We are nineteen games better than the 2004 D'backs, and they went 12-24 the rest of the way, so odds are that gap will widen. Here are the NL standings after our 124th game last year, this year and the change thereof:
W-04-L W-05-L Change
ARI 39 87 58 68 +19.0
MON 53 71 65 59 +12.0
MIL 55 68 61 64 +5.0
HOU 62 62 67 58 +4.5
PHI 62 63 67 59 +4.5
NYM 59 64 64 60 +4.5
FLA 62 60 66 58 +3.0
ATL 70 53 71 54 n/c
CIN 59 64 57 67 -2.5
STL 82 42 79 46 -3.5
SDP 66 58 61 63 -5.0
PIT 58 66 53 72 -5.5
COL 55 69 47 77 -8.0
CHC 68 56 60 65 -8.5
SFG 69 57 55 69 -13.0
LAD 72 52 56 68 -16.0
Arizona is the most improved team in the majors. Admittedly, we started from a much lower bench-mark (and could hardly get any worse), but never mind nineteen, only one other NL team has improved by more than five games - and they have a new stadium, fans starved of ML baseball for 45 years, and get more than three times the home crowd they did last year.
[The most-improved AL team, in case you're wondering, is the +15.5 White Sox, followed by Toronto at +10.5. The biggest drops are the Yankees (-8.5) and Rangers (-12); the awful Royals are actually only four games worse than at the same point last season.]
After 126 games in 2004, we were 34 games behind: this year, it's just four. And we've performed these major improvements without spending obscenely - our payroll has actually dropped by 10%, and we still kicked up our win total by almost 50% - or raping and pillaging our farm system.
Okay, with the aid of that and a couple of highly-caffeinated beverages, I've shaken off that nasty bout of apathy that I caught off Stefan. ;-) It was quite an unpleasant 20 minutes, wandering round, muttering "What's the point?" and "Who is this Conor Jackson guy, anyway?" alternately. Game preview to follow in an hour or so. This has been an extra, unscheduled edition of AZ Snake Pit...