| Rk | Team |
Overall W-L
|
Week W-L
|
Pythagenport Win %
|
Trend
|
Comment |
1 |
 Diamondbacks |
18-7
|
5-2
|
.708
|
 |
The Arizona Diamondbacks are looking like they just might run away with this division. 25 games into their season, the Baby Backs are six games up on second place. Even with their offense crashing down toward league average this week, they still managed to continue winning thanks in large part to their pitching staff which allowed 2.4 runs per game in their five wins. All seven of their games this week were against other NL West teams and their 5-2 record pushed their record on the year to 17-5 against the West. If I might steal a quote from a Padres promotional commercial, “If you want to win the West, you’ve got to beat the West.” Well, that seems to be working out just fine for Arizona. |
2 |
 Dodgers |
12-13
|
5-2
|
.572
|
 |
Bad news for the rest of the division: Los Angeles is starting to see results consistent with their run differential. After splitting series with Cincinnati and the first place Diamondbacks, L.A. swept the Rockies over the weekend. Their pitching wasn’t exactly dominant, but it was for the most part very solid. Their offense, though, was something approximating dominant as they scored an average of 6.3 runs per game. Unfortunately for the Dodgers, they find themselves chasing a very hot Arizona team and going 5-2 only allows you to keep pace, not make up ground. |
3 |
 Giants |
11-15
|
2-4
|
.324
|
|
How do you go 2-4 and actually move up in the standings? Them’s the breaks, I guess. Their record this week shows they’re dedicated to getting back into the cellar and their Pythagenport winning percentage does as well. Unfortunately for them, Colorado and San Diego had different plans for at least one more week. I wouldn’t worry too much, though. They’re not as good as their 9-10 record would suggest and the Rockies and Padres certainly aren’t as bad as their records suggest, so within a week or two, we ought to see this remedied. |
4 |
 Rockies |
10-15
|
1-6
|
.399
|
 |
Colorado dropped six out of seven contests this week, but at least they can thank bad luck for some of that as half of their losses were of the one-run variety. The four, two and eight run losses on the other hand are still quite ugly. Philly, Chicago and Los Angeles are all good teams, but as the reigning National League champs the Rockies expect to be able to hang with and even beat good teams. They most likely will start to play at a higher level, but with Arizona looking like they might run away with the division, they had better start clicking sooner rather than later. |
5 |
 Padres |
10-16
|
1-6
|
.341
|
|
It wasn’t a good week for the Padres. They opened the week in Houston where the Astros outscored them 2 to 1 en route to a 3 game sweep. They then traveled home to drop two one run games to the San Francisco Giants who also outscored them by a ratio of 2 to 1. With the Diamondbacks coming in for a three game series over the weekend, the Padres looked like a good bet to go winless this week, but thanks to a walk-off home run in extra innings by the normally punchless Tadahito Iguchi, the friar faithful were treated to at least one victory in what was an otherwise dreadful seven days. |
NL West: Week in Review (April 21-27)
April 27, 2008 — richardbrianwadeNL West: Week in Review (April 14-20)
April 20, 2008 — richardbrianwade| Rk | Team |
Overall W-L
|
Week W-L
|
Pythagenport Win %
|
Trend
|
Comment |
1 |
Diamondbacks |
13-5
|
4-2
|
.754
|
|
It’s starting to look like the Diamondbacks plan on staying at the top of this division for a while. Two more series against divisional rivals, two more series wins. They managed to get quality starts or better in half their games this week. That’s somewhat less impressive because of the caliber of offenses they faced in San Francisco and San Diego. The offense continues to be the real strength of this team. The Snakes got strong contribution this week from their entire starting outfield (.299/.382/.463 combined) and a flat out ridiculous week from first baseman, Conor Jackson who hit .480/.519/1.080. And the pitching they faced was actually quite respectable. If the rest of the division isn’t careful, Arizona may run away with the NL West crown. |
2 |
Rockies |
9-9
|
4-2
|
.437
|
|
The Rockies started and finished the week with losses, but a four game winning streak in between has moved their record on the year back to even. This week’s success was attributable alternately to very good hitting and very good pitching. Two of their wins came in spite of less than stellar pitching performances and the other two in spite of little to no offensive production, including their 22 inning 2-1 triumph over the San Diego Padres. Most impressive was that their success was achieved despite inferior offensive performances from starters Todd Helton, Troy Tulowitzki, Willy Taveras and Yorvit Torrealba. |
3 |
Padres |
9-10
|
2-4
|
.378
|
|
