It’s about time to stir the pot a bit as the fuzzy feeling on this blog page has made me a little sick to my stomach as of late. I’m going to cast the first stone as I stumbled across some interesting stats in this youthful baseball season. The Cubs have only played three teams with a .500 or better record while playing six teams with a losing record. It’s safe to say that we may see the Cubs numbers come down to earth a little when they start playing some real competition.
Meanwhile, on the other side of town the White Sox have played six teams with .500 or better records and three teams with losing records, so their performance may be more worthy of praising. We are talking about a pitching staff that is 4th in the league in ERA, but leads the league with 14 games of holding opposing teams to one run or less. Pretty impressive when you consider they ‘ve already played the Orioles, Blue Jays, Rangers, and Red Sox, which is the cream of the AL crop as far as offense goes. The Red Sox lead the AL with Rangers in second, Blue Jays in sixth, and Orioles sitting at eight in runs scored. That’s some stiff competition to start of the year 23 – 10. On top of that the Indians and A’s also sit in the top 10 in runs scored this season
Meanwhile all we hear about is the Cubs having the largest run differential in MLB history (I admit impressive) and how the Cubs are like the 1984 Tigers… whoa wait a minute… I haven’t figured that one out? The 1984 Tigers were 26 – 4, not 24 – 6 after 30 games, so not sure why they getting compared. Shouldn’t we be comparing them to the other 24 win teams?
Oh wait, if we did that the news would come out that the Cubs are actually one of six teams to start the season with 24 wins in the first 30 games, and only two of those teams, 1939 and 1958 Yankees, won the World Series.
Hold on, do you mean to tell me when you actually compare exact numbers teams only make it or win it part of the time. Convenient how the media continues to spin things to make the Cubs story even more out of it. It
Then there’s this meaningless story today in the Tribune where the 1984 Tigers’ hitting coach, Roger Craig, puts his two-cents in on this ludicrous comparisons in order to grab a headline, and I will expand on this.
The Tigers did not come into the 1984 season as the favorites to win the American league that was the Orioles who won the World Series the prior year, which is the exact opposite of the Cubs who are the favorites to win the World Series this season. Also, the Cubs went deep into the playoffs last year, the Tigers did not make the playoffs in 1983 in part thanks the finely bearded White Sox.
The Tigers also had a record of 35-5 after 40 games that is an impossible feat for the Cubs as they already have six losses. This Cubs media spin machine is driving me nuts; they’re not even close to the same team as the Tigers.
With the Cubs performing as predicted and the White Sox doing the exact opposite of what was predicted aren’t the Sox the real story in Chicago?
And then there’s the fact that the Cubs have started the season with a much easier schedule than the Sox, so before we anoint the Cubs the best team in Chicago perhaps we should look at more than the record. Aren’t the Sox really the best team in Chicago?
Major League A*Holes 