There's a reason the Yankees have won something like 25% of World Series played.
Joey Votto with three homers, the last a walk-off grand slam? Hamilton who?
*ExW-L and ExWP are derived from Bill James' Pythagorean theorem of baseball: Runs scored [squared] / (Runs scored [squared] + runs allowed [squared]). This formula was designed to relate a team's runs scored and runs allowed to its won-lost record.
That's the pythagorean win-loss for baseball. It's not a great statistic, but is much better than W-L itself. As such, let's take a look at the O's, where there RS-RA gives them a 19-15 record. They're playing over their head, and while not playing badly, are getting lucky with their sequencing of hits and runs allowed that's allowed them to win a greater number of games than expected.
Baseball is a game about luck, and mediocre-average teams can sometimes get lucky for even a year at a time. But it is much more likely, that even after this fast start that the Orioles finish just under to at .500 than it is they make the last playoff spot. That's just the nature of the game. Their hitting lineup isn't bad, but their pitching is pitching way over their heads... Hammel is someone with #4, #5 potential that people are now heralding as an ace because of some good luck. Remember Jair Jurrjens? What's he up to now?
This isn't to say that they can't make the playoffs at all. But if they do, it's not because they've got the current talent to have that kind of expected result. Some years you just get lucky.
Joey Votto with three homers, the last a walk-off grand slam? Hamilton who?
(because the only contributions you make to this thread are whining about how much the Reds are disadvantaged because of payrolls and big bad Yankees)
Mr.E itt said:(1)plz2b chapman finding his way into the starting rotation or the reds will be fielding all right-handed starters wtf >:[
(2)Josh Hamilton is apparently good at the game of baseball.
(3)I want to punch everyone who ever insinuates that more $$$ doesn't make it significantly easier to win. Since MLB doesn't have a salary cap like every other major sport because they're god damn idiots, not being able to spend as much money as the competition is not necessarily the poorer team's fault. There's a reason the Yankees have won something like 25% of World Series played. Good management doesn't hurt, as some teams like the Cubs (big spenders, still terrible) and Rays (small market, excellent despite) know, but to act like being able to out-spend everyone else on all of baseball's best players doesn't mean anything is asinine.
Whether or not your players are "home-grown" is most irrelevant. The best part about these players is that they tend to be someone the fans can really latch onto as the face of the franchise, because they've been around since the beginning, and well usually it's just cheaper to maintain existing players than it is to sign big names off the free agent market. ;[
Joey Votto is apparently also good at the game of baseball. It's too bad the Reds weren't down by three runs, would've made it all the more epic. It was already two outs, two strikes but I mean a long single would've been enough... not that I'm complaining. \m/
But thanks for playing. Don't worry, you'll still leave with this lovely parting gift: fuck you.
Are you so daft to believe that a salary cap would mean absolutely nothing to league balance? I'm not saying certain owners don't necessarily underspend in order to line their pockets but I'm guessing not every single one of them can afford the Yankees' $200 million payroll either. To use your example, maybe Oakland does have the ability (money) to sign a premier FA player... but oh, the Yankees simply offered them more. Well alright, maybe they'll get this other guy... nope, the Yankees bought him up too. If there's a salary cap in place that forces the Yankees to pick and choose their offers more carefully, maybe Oakland actually signs at least one of these two hypothetical players and would be more competitive as a result. I can't believe I actually have to fucking explain this shit.
The players association would cause a shitstorm at the prospect of a salary cap anyway. It's probably not happening anytime soon, though with a cap would also come a floor and the overall amount of money going to players would probably not change much; it would just not disproportionally come from the top few teams.
Team Payroll Average
N.Y. Yankees $201,689,030 $6,722,968
Philadelphia 172,976,381 5,765,879
Boston 161,407,476 5,978,055
Los Angeles Angels 138,998,524 4,483,823
Chicago White Sox 129,285,539 4,788,353
Chicago Cubs 125,480,664 5,228,361
New York Mets 120,147,310 4,290,975
San Francisco 118,216,333 4,378,383
Minnesota 112,737,000 4,509,480
Detroit 105,705,232 3,915,009
Furthermore your use of the Yankees in your examples shows that...
1) They're the biggest spenders. That doesn't mean they're the only big spenders. Just because the Ever Grande Bigs are the biggest users does not mean there are not other big users.
2) They're the ones who have won a disproportionate amount of the league's championships. That's the only context in which I specifically named them in the first place, I just used them in my previous post because aamto is apparently a disgruntled Yankees bandwagoner who took a general stab at a no-cap league as a personal attack against his team.
I wish I could just get DM to come in here and ban you people for being complete morons. Maybe next we can discuss how instant replay has no place in baseball. MLB, so much more progressive than the other major sports leagues...
I'm not going to continue this "debate" as you're presenting mostly opinions and not facts. I just wish you'd refrain from being this much of a pompous ass, stooping to stupid name calling and professing a desire to get us "morons" banned. Grow up, bro.
In any event, Matt Kemp landed on the DL which, unless he comes back right when eligible firing out of the gates, should put an end to his 50/50 campaign. Who on the Dodgers do you guys think will pick up the slack besides Ethier?
2) They're the ones who have won a disproportionate amount of the league's championships. That's the only context in which I specifically named them in the first place, I just used them in my previous post because aamto is apparently a disgruntled Yankees bandwagoner who took a general stab at a no-cap league as a personal attack against his team.
Speaking of proper calls, gonna do a little BLUE JAYS BIASED fan rant. Brettzilla came out in the ninth today, and the umpire made a pretty terrible strike call. I'm pretty sure the only reason he made the call is because Lawrie was walking towards first base before the call was made, but I'll link the Kzone.. yikes.. the fifth pitch was the 3-1 count that made Brettzilla appear.