We don't play any division games until the last couple days of August. We have a winning record against both the Central (9-6) and East (12-9). Small sample size; but despite our recent surge we're still below .500 against the west. Recent surge has shown us dominating the West. Does this mean that we cruise through the Central/East now? Are we up 7-8 games by the time we see the West again? Outside of 4 against the Cards, 3 against the Rays, and 3 against the Red Sox we face a bunch of shit teams. I feel like we could potentially run away with first place in the next month without even seeing anyone within our division.
This stretch coming up is tough, idk where you are coming from with the shit teams angle. ARI is the team with the cake walk schedule.
Jays, Reds, Yanks, Cubs, Cards, Rays, Mets, Phillies, Marlins, Red Sox, Cubs again. Those are our upcoming series. I should not have lumped the Reds in with the shit teams but the rest? Meh. Of course, I'm not counting the 3 teams I noted initially. Arizona's immediate schedule may be weak but in the next month they play, @Tampa, @Texas (1 game), @Boston, vs Baltimore, @Pittsburgh, @Cinci, and vs Tampa again. That doesn't feel like a cake walk to me.
Current series Nats tough, Jays are meh, Reds tough, Yanks tough, Cubs are awful, Cards tough, Rays tough, Mets stink, Phillies decent, Marlins stink, Sox tough, Cubs suck. After the Rays our schedule lightens up but these next 6 series will be tough.
I have to disagree on the Yankees. They just don't worry me for some reason. Also the Jays and Cubs are 2 out of the next 6 series so there's that. But I do see your point. They're not all easy series' but I'm hoping our early success against non West teams will be amplified with the Puig/Ramirez spark, and we split (or better, all home games) vs the three AL teams.
Nats = tough Jays = not easy Reds = tough Yanks = not easy Cubs = terrible Cards = incredibly tough Rays = pretty darn tough Phillies = little tough Marlins = awful Sox = Very tough Cubs = terrible
I concur. edit: Also pretty sure I've posted here more than I ever did on the ESPN forums in 10 years.
The thing that strikes me out of their schedule is the starting pitching they're about to face.outside of the cubs every team there has a pretty damn good rotation, even the top of the marlins staff is looking pretty good.this stretch will be a test for the dodgers offense, and we could very well find out if the dodgers are legit WS contenders or just a decent team in a bad division
I can live without division games in August because guess what we have division games for almost the entire month of September! When it really counts!
Aug 1st to Sept 1st shouldn't be that tough, 17 of those 30 games against the Mests, Cubs, Marlins and Padres.
Don't be fooled because the yanks are in fourth place. With their record they would be running away with the NL west. You don't have to fear us but shit team is far from the truth.
A 1.5 game lead is running away with the division? Please. The Yankees are overrated even as a 4th place team. They're the Yankees and they've won a lot in the past. That doesn't make them good this year. They're 20th in runs, 22nd in BA, 24th in OBP, and 28th in slugging. Their pitching is suspect at best. CC has a 4.something ERA, Kuroda and Mariano are the bright spots along with some bullpen guys but they are far from intimidating (the team not the players). They're old, they're hurt, they're shit. Not concerned.
as is often the case, the truth is somewhere in between the yankees are a good team, but they would not be running away with the nl west however... they play in a better division than us and have a better record
The Yanks have been really lucky this year with the play of a good amount of their players. But they aren't shit nor are they good.
