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Diamondbacks line-up
Saw that the Diamondbacks are 4-8 against the Padres this year, and if we don't win tonight, they will ownthe lowest winning percentage against any team the Diamondbcks hae faced this season. That got me wondering, what would the standings look like in the National League, if we only take games against teams in our own division into account? Here's what the NL West would look like.
Well, that's just slightly different from the current order, isn't it? San Francisco, instead of being 18 games back of Los Angeles, would be 1.5 games of Colorado, with Arizona a further four games back. What has hurt the Giants more than anything is their record of 11-23 against the Central, with a little help from their 5-12 record in interleague play this season. Conversely, the Dodgers are 19-8 versus the Central, and are 12-8 against the American League. Meanwhile, in addition to their record against us, the Padres swept the Braves, but are no better than one above .500 (and usually worse) against every other team they've seen.
It's interesting, because the Central doesn't show anything like the same splits. The Pirates, Cardinals and Reds, in that order, are all clustered within three games of each other in the intra-division standings, then things drop off a cliff to the Brewers (ten games below even) and Cubs (a league-worst record against their own division of 19-37). In the East, similarly, the Braves dominate, seven games ahead, though here, it's in front of the Phillies rather than the Nationals. In the American League, all three division leaders occupy the same positions, all the way up to the Rangers, who have destroyed the AL West with a 41-16 record, best in the league by 5.5 games.
Quite why the West should be so topsy-turvy with regard to playing each other, I'm not certain. It may just be random variation over the relatively small sample size, though we are talking fifty or more games for everyone in the division by this point. It didn't happen last year: the only change between the actual final standings and those between teams in the West, was that we swapped second and third with the Dodgers. You'd probably need to break down the Giants' strikingly-different record a bit further, and see where it comes from. They've scored 4.2 runs per game (overall: 3.8) and conceded 3.8 (overall: 4.4), so looks like all-round better play.
Hopefully, the D-backs will be able to improve their record tonight at Chase against the Padres. Mrs. SnakePit and I will be in attendance, with 'charmer bringing you the recap after the game.