Tuesday (1 Jul) - So Much for Bragging Rights

Tuesday (1 Jul)  - So Much for Bragging Rights (sorry, it’s all baseball today)

The Padres played extremely well on their most recent home stand, and then went on an extended road trip. After crushing the Miami Marlins 9-2 in the first game of a four game set, the team proceeded to disintegrate, losing the other three by lopsided scores. The Marlins (30-51) have the worst record in the National League, even after winning three straight from the Padres. Beginning on 2 Jul, the team faces the first place Boston Red Sox and the dangerous Washington Nationals before returning to seven more games at home. All without a break (ie, 17 straight games). The only silver lining to all this is that most of the teams division rivals have played as badly or worse than the Padres.

Division leader Arizona (42-40) has lost four straight games. Colorado (41-42) just hangs around, unable to gain any traction. The Padres (40-43) are in third place. Fourth place San Francisco (World Champions in 2012) has lost 8 of their last 10 games. Then there is the last place Los Angeles Dodgers. Two weeks ago they were nine games behind and nearly out of contention. In any league but the NL Western Division, they would have been out of the contention. However - the Dodgers have won 8 of their last 10 games and are only 3.5 games behind the leader, Arizona.

Despite the Padres 40-43 record, it's hard to complain when the team is just 2.5 games short of leading the division. Still, the Padres offense has been brutally bad of late. The return of Evereth Cabrera, Jedd Gyroko, and Yonder Alonso from injuries could do wonders to fix that. All are expected to be playing again in the next week or two. The mystifying collapse of Chase Headley (still hitting just .227) continues. 

Here's the prior status as of 13 Jun.

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Comparison	W  L  GB	BA	Runs	ERA
Padres 2012	76 86 18.0	.247	651	4.01
Reality Autoplay	84 78 10.0	.243	667	3.69
Promise Autoplay	80 82 10.0	.249	688	3.81
2013 Season	W  L  GB	BA	Runs	ERA
Actual Results	32 34 5.0	.251	279	4.30
Reality Results	34 32 4.0	.239	272	3.85
Promise Results	33 33 8.0	.243	285	3.61

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Here is the current status as of 1 July.

Comparison	W  L  GB	BA	Runs	ERA
Padres 2012	76 86 18.0	.247	651	4.01
Reality Autoplay	84 78 10.0	.243	667	3.69
Promise Autoplay	80 82 10.0	.249	688	3.81
2013 Season	W  L  GB	BA	Runs	ERA
Actual Results	40 43 2.5	.247	338	4.07
Reality Results	42 41 3.0	.234	328	3.54
Promise Results	40 43 10.5	.243	346	3.60

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