Covering the impact of coronavirus on the sports world

We've seen just about one-quarter of the MLB season (don't say "quarter pole," though, because horse racing fans will torch you like Early Voting on the home stretch). There are so many takeaways. 

First off, to so many different fan bases: Don't you dare give up. Just ask the last two full-season World Series champs. 

A good 2022 observation to this point is how strong the NL West has been. The division as a whole had all five teams above .500 into the middle of May. Hell, they aren't far off right now as we approach June. 

The Dodgers remain the easy NL favorite and get the Yankees by a nose on odds to win the World Series. They'll have ups and downs and that's the beauty of baseball. One of the many impressive things about this team is its ability to weather the proverbial storm and immediately bounce back with a vengeance. They lost their first series of the season, but then won seven straight. They lost three of four to the D-Backs and Tigers to close April, but then ripped off six straight wins. They lost a series to the Pirates and then three straight to the Phillies last week, but then won six in a row. They'll keep doing this all season. 

The Giants might not quite have the magic they had last season, but they aren't to be taken lightly. Even after having lost six of their last eight right now, the Giants are on pace to win 89 games. They are in third place. As a reminder, 89 games was good enough to take the NL East last season and we know how that team fared in the playoffs. 

The Diamondbacks and Rockies appear ticketed for the final two spots in the division, but they have been rather formidable bottom-division teams. Both have hovered around .500 for a bit and were recently over. When they aren't stuck playing within the division, the Diamondbacks are 16-13 and the Rockies are 15-13. 

That leaves the Padres. I saved them for a reason. They just finished a 7-2 road trip to Atlanta, Philadelphia and San Francisco, sweeping the Giants in a statement series. They now trail the Dodgers by just a half-game and that's for the best record in the entire National League. They are playing at a 107-win pace. 

Now, the Padres can't erase the collapse they put together in the last six weeks last season until they get through September this time around. Surely they know this. They also have one of the best managers in baseball in Bob Melvin, the rotation is in a lot better place and Manny Machado is playing like an MVP. They already made a huge in-season acquisition in closer Taylor Rogers, who leads the majors with 16 saves. I'm also pretty confident that no one is going to add a player the caliber of Fernando Tatis Jr. in front of the trade deadline this season. Expect a Tatis return around the All-Star break. This time, the Dodgers won't be able to swoop in like they did last year with Max Scherzer. 

Can the Padres perform their own theft and take the NL West from the Dodgers? We're going to have another 75ish percent of the season to find out, but it's sure going to be fun out west. 

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