Monday, July 02, 2007

Point Differential Update

Just updated my baseball point differential spreadsheets. There has been some movement to report. The three division winners in each league per my analysis are Boston (.609), Detroit (.600) and the Angels (.588) in the American League and the Mets (.569), Brewers (.561) and the Padres (.622) in the National league.

There are two key points. The numbers indicate that the Tigers (currently in second place) should overtake the Indians for the division if trends continue. Second, the Brewers have played a lot better lately and now the numbers indicate that they should hold onto their division lead over the Cubs.

On the other hand, we also have the garbage of each league. The three teams most stinking up the joint in the American League are Tampa Bay (.388), the White Sox (.413) and the Royals (.430). The three worst teams in the National League are the Nationals (.352), the Cardinals (.402) and the Pirates (.413).

Out of this bunch I would look for the White Sox GM Kenny Williams to start dumping aging/expensive pitching (Buehrle, Vasquez and Contreras most likely to go) for anything he can get. Also, Thome, Dye, Konerko, Uribe and Iguchi could probably be had for a cracked bat and a bag of practice balls.

The White Sox got old, bad and slow real fast, their minor league feeder system is a vast wasteland right now, so I look for the White Sox to overtake the K.C. Royals for the drive for last place in the Central Division before much longer.

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