Dodgers notes: 2023 schedule changes, position previews, Bryan Cranston on Vin Scully

Next year’s MLB schedule is a big change for the sport, with all 30 teams playing each other every single year for the first time ever. We talked earlier this week about some quirks of the Dodgers schedule.

Jayson Stark at The Athletic on Friday dug deep into the new schedule and various differences between this year and last.

He provided greater detail on the air miles traveled by each team, including the Dodgers increasing from 36,694 miles last year to 41,698. The addition of 5,004 miles is the ninth-largest difference in the sport. Four National League West teams are in the top nine in air-mile increases, topped by the Giants traveling over 11,000 more miles this year than last.

Another quirk is that, using 2022 records, Stark found the Dodgers will play 11 more games against teams with a winning record in 2023 than last year, the second-highest increase in MLB. But also, even with those added games, the Dodgers still have the fourth-easiest strength of schedule.

Links

• With spring training so close, Bill Plunkett at the Orange County Register offered a few positional previews this week. First up were the outfielders on Wednesday, then Plunkett looked at the Dodgers infielders on Friday.
• Dodgers chairman Mark Walter is part of a economic committee study formed by Major League Baseball that will meet during owners’ meetings in Palm Beach, Florida, Ronald Blum of Associated Press reports. On the agenda is how the league will deal with the pending bankruptcy of the holding company that owns Bally Sports regional networks that locally televise the games of 14 MLB teams.
• Old friend Jake McGee, who pitched for the Dodgers in 2020, is retiring from baseball after pitching 13 years in the majors. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times has more.
• Marc Normandin at Baseball Prospectus looked at how Congressional pressure regarding MLB’s antitrust exception might lead to a relatively quiet bargaining period with minor leaguers in trying to reach a deal with the newly-recognized union members.
• On separate episodes of the Effectively Wild podcast at FanGraphs this week, a mention was made about Shawn Green facing Mike Hampton in the 2003 movie ‘The Core,’ then Ben Lindbergh interviewed Green about filming the scene at Dodger Stadium., and Green going 18 for 29 with five home runs and an 1.854 OPS against Hampton in their careers.
• As a palate cleanser to take you into your weekend, here’s Bryan Cranston talking about Vin Scully on this week’s episode of ‘Hot Ones’: