At the first off day the Indians are 10-7, which is 95-win pace. They have the 4th best record in the A.L. They're one-half game out of first behind the Twins and Tigers. The Tigers are 8-5 but that's with an easy schedule. They're 3-0 against the Pirates (3-13) and 5-5 against KC and Cincy. The Tigers have yet to play a team that is over .500.
Actually, it's not that easy to find teams over .500. There are only five of them in the A.L. and three are in the Central Divison. In the N.L. Central only one team, the Cubs, is over .500. The Cardinals are 2-3 so it's hard to say if they are a winning team, but they won 91 games last year so I assume they will be once they can start playing.
The AL East and AL West each have one team over .500. The Yankees (10-6) and the A's (12-4) are the class of those divisions with the other eight teams at .500 or below. The AL Central is by far the strongest division so far with four teams at .500 or above and the Royals a respectable 7-10.
With 43 games left the Indians have already played 10 of their 20 games against the White Sox and Twins. They have four games against the 10-3 Cubs. So that's 14 games against the Twins, Cubs, and White Sox and 29 games against teams below .500.
They do have three games against the Cardinals, but the Cards are in a tough spot, having to play 55 games in 49 days. They apparently will have to play eight games a week from here on out. Their staff is going to be fried so I like our chances.
The Cubs 10-3 record looks impressive but it breaks down to 3-0 against Pittsburgh, 3-1 against KC, and 2-1 against Cincy and Milwaukee.
I'd say the schedule is favorable for the Indians to have a higher winning percentage from here on out. 29 of 43 games against teams below .500 is easy to like.
We also have Naquin and Berto almost ready to return and the boys are starting to hit. 25 runs in the last four games.