NL West Analysis May 22

It's been a long time since I have posted lately. I've been so busy trying to keep Ellen's World updated that I really have neglected Crain Life. I figure most people rather see fresh content of Ellen anyway since she changes on a nearly daily basis. Speaking of which she is recently become infatuated with her feet! I got some really great shots of her playing with them and will post them soon at Ellen's World.

Moving on to other things, after Ellen hits the sack I usually take in several innings of the Padre's game. This season has been more of same compared to last two years, which isn't a bad thing! The games are usually low scoring which makes for close and dramatic endings. I don't know this for sure but I'd be willing to bet the Pads probably have played the most extra inning games in MLB. Currently, the Padres find themselves just a half game out of first place in the NL West just behind the Dodgers, who have been struggling as of late. With the Cubs in town who have also not played great as of late the Friars could find themselves in first after tonight. While looking over the standings I also noticed an interesting trend which doesn't really completely surprise me since I keep a pretty close eye on statistics but I thought I would share it with those baseball fans which might not.

Below is the amount of runs scored by each team (blue bar) in the NL West along with the amount of runs scored against them (red bar).

Nothing terribly exciting.... most of the teams have scored similar amounts with the edge slightly going to the Giants. The Padres are just ahead Arizona and Colorado the latter of which play half their games a mile high. Albeit, Coors field is not the Coors field it use to be with the installation of humidors to store game balls. Maybe the Padres are not the woeful offensive team we were led to believe. Before you protest, I will confess they aren't exactly knocking cover off the ball but they do break out every once in awhile. They lack consistency at the plate and generally don't hit well in clutch situations.

So if everyone is so close in runs scored what does separate them you ask??? The answer lies in the pitching. Below is a graph of the differential of the runs scored minus runs allowed adjusted for each game.

Wa La! The Padres are head and shoulders above the rest of the division. Their inconsistency at the plate explains why they are not at the head of the division. The teams are ordered from left to right as of May 22nd in their respective places. What is also interesting is the two young teams in the division, Arizona and Colorado, are both in the red! It's hard to win games when you give up more runs than you score. Not looking so good for the Rockies. I really thought they stood a better chance this season.

Well I hope this extra long post makes up for the lack of content recently. Cubs in town to face the Padres with Peavy on the mound tonight. Should be good one. Any game Jake starts has a really excellent chance at being a WIN!