and 12 months a year for their Main Camp where Guzman, Mazara, Claudio and others were stationed from January to October last year.

Plus, the D-Back OWE the Rangers... well... Tom Hicks, anyway. Originally, upon entry into the ranks of MLB, the D-Backs were to play 2 years in the NL (playing all the teams in that league) then, swapping with Tampa Bay moving permanently into the ALW bumping Texas into the ALC. Didn't happen.

When someone in Texas realized that had never happened (after 15 years or so) and called 'em on it, they paid off Tom HIcks (directly - the money didn't come to the team) through the Commissioner and got to stay in the NL. Clearly, the Commissioner is partial to the NL having moved his own team there to "balance the schedules".