http://www.sbnation.com/users/the%20wolf Posts made by the wolf on SB Nation http://www.southsidesox.com/2006/7/5/174232/8571 the wolf Wed, 05 Jul 2006 21:42:32 -0000 <p>At roughly the halfway point, some interesting W-L team comparisons between Detroit, Minnesota and our White Sox:</p> <b>Detroit</b><br /> vs. .500 or better: 25-18, .581<br /> vs. under .500: 31-10, .756<br /> <br /> <b>Minnesota</b><br /> vs. .500 or better: 21-20, .512<br /> vs. under .500: 25-16, .610<br /> <br /> <b>White Sox</b><br /> vs. .500 or better: 28-10, .737<br /> vs. under .500: 26-19, .578<br /> <p>The Sox and Tigers, separated only by 1 1/2 games, have taken starkly different paths to their records. As some here have suspected, the Sox have a tendency to sometimes "play down" to the level of their weaker opponents (failing to finish off recent series, for example, against both Pittsburgh and the Flubs). Detroit, by contrast, is a beefy 14-0 vs. Seattle, KC and the Flubs.</p><p>As a Sox fan, one can look at the second half of the schedule optimistically or pessimistically; the Sox play 46 of their final 79 games against teams <i>currently</i> .500 or better. Should their first-half trend continue, they will be sitting pretty at the end of the season. However, Detroit plays only 33 of it's final 78 against teams currently over the .500 mark.</p><p>Finally, the two teams have 14 games against each other, which will (obviously) go a long way toward determining who will take the division.</p><p>The hard-charging Twins notwithstanding.</p> http://www.southsidesox.com/2006/6/2/155611/3466 the wolf Fri, 02 Jun 2006 19:56:11 -0000 <p>Today I was thinking about how much the Sox depend on Thome, Konerko and Dye to drive in runs, so I decided to take a look at how they stack up against other teams' three top RBI guys. &nbsp;Looking at the numbers, I wonder if there any long-term implications of having such a dependence on these three. &nbsp;The Sox are not in very good company at the top of that list. &nbsp;In fact, there is a group of very solid teams whose "Big 3" are around the 40% range:</p> <pre> <b>Team (Top 3) Total RBI Team Total %</b> Tampa Bay 109 213 51.2% LA Angels 109 223 48.9% Chicago Sox 134 278 48.2% Oakland 110 232 47.4% Seattle 107 232 46.1% Toronto 125 280 44.6% Baltimore 109 263 41.4% Boston 111 269 41.3% Minnesota 95 231 41.1% NY Yankees 123 304 40.5% Detroit 99 255 38.8% Texas 102 263 38.8% Cleveland 110 290 37.9% Kansas City 68 192 35.4% </pre> <p>Apologies for the formatting...it looks ok in the box but not when posted.<br /></p>