One of the most important jobs for a collegiate basketball coach is creating the out of conference schedule for their team. It can set a precedent for what is to be a highly competitive season, or it can completely backfire and set a team back heading into their conference schedule. Things are a little different in the MLB, since Mickey Callaway has no say in how the Mets schedule is made. But, if you look at the calendar, there are some very important games in April that would largely benefit the Mets to win. Posed with one of the toughest schedules in baseball, it is important for them to get off to a good start.
In April, the Mets will play 26 games. Of those 26 games, 16 are against their division foes. In what could be the most competitive division in baseball, the NL East, there is no time to lose ground against your opponents. SNY has repeatedly shown a graphic over the past week that shows the records of the winners of the NL East over the past few seasons against opponents within the division. SNY found that for the past few seasons, the winner of the NL East has had the best record within the division. This makes sense, considering that you play the most games against teams in your division.
Taking a look at the Mets team that went to the World Series in 2015, they went 47-29 against the NL East. Some of the most memorable moments of the season included games with division rivals, including the most clutch Mets player of all time, Wilmer Flores, blasting a walk-off home run against the Nationals after nearly being traded in the same week. While certainly there can’t be any dramatics to top that, the Mets will absolutely have to perform against their division opponents like they did in 2015.
They will have to start out the season strong in the month of April because of months in the schedule like June. They will play 28 games in June, but 18 of those games will come against teams not in the NL East like the Cubs and Cardinals. Of those 10 games against the division, the only home series that they will be playing will be against the Atlanta Braves at the end of the month, on the weekend that the 50th anniversary of the 1969 World Series team will be celebrated.
Hot starts to a season are no guarantees of success for the rest of the season, and a great example of that is the 2018 Mets. That team got off to a record of 17-9 record to begin the season and then faltered so much in May and June that they finished with a first half record of 39-55. They bounced back to go 38-30 for the rest of the season, but they buried themselves with the way that they played in May and June. It will be important for the Mets to never falter like they did last season over the course of this season, but it is also important for them to score early success against division opponents in the month of April.