You Can Make Stats Say Anything You Want

I couldn’t help but notice some things while glossing over Jeff’s painfully boring post. First was his take on Alfonso Soriano. “Alfonso Soriano is batting .233(14-60) against teams withabove .500 records. Throw out a 4 for 5 performance against the D’backs and he’s .182.” First of all I’d like to point out this is extremely faulty logic. If you can arbitrarily throw out a game in which he performed well, why can’t I throw one out in which he didn’t? Opening day, Soriano went 0-5. With this game “thrown out”, Soriano bats .254. Still not impressive, however it is acceptable considering he’s been playing this year injured and it’s the first half. It’s not like they’ve suffered thus far. Soriano is currently hitting .326 with runners on, and .322 with runners in scoring position. He already has a walk off hit this year. If anyone wants to question Soriano’s ability in the clutch, they should watch highlights of September of last year. The Cubs were in the midst of a division race, and Soriano hit .354, belting 14 homeruns. As a Cubs fan, Soriano is the least of my worries. Is the NL worse than the AL? Of course, no one doubts that at this point. Doesn’t mean every team is worse.

As Jeff was busy manipulating Cubs statistics, he conveniently glossed over his own team’s weaknesses. If you think of the AL over the last decade, what comes to mind? The Yankees and the Red Sox. 7 of the last 10 representatives from the AL in the World Series have been one of those two teams. Like usual, the Red Sox started this year hot while the Yankees started slowly. Both should make the playoffs unless the pesky Rays get in the way. Are the White Sox even a force in the AL? Well, they haven’t played the Red Sox yet, and lost a home series to the Yankees, giving up 7 runs a game in the process. The White Sox are 3-4 against the Rays, and 3-4 against the Angels. That puts the white sox at 6-8 against playoff teams in the AL. Do the White Sox have a great bullpen? Many would say yes. Do the White Sox have timely hitting? Some would also say yes. Yet the White Sox are under .500 in one run games. Don’t get me wrong, the white sox are a playoff team. But let’s not assume they are world series material just yet. After all, their two most effective pitchers, and their best hitter, have 0 playoff experience and have an average age of 24.5. Who would you bet on in the playoffs; Josh Beckett or John Danks?

My point is that every team in the league has issues, in fact every World Series champ has had flaws. The Cubs aren’t perfect, and the Sox aren’t perfect .