Major League Baseball 2013

Major League Baseball 2013 season is scheduled to begin on March 31 and end on September 29.The opening match will be played on Sunday night between the Texas Rangers and the Houston Astros. However most of the clubs open only onApril 1, a day later.

The Houston Astros', placed in the West Division, will play as a member of the American League first time, in 2013 season.As the Astros' switched league, all six divisions will have five teams each. This would entail inter-league games to be played throughout the Major League season for the first time in MLB history.

Rules have under gone some minor changes are to be implemented in this season. These changes have been approved by MLB owners as on January 14, 2013. In the normal course these amendments need the approval of the Unions of the Players, if they have not been given due cognizance already.

 

Managers and Coaches will be permitted to take interpreters along,when visiting the pitcher's mound, forassisting the pitchers who are not well conversant in English.

This season onwards the Teams will be allowed to have seven uniformed coaches in the dugout, (6 -last season).

If a right-handed pitcher, in pick off move, fakes to third base and throws to first would be considered a balk (illegal pitching move). This change is likely to be implemented for 2013 season pending union's approval. However, it was reported that the owners opined that the players would approvesame.

Shifting the Houston Astros' to the American League West resulted in creation of two 15-team leagues each divided into three five-team divisions. Interleague games will be played nearly every day during the season, as there is odd number of teams in each league (except when not every team has a match). 2013 season, each team will play 20 interleague games (gone up from 15-18 games) in eight series. Each team will play one three-game series against four teams from one division in the other league, and two two-game series (one home, one away) against the remaining team in that division.  The remaining four games will be played against a team's "natural rival" in two back-to-back two-game series. It will be the first season that every team has an interleague rivalry.

The remaining 142 games will be played within the league. Each team will play its four division rivals 19 games (15-18 in 2012) for a total of 76 games and either 6 or 7 games against the ten teams in the two other divisions in its league, for a total of 66 games.

Apart from the natural rivalries, teams of a particular division will play the same opponents for the same number of games, approximately. The only variation occurs in interleague match-ups (either 3 or 4 games) and same-league interdivision match-ups (either 6 or 7 games).