The SOS is an evaluation system for each team's strength of schedule. In each category (hitting, base stealing and pitching), opposing teams are assigned a value ranging from 4 (easiest) to 1 (hardest). For example, the Yankees, being a great hitting team, would be a 1 for any team to pitch against. Then, for the specified time period (April, September, Overall, next week, next four weeks), the points for each team's scheduled opponents are added up to identify the best and worst schedule blocks. For example, the total 2007 number for Houston hitters is 144 while the number for Rockies hitters is just 115. The difficulty rating of each team is constantly updated throughout the season.
You can poke around the net and find several articles about how to set your lineup for the upcoming week. That's all fine and dandy, but in SOS, we're going to focus on something even more useful; opportunities that present themselves over the course of several weeks. If you're aware of these patterns, the information can help you in deciding about trades, free agent pickups, and yes, lineups, too. Now, let's get down to some real schedule analysis.
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