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For the next day or so, America will be paralytic with fear that, yet again, the game would be besmirched by the notion that a team would win its division without winning at least half its games.
And when we say America, we mean the hysterical few who get paid to worry about such things.
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| The Diamondbacks' fortunes may improve with no more AL foes on the schedule. (US Presswire) |
The Arizona Diamondbacks spewed up a ninth-inning lead in Florida on Sunday, and are now leading the National League Dreadful with a 41-41 record. The FlatOnTheirBacks have now played .342 ball for six weeks now, and there is great concern among pundits and other hyperactive gabblers that the division will offer the postseason its most unsightly team ever.
To which we say, "Don't you have something to do with your children? Play with them? Read to them? Lock them in the trunk?"
It is true that the West stinks with a great and powerful stink. As a unit, it is playing .437 ball, which figures in a normal team's season to 71-91. It is also being outscored by nearly 200 runs, and its interleague record ended at a worst-ever 27-54. It won four interleague games over the weekend, one without a hit and another with only two.
Thus, if you believe today proves tomorrow, you might be on to something. If you worship at the altar of "On A Pace To," you have sussed it out.
But since the only thing any of us is really on a pace to do is die, that's not really helpful ... although given the choice between death and 71-91, most folks not known to be Yankees fans would take (b).
In short, what we're saying here is that the NL West will not be won with 80 victories. In fact, several managers we asked suggested 84 to 85 would be closer to the mark.
And why should you believe us?
One, the interleague season is over. No more regularly scheduled AL beatdowns until October. This was the second most lopsided interleague season ever (2006 being the worst), and only the Mets, Braves and Reds enhanced their reputations against their betters. And the NL West was a wildly improved .462 against its own kind. That's not 71-91, that's 75-87, and you can feel the improvement.
One-A, that means now NL West teams can get back to playing their best friends -– themselves. Arizona got fat off its partners in crime in April and May, going 20-8, and unless you know something about the Dodgers, Giants, Padres and Rockies that we don't, that might very well happen again. Against itself, the West is an even better .500, which not only pencils out to 81-81, but proves yet again that when people play against each other, they typically win half the time. Call it Dullard's Third Law Of No Kidding, Mac.
Two, it might not even be Arizona. The Diamondbacks really could be as awful as they have shown over the past month. Thus, the winner could be the Dodgers, or more absurd still, the Giants. After all, Colorado went 18-6 down the stretch last year to cheat the reaper and reach the World Series. Someone gets hot. Someone always gets hot. Ask Bill James if you don't think so.
