Last season for example, everybody thought that Boston would be great and Baltimore would be terrible – in reality, it was the complete opposite and skewed the so-called pre-season strength of schedule.

That being said, looking at the Diamondbacks’ 2013 schedule, the powers-that-be seemed to do no favors for the Snakes.

The D’backs face the entire NL East – a division notoriously difficult and only seems to be even more so in 2013 – and then the Rangers in interleague play.

Those six teams combined to average 85.5 games in 2012, equivalent to a .528 winning percentage. Those numbers are slightly dragged down by Toronto’s 73 wins and Boston’s 69 wins, who both should be improved in 2013 – especially Toronto with all of their big additions this offseason.

So, if the AL East is once again the best division in baseball, by a pretty wide margin, the D’backs will face at least four really good squads there. In addition, Texas is a possibility to falter with the off-season attrition in their roster, but it’s not a good bet, either.

Regardless, its a tough road to plow in 2013 in interleague play and those 20 difficult games, in which the D’backs would be happy going .500, could be the difference between a wild card spot and out of the playoffs.

Just something fun to look at with no real meaning towards what might happen in 2013 is the fact that the D’backs and Blue Jays have only played nine times before. The D’backs have a slight edge with five wins and four losses. In addition, the Diamondbacks best statistical record against any team is their 9-3 mark against the Orioles. That’s where the success in the NL East stops though as the D-backs are 5-7 verse the Sox, 4-8 against the Rays and a putrid 3-9 in contests with the Yanks.

And their 8-17 against the Rangers isn’t very good, either. A full list of the D’backs all-time records against the 29 other teams can be found here.

The biggest stretch of the D’backs schedule as it looks right now, is the final month of the season. The Snakes play 14 of their last 30 games against the Dodgers and Giants – seven games against each club – presumably, the two teams the D’backs will have to surpass to win the NL West. Series against the Blue Jays, Rockies, Padres and Nationals make up the remaining 16 contests in September.

Venom Strikes’ Thomas Lynch takes a broader look at the schedule here, in which he highlights some of the quirks in the D’backs schedule because of the interleague play.

Diamondbacks starting pitcher Wade Miley (36) throws during the eighth inning against the Chicago Cubs at Chase Field. Image: Matt Kartozian-US PRESSWIRE

Go ahead, D-Back  fans, think about this for a moment.   If I had told you April 1^st that on June 26^th, (A) Justin Upton would be the fourth-best home run hitter on the team, (B) Daniel Hudson would have three whole wins and (C) Ian Kennedy’s  ERA would be two runs higher than last year’s, do you think the club would be in shouting distance of first place?  You probably would think it was a rotten April Fool’s joke.  Well the joke will soon be on the rest of baseball as Arizona is starting to heat up and will zoom right into the All-Star break as the hottest team in baseball.

The Dodgers are playing the Giants this week so you know much of the baseball world will be focused on that series.  Then we will hear about how every team in the American League East is at least three games over .500.  Fine.   Thursday night, however there better be a big shining light in Atlanta as the highly anticipated debut of  Trevor Bauer  is set to take place.   As of this morning, MLB Network is advertising Yankees-White Sox  and Tigers-Rays as their two marquee games.  Detroit is already being featured tonight against the Rangers.   Yawn.   If the network doesn’t switch and make D-Backs-Braves the big game that night, we will know where Arizona stands in the MLB pecking order.   But that’s a story for a different day.

At 37-35, the D-Backs haven’t even played their best ball yet.  Sure, they have won four in a row and are 7-3 in their last 10 but do you really think they can’t get better?  Watch as Upton hits about .350 from now until the rest of the season and Paul Goldschmidt  gets some consistency and launches about 20 more balls out of the yard.  Maybe when one of those dingers hits an unsuspecting fan in the pool over the right-center field wall will Arizona get the love they deserve.

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