Yes. Last year we played the AL East teams 19 times each. Looking at the schedule this year we play each team 13 times.
76 total last year and 52 total this year. We're taking the distribution from nearly half our games in division to just shy of a third. I'll take it!
Debatable. "You are what you record says you are," to quote Bill Parcells. Still I wouldn't call teams with .568 and .571 winning percentages "lousy." I sure WISH the O's were that lousy.
Colorado (64-48) and Arizona (63-48) hold the 2 NL WC spots right now, so I'm not sure about your comment. Colorado has more wins than every other team save LAD, HOU, WAS - same with Arizona except they are tied in wins with BOS.
Statistically, that's probably a safe bet.
I know history or past performance is not always a predictor of the future, but the last time an AL East Winner lost 70+ games was the 2000 Yankees. Prior to that the '96 Yankees lost 70 and the '91 Jays lost 71.
Only 3 times in a quarter century - pretty cool.
Serious question: was it known that Tillman was banged up last year? I don't remember hearing anything. Did it come out later that he was downplaying an injury? Just curious....