RC Discussion on FGM Regular Season Schedule (RC Members only please)

[Flash]

I had done some work on a more realistic schedule last offseason but couldn't get my proposal finished before the season started. Now seems like a good time to bring this topic up for next year.

The Current Schedule that FGM uses is the schedule that was developed for Moneyball. This schedule has been used for the last 2 years without a problem.

Currently though there are a few things that I dislike about this schedule. One of these items is that the schedule doesn't contain 162 Games. The other issue I have is that the current playoff format uses the point totals of the last week to settle the WC matchup between the #1 and #2 WC teams.

My proposal is that in 2015 FGM uses a new schedule.

This schedule would contain 162 games and be played in 20 Scoring periods (Current schedule uses 21 periods). The schedule would consist of 18 periods of 8 games and 2 periods of 9 games (18*8+2*9=162). The regular season would end a week earlier then normal but the extra week would then be used to hold a 1 week wildcard matchup between the WC teams without affecting the current playoff format (including the 2 week World Series).

The 162 games would be split up in the following manner:
19 games × 4 opponents in-division (76 games)
6 or 7 x 10 interdivision games within-league (66 games)
20 inter-league games (16 vs a division from the other league (rotates annually) and 4 vs a "natural rival" (See below for a current list of natural rivals))

Natural Rivals:
Baltimore and Washington
Boston and Atlanta
New York Mets and New York Yankees
Miami and Tampa Bay
Toronto and Philadelphia
Chicago Cubs  and Chicago White Sox
Cincinnati and Cleveland
Detroit and Pittsburgh
Kansas City and St. Louis
Milwaukee and Minnesota (Minneapolis/St. Paul)
Houston and Arizona
Los Angeles Angels and Los Angeles Dodgers
Oakland and San Francisco
San Diego and Seattle
Texas and Colorado

This is a more realistic schedule and would give us the opportunity to host a real wildcard play-in. The downsides to this schedule is that it is more heavily weighted to divisional play and not all teams would play every year (Currently we play one game each against teams in the opposite league).

Please discuss this and list any Pros or Cons for changing the schedule. I would like to hold a vote on this proposal before the world series is done.

Shooter

Six of eight eligible voters support the change of schedule, with two abstentions.  Wouldn't this indicate that Shooter's schedule proposal is a go for the upcoming 2015 season?

Rules Committee - Summary of votes
Colby (crs245) :PIT: Yes
Roy (rcankosy) :TEX:
Mike (VolsRaysBucs) :TB: Yes
Bob (Shooter 47) :BAL: Yes
Freddy (kungfuwig) :KC:
Chris  (papps) :PHI: Yes
Ernesto (Flash) :SF: Yes
Rick (BHows) :LAD: Yes