Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
April 30, 2006
Amazing Lead

The Mets 1-0 win over the Braves last night assure the New Yorkers of the biggest NL East lead at the end of April:

Coupled with the Phillies' loss, the Mets (16-7) have opened a historic seven-game division lead. No NL East team had ever led by more than five games in April - and that team happened to win the 1986 World Series.

That's a nice way to celebrate the 20th anniversary of your last championship. There are two things that stand out to me when I look at the team statistics for New York. The first is their stolen base success. They stolen 28 of 30 for a 93.3 percentage. The only person caught is Reyes! Whoever is picking the spots to run is doing an excellent job.

Secondly, not only do the Mets have the best ERA in the majors, but they have the best road ERA in the majors. It's easy to be at the top in ERA when you play in a stadium favorable to pitching. But when you shut down teams away from home, that's something special. The Mets are looking like the real deal at the moment, especially given the weaknesses of the rest of the division.


Posted by David Pinto at 09:26 AM | Division Races | TrackBack (0)
Comments

Well, we all know it's a long season, and a team's record at the end of April is a great deal less important than at the end of, say, September - but Mets fans have, so far, a lot to enjoy about this season.
Not that we should be badgering management for playoff tickets at Shea (yet) - but the major factor for the NL playoffs, imo, won't be in the East, but the Central division; where the three leaders (Cincy, St. Louis and Houston) look likely to end up in a dogfight for the division - and will probably ALL (if trends continue) post better records than the struggling Braves: who may finally get shut out of post-season this year. Sucks for them, I guess.
Anyway, I wouldn't bank on the Mets' ERA staying at league-leading levels all season: with Brian Bannister out temporarily, the Mets are down to, basically, a three-man rotation: with Victor (The Wrong) Zambrano making a HUGE hole in the lineup. Pedro and Glavine are good: but can't carry the team all by themselves.
Meanwhile: LET'S GO METS!!

Posted by: Jay C at April 30, 2006 11:02 AM

Well, we all know it's a long season, and a team's record at the end of April is a great deal less important than at the end of, say, September - but Mets fans have, so far, a lot to enjoy about this season.
Not that we should be badgering management for playoff tickets at Shea (yet) - but the major factor for the NL playoffs, imo, won't be in the East, but the Central division; where the three leaders (Cincy, St. Louis and Houston) look likely to end up in a dogfight for the division - and will probably ALL (if trends continue) post better records than the struggling Braves: who may finally get shut out of post-season this year. Sucks for them, I guess.
Anyway, I wouldn't bank on the Mets' ERA staying at league-leading levels all season: with Brian Bannister out temporarily, the Mets are down to, basically, a three-man rotation: with Victor (The Wrong) Zambrano making a HUGE hole in the lineup. Pedro and Glavine are good: but can't carry the team all by themselves.
Meanwhile: LET'S GO METS!!

Posted by: Jay C at April 30, 2006 11:03 AM

Well, it's usually around mid-May that I officially convince myself that the Braves are dead, and that's inevitably when they get hot and begin their annual push to a division title. So I'm witholding judgment for now.

That said, the Mets are playing good ball. I'm not sure I agree about the Central. I think the Reds will fall back to earth (which is too bad - they're a fun team to watch) - that pitching can't keep it up. I also wouldn't count out the Cubs (if they can score enough while Lee's out) and the Brewers.

The NL west is interesting as well - what a change from last year. As of today, only San Diego and San Francisco have negative run differentials, and the Giants are over .500 anyway.

Posted by: David Dean at April 30, 2006 11:46 AM

Victor (The Wrong) Zambrano, how about just "The Wrong" from now on?

Posted by: craig at April 30, 2006 11:58 AM

Pretty weird--- there's only one losing team in the NL Central and only one winning team in the NL east.

Posted by: Adam Villani at April 30, 2006 03:56 PM
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