Awful Reporting
From this morning's Tribune and Steve Rosenbloom...
If you're rating the last 10 games for each team, the Sox get more style points than the Cubs. Sure, the Cubs went 8-2 while the Sox went 7-3, but the Sox did that on the West Coast, while the Cubs were at home.
Sure, the Cubs played better, won more games, faced teams with a higher combined winning percentage (.488 to .455) and outscored their opponents by a wider margin (+27 to +13), but the White Sox did it while they were sleeping with their road groupies and the Cubs players got to sleep in their own beds. That makes all the difference in the world...because this is the NBA all of a sudden.
The Sox also did it against the one good team that either team played, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim of Orange County of California of the United States of the Northern Hemisphere of Earth,
Haha, see what Steve did there? He took a joke that's three years old and recycled it.
coming back in the last two games to get a split.
Wow, the White Sox split a four-game series on the road versus a good team that just got back its best starter for that series and is still missing Kelvim Escobar, Howie Kendrick and Chone Figgins. That's incredible work there by the White Sox. I mean they managed to play .500 baseball versus a depleted team. Print up the playoff tickets for winning 5 of 6 against two teams with winning percentages at or below .400.
To be fair, The Cubs did play against some lightweights in the last series, the just-below .500 Pirates, the woeful Padres and the Diamondbacks, who just happen to have the best record in baseball.
Now, you can tell me that the Cubs' first opponent on this homestand, Arizona, is a first-place team, and I'll tell you that the Diamondbacks play like a last-place team. Like the last-place Padres, the Cubs' second opponent, for instance. Specifically, the D-Backs play like slugs outside of the NL Worst.
Haha, NL Worst? Get it? That's a little word play there by Rosenbloom because the Diamondbacks and Padres play in the NL West. See what he did there? And that's why Rosenbloom gets paid the big newpapers dollars.
It's also one of the reasons the newspaper business is crumbling...terrible writing and poor research.
The Diamonbacks have played the second softest schedule in the majors, but Rosenbloom didn't want to seem to bother researching that the White Sox have played a pretty soft schedules themselves. Specifically, the 6th easiest in the majors. BUT THEY MANAGED A SPLIT versus the Angels. Great work, "Hawk" Harrelson is appalled by that level of homerism.
Here's the deal: Against NL Central and NL East teams, Arizona and San Diego each have won a measly six games. San Diego beats up its own division, but nobody out west can win outside of its own sandbox.
Except the Dodgers who are 10-10 versus the rest of the NL. And the Diamonbacks were still a respectable 6-7 versus the rest of the NL before the Cubs series. And what about the +52 run differential the Snakes are sporting, 2nd best to the Cubs? But they've beat the crap out of the crappy teams in their division, clearly they're an inferior team.
I guess Rosebloom's article basically boils down to whether a four-game road split versus the Angels is more impressive than a three-game home sweep versus the Diamondbacks. And of course it's not. The Diamondbacks are ahead of the Angels in ESPN's RPI Index and way ahead of them in BP's adjusted standings (look for the W3 and L3 numbers). The Angels are just a +6 in run differential compared to the Snakes at +52. The Angels have been fighting injuries all season, while the Diamonbacks were just missing Doug Davis and I guess Chad Tracy, if he even counts.
And would this be a good time to mention the AL Central that Rosenbloom's beloved White Sox are riding on top of? Wait, that's not nearly as clever as NL Worst, and I'd really like a newspaper writing job one of these days. Let's see what I can come up with here...AL Entrail. See, it rhymes with Central and it's considered disgusting. Damn, that's awesome...AL Entrail it is. I can't wait to write for the Trib.
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