In non-extra inning affairs this week, the pitching staff of the Padres allowed 10, 10 and nine runs in a four game stretch. In the other game during that time, the Padres offense scored one run across 22 innings. Predictably, all four games were losses. Fortunately for Padre fans, there were some bright spots. Justin Germano continued pitch well; Randy Wolf took a no-hitter into the 7th inning; Jake Peavy is still in Cy Young form and Chris Young appears to have correct a flaw in his mechanics. On the offensive side, Brian Giles (.292/.346/.583) looks to have returned to form and in smaller samples, Paul McAnulty and Justin Huber both hit well. |
4 |
Giants |
8-11
|
3-3
|
.313
|
|
Well, so much for the Giants spending the entire season in the basement. After opening the week by dropping a series to the Diamondbacks, the Giants managed to steal a series from the Cardinals despite being outscored. Granted, that was only good for a .500 record, but thanks to poor showing by the Dodgers, here they sit in 4th for the time being. Aside from their three young starting pitchers (two of whom had fine starts this weekend), this remains an uninteresting team. |
5 |
Dodgers |
7-11
|
2-4
|
.532
|
|
After a blown save by Saito, the Dodgers rebounded to take two from the visiting Pirates in dominating fashion. Their subsequent trip to Atlanta didn’t go so well. Shut down by Braves pitching, they lost 6-1, 4-1, 6-1 in a three game sweep. Dodger fans shouldn’t fret too much, though. Even while dropping four games this week, Los Angeles maintained a positive run differential and is unlikely to spend any extended amount of time in last place. Only the Diamondbacks look capable of leaving them in the dust. The rest of the division is not on par talent-wise with them. |
NL West: Week in Review (April 7-13)
April 14, 2008 — richardbrianwade| Rk | Team |
Overall W-L
|
Week W-L
|
Pythagenport Win %
|
Trend
|
Comment |
1 |
Diamondbacks |
9-3
|
5-1
|
.739
|
|
Fresh off their sweep of the Colorado Rockies last weekend, the Diamondbacks opened their first home stand of the season by winning five consecutive games. Almost the entire lineup hit well throughout the week, but the real standout performers were their corner outfielders. Eric Byrnes (.458/.536/.792) and Justin Upton (.476/.500/.810) both absolutely tore the cover off the ball this week. The pitching through Saturday was solid, but not much more. Of course, with the offense putting up just north of eight runs per game, that was more than enough. Unfortunately for Snakes fans, neither the solid pitching nor incredible hitting showed up on Sunday; and they finished the week off with a 13-5 loss to the very same Rockies they swept last weekend. |
2 |
Padres |
7-6
|
3-3
|
.441
|
|
The week began with a promising 8-4 victory over San Francisco in the Giants’ home opener, but took a sudden and immediate turn for the worse as the Padres dropped their next two games to the lowly Giants. Both games were within their grasp thanks to excellent pitching, but neither was turned into a W thanks to completely ineffective hitting. The weekend series against the Dodgers went a bit better as the Padres were able to take two out of three from the home team despite being outscored in the series 16-9. The brightest spots have to be Jake Peavy (3-0) who has yet to drop a decision and Justin Germano who has yet to surrender an earned run. |
3 |
Dodgers |
5-7
|
1-5
|
.539
|
|
It wasn’t a good week for the Dodgers. They kicked off the week with a sweep at the hands of the first place D’Backs and capped it with a series loss to the second place Padres. The Arizona series didn’t leave Dodger fans with much to feel good about as only one of the three contests was even close. The weekend series, on the other hand, shouldn’t get LA fan too down. Despite losing two of three games, they outscored the Padres nearly two to one and their overall Pythagenport Winning Percentage suggests they’re better than their current record, so things should begin to look up. |
4 |
Rockies |
5-7
|
4-2
|
.343
|
|
After an atrocious first week, the Rockies have certainly bounced back. That’s at least partially attributable to the absolutely huge week Matt Holliday had as he batted .480/.519/.880. The Rockies won and lost a pair of blow outs, but came out with a winning record on the week thanks to posting two one-run victories in Atlanta to start the week. They may have dropped their weekend series to the Diamondbacks, but they snapped Arizona’s eight game winning streak on Sunday and will travel to San Diego with some momentum. |
5 |
Giants |
5-8
|
4-3
|
.302
|
|
Now, doesn’t this just feel more natural? San Francisco is easily the worst team in the NL West and even a winning record this week wasn’t enough to keep them from re-claiming their rightful place in the division. Thanks to some stellar pitching performances from a pair of their talented young pitchers, San Francisco was able to win a series against San Diego, but even bad teams should win the odd home series. They followed their winning series by splitting a four gamer with another bad team in St. Louis. This week reinforced a lot of what we already knew about them. The Giants have some good young pitching, but there is just no offense to speak of. Get comfortable in the cellar, Giant fans. |
NL West: Week in Review (March 31-April 6)
April 7, 2008 — richardbrianwadeThis new look is temporary while I continue trying to learn CSS.
