We've talked a lot about this year's MLB on Fox/FS1 schedule at this site, and for a couple of reasons. One is because it's the lone Major League Baseball TV schedule that — save a couple of weeks at the end of the year — is planned out for most of the season before it starts. Secondly, because it's a bit of a different paradigm in years past.
Fox stipulated in their new deal that they could grab more games featuring the 15 teams who have RSNs owned by Fox than the ones they don't. That proved true to form when the schedule got announced, as there are 88 games featuring teams that do play on Fox networks (which include YES, as they have a majority stake in the Yankees channel), and 44 on non-Fox RSNs like Comcast, ROOT and Time Warner Cable.
So, we've taken 10 MLB teams: five with too many appearances on the Fox schedule, five with too few. We'll look at them from the logistics of whether or not they're on the schedule too much or too little because of inaccurate levels of hype, or whether Fox's plan to stack the deck with teams on their regional networks is afoot.
Over
New York Yankees (11 appearances)
The Yankees are overhyped every year, even if they've won the World Series. It's hard to battle with picking them too much because they are Major League Baseball's flagship franchise. That said, they didn't make the post-season last year and are still probably not favored to win the American League East.
You could argue that the acquisitions of Masahiro Tanaka and Jacoby Ellsbury, as well as Derek Jeter's farewell tour, are enough to qualify the Bronx Bombers for all those games. However, they still lost their best player (Robinson Cano) and saw a lot of players get a year older. There's never a time when the Yankees aren't over-exposed, however, so we'll still keep them here.
Cleveland Indians (7 appearances)
Yes, the Indians have a popular manager in Terry Francona who led them to a Wild Card loss and their first postseason since 2007. They signed a nice player in David Murphy, and Nick Swisher is a somewhat well-known player. But still, more appearances than the Boston Red Sox?
The Tribe were certainly a popular franchise in the 1990s. They play in a decent market that follows the team when they're playing well. Still, this feels like a bit much.
Kansas City Royals (6 appearances)
Kansas City is considered one of the up-and-coming franchises in baseball. There are some who feel they're poised to finally break a drought of nearly 30 years of not making the playoffs. So it's a tentative over, in that Fox is taking the risk that they will take the next step towards meaningful games in October.
San Diego Padres (4 appearances)
76-86 is way better than I thought the Padres had performed in 2013. They haven't made the postseason since 2006 and don't appear to be a rising stock. There's some decent players in San Diego, but are they really challenging the cash flush Dodgers and clubs with good young talent in Arizona and Colorado?
This one, more than any of the others, seems like a team that got put here for Fox appearances. San Diego is a decent market, but it's still probably not worthy of more appearances than, say, Oakland.
Miami Marlins (1 appearance)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Jared Saltalamacchia. If this isn't a Jose Fernandez start, I am calling BS.
Under
Boston Red Sox (6 appearances)
The World Series champions coming from a huge market deserve a much greater presence on the Fox schedule. You'd think games against the Yankees alone would drive the Red Sox to double digits. However, Fox doesn't own a piece of NESN.
Still, the Washington Nationals and Pittsburgh Pirates, two clubs not owned by Fox, have more appearances. You'd think they're probably saving the Sox for flex weeks at the end of 2014, but it remains a bit surprising that they're on so little.
Arizona Diamondbacks (3 appearances)
Here's a curious case. The D'Backs went 81-81 last year and seem to be on the verge of becoming the second best team in the NL West. They're in a pretty big market, and on a Fox-owned RSN, yet… only three games. What gives?
It's a fair bet to make, I suppose, but I was still surprised to see that the Diamondbacks didn't get the Fox RSN bump here.
Oakland Athletics (1 appearance)
The next few are very curious. The Oakland Athletics have repeated as AL West division champions the past two seasons. They've taken the Detroit Tigers to five-game division series each of the past two years. Yet, only one appearance on this year's Fox schedule.
Now, the Athletics are a solid second-place to the Giants in that Bay Area triad (FYI: Oakland, San Jose and San Francisco are all bunched into one market) and their ratings aren't massive. Still, the A's deserve at least as many appearances as their Comcast brothers in San Francisco, who got five.
New York Mets (1 appearance)
The Mets are a bad team, and probably in a holding position until 2015, but it's still kind of a shock to see Fox not take more than a single game from them. They have one of the sport's biggest stars (David Wright) and play in the country's biggest market, and despite being second to the Yanks, still put up very solid ratings despite their perrenial LOLMets-iness.
New York's NL franchise is also starting to develop some solid prospects, but they are largely pitchers, which means Fox can't get a solid prediction on when they'll play. So while it's understandable that Fox would keep them off the air, it's still kind of shocking to see only one TV appearance for David Wright this season.
Seattle Mariners (0 appearances)
Apparently, $240 million doesn't buy much TV time. Despite acquiring a bona fide star in Robinson Cano, the Mariners are shut out of the Fox schedule this season. Easily the biggest shock of the whole announcement, despite the fact that the Yankees' two series against Cano's new team happen during the middle of the week.
Seattle plays in a big market, has two huge stars in Cano and Felix Hernandez, but does not play on a Fox-affiliated network. Probably the biggest disappointment of Fox's new, single-game Saturdays is the lack of Robbie Cano's sweet swing on national television once in a while.
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