Remaining Strength of Schedule Ranks

We're about two months into the fantasy baseball season and have enough data to formulate an opinion on the strengths of each offense. Today I want to take a look at the remaining schedule for all 30 MLB teams and see if we can find some teams with an easier road ahead. To get our final data, I looked at the amount of games a team has against each opponent and calculated a weighted average for each of four different offensive stats (Runs scored this season, K%, wRC+, and wOBA). Forecasting probable pitching matchups is difficult to do a week in advance let alone two months, but we can use this information to see which pitching staffs will have more favorable matchups for the rest of the season.

I will intentionally remain light on the analysis of these results since my goal is to arm our readers with the data to make their own informed decisions, but there are a few areas I would like to highlight. First let's take a look at the full table of results, sorted ascending by wOBA.

The first thing that jumps out to me is that all 5 NL East teams are in the Top 8. Clearly the Top 4 are aided by feasting off the Miami Marlins multiple times, but even the Marlins are in the Top 10 and will offer some decent streaming options when Nathan Eovaldi and Jacob Turner are back in the rotation. In the same vein, the AL East is brutal and will be beating up on each other the rest of the season. Another intriguing team is the Chicago White Sox and their difficult road ahead - with an anemic offense and a difficult remaining schedule, now might be the time to sell high on Jake Peavy with his 6-2 record and 2.97 ERA.

I thought about writing up an article suggesting to buy low on Kris Medlen's rough start to 2013, but I think the above chart displays one of the more convincing pieces of evidence to this. By 3 of the 4 measures, the Braves pitching staff have the easiest ROS and with Medlen exiting Wednesday's game with a calf contusion, his value will never be lower.

Next I'd like to take a look at the 10 teams facing the most strikeout-prone offenses.

Both the AL West and NL East have multiple teams in this list, and that is fueled by the multiple matchups with the Braves and Astros on the schedule. The Phillies and Nationals appear to be setup for some nice streaming starts so get ready to wear out Jonathan Pettibone, Dan Haren, and Tyler Cloyd.

I'll end the analysis there but would be happy to discuss further in the comments section or on Twitter (@BrianCreagh) or via e-mail bcreagh119@gmail.com.