Diamonds For Women

[dodgerblue6]

Tampa Bay is a small-market team that has made a lot of noise in recent years, but one team that hasn't is the Pirates. Still, here they are sitting atop the NL Central at 20-9, just a month into the season. The Rays were extremely hot the first two weeks of the season, and at 23-6, sport the best record in baseball. Pittsburgh has impressed far beyond even the most optimistic expectations, so we'll see if they can sustain that pace.

What other surprises have we seen since the 2023 campaign got underway? Well, we know both the Padres and Dodgers have performed below expectations and both teams have played pretty inconsistently. And every time we think one or the other is turning things around, they revert. Those two teams will face each other for the first time this season this coming weekend. And those are the two teams that were expected once again to battle it out for the NL West.

Another eye-opener, in the same division, is the Diamondbacks. After they played the Dodgers in eight of their first ten games of the season and were 5-3 over that run, some began to take notice as the team is much improved over the last couple of seasons. At this writing, they're tied with the Dodgers in first place with identical 16-13 records.

Another team we haven't seen struggle as much so early is the Cardinals, who at this writing have a humbling 10-19 record, in last place in the NL Central. The first month of the season has seen them off to their worst start in over 50 years.
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"The Dodgers have always occupied an enormous place in the history of the game. If the Yankees are the most successful team in baseball history, the Dodgers are the most essential. Their legacy is unique."

-Baseball Hall of Fame

[forloveofthegame]

I agree the Pirates are a surprise! And you wonder how long they can keep it up. Also underwhelmed by my Padres over 1 month except for spurts at a time where they look like a great team.
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"Baseball is an allegorical play about America, a poetic, complex, and subtle play of courage, fear, good luck, mistakes, patience about fate, and sober self-esteem." - Saul Steinberg

[dodgerblue6]

Of course, it remains to be seen, but perhaps the Pirates are cooling off a bit. They've lost the first two games of a three-game set in Tampa, a series featuring the top two teams in MLB facing off.
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"The Dodgers have always occupied an enormous place in the history of the game. If the Yankees are the most successful team in baseball history, the Dodgers are the most essential. Their legacy is unique."

-Baseball Hall of Fame