@joe_sheehan A's have better AL record than Texas, who have 4 game adv. from interleague after playing HOU (5-1) not SFG (2-4).

— Max Laughton (@dshban) October 3, 2012

In one of the old Baseball Abstracts, Bill James noticed that the Padres -- I can't remember if it was the '83 or '84 squad -- just happened to miss an inordinate number of their opponents' best starting pitchers. They played the same schedule as their division mates, but through blind luck, evaded the Rick Rhodens, Mario Sotos, and Alejandro Peñas of the league.

That's a sort of hidden strength of schedule. I can get behind that. But I don't think I'll ever be comfortable with the idea of teams competing for the same prize playing decidedly different schedules.