Postgame Spread: ALERT: Standings Error!

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Yahoo! Sports' standings are incorrect. As of this morning, they looked like this:

East	W	L	Pct	GB	Home	Road	East	Cent	West	Streak	L10
Boston	35	15	.700	--	17-7	18-8	15-7	8-3	10-4	Won 4	7-3
Baltimore	24	27	.471	11.5	15-11	9-16	12-11	8-12	2-3	Won 3	6-4
Toronto	23	27	.460	12.0	13-11	10-16	14-11	6-9	2-5	Won 1	5-5
NY	21	28	.429	13.5	12-13	9-15	5-13	6-3	9-10	Lost 4	3-7
TB	21	28	.429	13.5	13-14	8-14	6-10	7-6	8-9	Won 2	4-6

But wouldn't you agree that a team's record within their division is the best way to break a tie within that division? Clearly, it ought to look more like this:

East	W	L	Pct	GB	Home	Road	East	Cent	West	Streak	L10
Boston	35	15	.700	--	17-7	18-8	15-7	8-3	10-4	Won 4	7-3
Baltimore	24	27	.471	11.5	15-11	9-16	12-11	8-12	2-3	Won 3	6-4
Toronto	23	27	.460	12.0	13-11	10-16	14-11	6-9	2-5	Won 1	5-5
TB	21	28	.429	13.5	13-14	8-14	6-10	7-6	8-9	Won 2	4-6
NY	21	28	.429	13.5	12-13	9-15	5-13	6-3	9-10	Lost 4	3-7

See? Much better.

(Could I have waited a day or two for the tie to break? I guess so. Am I still terrified that posting this will curse the season? Absolutely. But I think I have karma to burn. I've been a good boy all year. I spoke up after the sweep a month ago, but that wasn't to brag as much as to find an excuse for premiering the Crazy Jeff tag. I haven't said a word about the standings besides that. So I'm cashing in some chips.)

3 Comments:

How are those standings actually ordered currently? Alphabetically? It's not apparent to me from looking at it.

This really does have the makings of an epic collapse, but I'm not counting them out yet. I think Mussina will improve, and once you throw Clemens and Hughes into the mix, that's a pretty transformed team. Still, they're making quite a hill to climb for themselves. If Posada stops hitting (and he will), some of those guys are going to have to get back to form.

And if guys like Abreu and Giambi and even Damon are actually in serious decline as players... it could get ugly. I think A-Rod and Matsui are the only guys who could really be reasonably expected to improve on their numbers last year. Jeter and Cano probably both had their career years last year, and the bullpen looks like a mess (though it frequently does and they usually seem to manage ok).

But I think the rotation, the same thing that was killing them to start the season, could save them yet. Still, that's a mighty big hole they're digging themselves...

By Jesse, at 3:11 PM
Yeah, alpha. What a bunch of biased bullshit, right?

I think there's plenty of chances for the Yankees to get their shit together. They're only 7 under. But their margin for error is just about zero. They need invincibility from Hughes and Clemens. They need the comedy duo of Proctor and Farnsworth to get their shit together in a "0 ER in July and August" kind of way. They need Giambi to hit the greenies again. They need Damon to take a rest. They need ALL of those things. I don't put it past them (I've seen Aaron Small go 10-0) but it's an awfully tall order.

Also, the Yankees' slump got worse before it got better. The slump has been a major, major story for a month or more now, and it's still not dealt with. They've got the Moose-Wang connection back, been back for a while... still not winning. If it were a matter of motivating the talent they have, it'd have been fixed by now. It's not. Something is substantially wrong. Not unsolvable, but I'm convinced now that it's not a simple matter.

Unrelated... catch O-Cab's Yankee fan hate-fest over the weekend? Talk about hitting the nail on the head.

By Jeff, at 3:53 PM
Yep, I'm glad Cabrera continues to outperform projections. He seems like a pretty great guy, and insightful too. I'll give him a mulligan about the Angels fans thing, you know, since he plays for them and all.

By Jesse, at 5:23 PM