here's my 2-cents on a new schedule, (from a mets-centric point of view)
12 games v. 4 other nl east teams=48 games
9 games v. 11 other nl teams=99 games
that equals 147 games, for the 15 remaining to get to 162, it's either 6 v. the yanks and 9 v. 3 teams from a division (the mets and yanks would both demand that the 6 games be left intact in any rescheduling) or 3 v. the yanks and 12 games v. 4 random al teams (could do it based on last year's record like the nfl).

of course, i'd rather see 2 divisions in each league rather than three so there's less of a chance for a bogus division winner, i would then have 2 wild card spots to hand out to the 2 next-best teams based on record. i don't think fans in tampa bay, pittsburgh, montreal, or kc feel any better that their teams are in 5th place rather than in 7th or 8th in a 2-division format. no one gets fooled, and for the teams in the middle of the pack, they'd be watching the wild-card standings after the all-star break rather than their division standings anyway.