Atlanta Braves Morning Chop and Box Score: Freeman Distracted?
Mets relief pitcher Alex Torres (54) pitches against the New York Yankees during the eighth inning at Yankee Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
The Mets and Their Weak Opponents
The Mets can’t lose, and having won 11 straight games on their way to a 13-3 record, they own the best winning percentage in baseball. On Monday, I pointed out that we have to take them seriously as contenders because of this hot start, as those wins aren’t going to be stripped away in the future even when the Mets stop playing this well. But, while the wins-in-the-bank argument is still valid, there is a pretty decent counterpoint to that argument; the Mets have essentially been borrowing from their overall expected win total by playing a collection of lousy opponents so far.
Among the 16 games they’ve played this season, we find three against a depleted Nationals team that started the year with a Spring Training roster, six games against a Braves team that projects as one of the NL’s weakest squads, four games against a mediocre Marlins team that might be worse than expected, and three against the Phillies, everyone’s pick for the worst team in baseball. In addition, 10 of their 16 games have come at home, so while home field advantage isn’t a huge factor in baseball, they have gotten a slight bump from a disproportionately low number of road games.
So, yes, the Mets have been beneficiaries of a very easy schedule so far, but how much should we have expected them to win based on their opponents to date?
[Ed. note: – of the course the Mets have done this partly against us (4-2 vs. Braves)… plus Atlanta coulda/shoulda beaten them perhaps twice more. So their bandwagon is slowly getting under way.