Diamondbacks Face One of the Toughest Remaining Schedules in Baseball

The D-backs are playing better baseball lately. As they approach the deadline, and the season slowly draws to an end, the schedule seems to only get more competitive for Arizona.

Jul 20, 2024; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Arizona Diamondbacks outfielder Corbin Carroll (7) celebrates with designated hitter Joc Pederson (3) after hitting a two-run home run against the Chicago Cubs during the fifth inning at Wrigley Field. Mandatory Credit: Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports / Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports

The Arizona Diamondbacks are playing good baseball again. They have managed to surmount injury after injury, and some underperformance from key players, but somehow the D-backs sit tied for an NL Wild-Card spot on July 22nd and have set themselves up to buy at the Deadline.

The difficult stretches which seem like they have been neverending, won't end quite yet. It turns out that even after having overcome so much, the Diamondbacks have one of the league's hardest schedules.

Diving right into the Strength of Schedule (SOS) rankings, the Diamondbacks are not on the favorable end of the table. They clock in at #8 on Tankathon's list, with a .510 SOS record remaining, in only 62 more games.

Looking at the stretch directly ahead, things get even weirder for the Diamondbacks. A group of games against the Royals, Pirates, Nationals, and Guardians looked much more appealing before the season, but each team has had a surprisingly productive season. Of those teams that the D-backs play in the next two weeks, only the Nationals are seemingly out of contention, which may have shocked fans in April.

The way that SOS is calculated is by comparing the best opponents remaining on a team's schedule, to the worst remaining. While Arizona has 6 games against the Rockies left on their slate, and another 6 between the Marlins and Nationals, they are leveraged by 8 games against the Phillies and Dodgers, and 7 against the Brewers before the end of the season.

Very importantly, the Diamondback's last 3 series before the Trade Deadline come against the Royals, Pirates, and Nationals. While Arizona is set up to buy, a statement from the team in this final stretch before August makes GM Mike Hazen's job a lot easier. The opposite goes as well, with a bad stretch in these last 9 games before the Deadline possibly still affecting how far the Front Office is willing to go trade-wise.

Fittingly the Pirates and Cardinals, who are currently within 2 games of the D-backs, are all tied with an equal strength of schedule remaining. That means the natural advantage schedule-wise in the Wild-Card race goes to the Mets at #19, and the Padres with the #27th easiest remaining schedule in the MLB.

How much will the schedule, and its projected difficulty really affect the Diamondbacks? Only time will tell. They are playing good baseball, including winning 12 of their last 18 games, and have either won or split 7 straight series dating back to June. Reinforcements are coming, both from the IL and at the Deadline and things may be looking up in the desert.