| Rk | Team |
Overall W-L
|
Week W-L
|
Pythagenport Win %
|
Trend
|
Comment |
1 |
Diamondbacks |
4-2
|
4-2
|
.767
|
|
Led offensively by youngsters Chris Young and Justin Upton, the Baby Backs rebounded from a season opening series loss to the Reds to sweep the defending National League Champion Colorado Rockies in Denver over the weekend. Arizona has also benefited from solid starting pitching despite Doug Davis’ upcoming surgery to deal with thyroid cancer and an uninspiring debut from newly acquired ace Dan Haren. Tonight they open a three game series with the Los Angeles Dodgers whom they share the division lead with. Luckily for them they’ll miss L.A.’s top two starters while still throwing one of their own. |
2 |
Dodgers |
4-2
|
4-2
|
.722
|
|
Thanks primarily to outstanding pitching, both from the starting rotation and bullpen, the Dodgers opened the 2008 season with back-to-back series wins against NL West opponents. Their entire starting staff is sporting ERA’s under 3 and the bullpen has only two members with ERA’s in the 3’s. In three appearances, Closer Takashi Saito has allowed no baserunners and converted his lone save opportunity. Offensively, Rafael Furcal, Andre Ethier and James Loney are doing the heavy lifting. Their lineup save Blake DeWitt has no holes when Torre can stop himself from writing own Juan Pierre’s name. |
3 |
Padres |
4-3
|
4-3
|
.481
|
|
The Padres, thanks to a poor offensive showing over the weekend and uneven work from their bullpen, find themselves at 4-3 despite very strong starting pitching in all but one of their seven games. On the positive side of the ledger, Jake Peavy is still in Cy Young form, Scott Hairston has picked up where he left off last season and Heath Bell remains nigh unhittable. This has been mostly off-set by two bullpen collapses (one by Hoffman and another by Thatcher) and an inability to put runs on the board against the Dodgers. They have a good chance to pad their record, though, as they face off against the execrable San Francisco Giants. |
4 |
Giants |
1-5
|
1-5
|
.135
|
|
Barring any extreme circumstances, this is likely the last week we’ll find the San Francisco Giants anywhere other than last place in the West. They only find themselves listed fourth this week because they managed to get their lone win against an intradivision opponent. The Giants sit at 1-5 for two reasons. 1) They can’t hit. 2) Outside of young phenoms Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum, they can’t pitch either. This promises to be a long side for fans of the Giants as even getting to watch Cain and Lincecum will likely be spoiled by insufficient run support to get them the wins they deserve. |
5 |
Rockies |
1-5
|
1-5
|
.117
|
|
The defending NL champs are a better team than they’ve shown this week and are most unlikely to end the season at or even near the bottom of the division. Their lineup is a veritable murderer’s row, yet only Todd Helton has hit thus far. Their starting rotation is also more talented than the early returns would suggest. I’d say that you don’t fluke into the World Series, but hey, they kinda did. Still, they’re better than this and it shouldn’t take long for them to show it. |
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