Interesting...

[RedSoxRooter]

From Projo:

 

Sox traveled harder road than Yanks

 

Boston played a decidedly more difficult schedule than New York this season.

 

01:00 AM EDT on Tuesday, September 14, 2004

 

BY ART MARTONE

Journal Sports Editor

 

Yankee owner George Steinbrenner spent a good portion of 2003 -- well, the first few months of it, anyway -- complaining bitterly about the unfairness of his team's interleague schedule when compared to the Red Sox.

 

Boston, he whined back then, gets to play Pittsburgh and Milwaukee. We have to play Cincinnati and the Cubs. And he went on to hint it was just another example of how much Major League Baseball, which steered the sale of the Red Sox to their present owners, favored Boston's management team.

 

His whining quieted, and eventually stopped, when it became clear that the Red Sox' interleague opponents in 2003 (not just the Brewers and Pirates, but also the Cardinals, Astros, Marlins and Phillies) were superior to the Yankees' group of National League foes (Reds, Cubs, Astros, Cardinals and Mets). The combined won-loss percentage of the Red Sox' 2003 N.L. opponents was .506, the Yankees' .488.

 

But Steinbrenner put his finger on a modern truth that slips past many people: In these days of unbalanced schedules and interleague play, not all is equal in the

 

world of baseball. Everybody plays 162 games, but they don't play the same 162 games.

 

That's especially true this season.

 

Heading into last night, the Red Sox had played 11 more games (67-56) than the Yankees against teams with records of .500 or better, and 12 fewer games (75-87) against teams with records below .500. When the Yanks played the Royals last night, that gap widened to 13 games.

 

It won't completely close before the end of the season, either. The Yankees are the only above-.500 opponent the Red Sox will face during the rest of the regular season, but the Yanks only have two: the Red Sox and Twins (whom they play three times at Yankee Stadium during the final week). When everything's in the books, the Yankees will have played 97 of their 162 games (59.9 percent) against teams with losing records. The Red Sox? 89 of 162 (54.9 percent).

 

And the main reason the Yankees entered last night with a three-game edge over Boston in the loss column was their ability to consistently beat the teams beneath them. As the accompanying chart shows, the Yanks, prior to last night, were over .700 this season against teams with losing records.

 

The Red Sox haven't been as successful at beating the bottom-feeders. They've been good -- 47-28 (.627) -- but not at the Yankees' level.

 

The Sox, however, have been better against winning teams. As the chart shows, the Yanks are just barely above .500 against teams with winning records, while the Sox are 39-28.

 

And then there's the Oakland factor. For whatever reason, both the Red Sox (eight wins in nine games) and the Yankees (seven in nine) have beaten the A's like a drum this season. When you remove Oakland from the overall record, the Sox remain over .500 (31-27) against winning teams. The Yankees, however, drop under .500 (22-25).

 

Rolls of newsprint, miles of videotapes and hours of radio air time have been spent dissecting the strengths and weaknesses of the Red Sox and Yankees this year, and, in the end, it may all be as simple as this:

 

The Yankees have had more games against bad clubs, and they've done a better job of beating them than the Red Sox.

 

Simplistic, to be sure. Misleading, even? Maybe.

 

But undeniably true.

 

So when the time comes to look ahead to the postseason, keep this in mind for both Boston and New York:

 

There are no losing teams in the playoffs.

 

 

 

Interesting.. Though my only question is: If the yankees are playing and beating sub-.500 teams, wouldn't that (in part) be why some of those teams have losing records? :shrug:

[Sizzlin22]

It's interesting but it's not that big enough and if all they do is beat up on sub .500 teams then we know that they are not going anywhere in the playoffs.

[RedSoxRooter]

It could account for the 11 game difference from this thread.

http://www.talksox.com/index.php?showtopic=932

[yeszir]

Well, I mean, it kind of pisses me off that we have a better record against winning teams than the yanks. It means we aren't beating up on the teams that we should be beating up on as much as they are. It's a well known fact that we need to destroy Baltimore, Tampa, and Toronto to be competitive. For some reason Baltimore always gives us problems though, and as recent times have shown, we can sometimes cool off heavily while facing weak teams.

 

What is going on?