  Rustic Member Username: Rustic Post Number: 2646 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 128.36.14.165 |
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn /page2/story?page=keri/060707 weird article with midseason reports on each team where instead of assigning a letter grade they assign a player from the '84 tigers that seems closest in preformance ... yeah it is weird, I know ... but Tiger fans are giddy this year and it is popping up in weird places .. | ||
Rustic Member Username: Rustic Post Number: 2652 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 128.36.14.165 |
I guess the Tiger love only goes so far at the website ... http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/ powerranking Anyway, while we acknowledge that the Detroit Tigers should be dubbed "the team of the first half," they still don't rank No. 1 in our rankings. Why? Because if we were to pick one team to win a seven-game series against any other team in baseball, we'd still pick the Chicago White Sox. That's why they're No. 1, and not the Tigers.Note that power rankings has used shifting standards every week to rank DET below CHI. The above criterion is merely the latest. Previous ones were, CHI's WS win last year. DET's weaker schedule. CHI beating DET head to head (doesn't apply to other teams in the ranking tho) ... Hey don't get me wrong, IMO CHI is a terrific team and they have had a terrific first half. IMO given their experience and the big question marks re the tigers ((1) will they improve their offense and (2) how much longer can their pitchng hold up until (1) happens) smart money would pick them to win the central ... BUT the Tigers have been a better team nearly consistently over the entire first half and in particular the latter part of the first half of this season. | ||
Mackinaw Member Username: Mackinaw Post Number: 1853 Registered: 02-2005 Posted From: 69.221.37.93 |
You're right, their standards keep shifting. At some point, though, we need to become less focused with this "we're number 1" stuff (though it is awfully cool), and just worry about securing a playoff spot. Scary stuff can happen. Look at how Cleveland blew a spot in the playoffs the last week of last season. | ||
Andysrc Member Username: Andysrc Post Number: 87 Registered: 07-2005 Posted From: 209.220.229.254 |
You know, I don't really disagree with those power rankings. It's tough to argue that the Tigers really deserve to be above the White Sox. While they may be a game up in the standings (which can easily be erased), the Sox are riding a World Series championship and have beaten the Tigers in 5 out of 6 games this year. I think that kind of head-to-head record outweighs the one game lead the Tigers have, especially when it comes to something as subjective as these power rankings. Hopefully the Tigers can really take it to the White Sox in their next meeting and erase all doubt. | ||
Rustic Member Username: Rustic Post Number: 2656 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 128.36.14.165 |
Halfway into the season the head to head record is the only one where the White Sox lead the tigers. By virtually every other record the Tigers are better. In most cases it is only slightly (as in the overall record) better but better nonetheless. Further the tigers have faced NY and BOS wile CHI has yet to face them. Look ... I admit, this week is a bad one to gripe about the rankings since this last week CHI actually had a better week than the tigers ... but for a ranking system that leapfrogged the Mets after two strong weeks to #1 a while back it is funny that they could subsequently keep a 12-1 (20-7 for the month) team with the best record in baseball out of the number one spot (last week). Their current criterion is that they rank CHI #1 since they would pick them to win a 7 game series ... well ... what does that even mean? That they think that they would likely do better in the playoffs if the playoffs were magicly happening right now? okay fine but it is the regular season ... it is a series of 3 and four game matchups right now not seven games ... and one team is winning the most in these 3 and 4 game matchups and it is not CHI it is DET. | ||
Ordinary Member Username: Ordinary Post Number: 3 Registered: 06-2006 Posted From: 68.250.96.204 |
Is it my imagination or do we (the Tigers)always get dumped on by the national media? I'll never forget Curt (Kurt?) Gowdy saying that Mickey Lolich really didn't hit that homerun in the '68 World Series. What actually happened was that Bob Gibson threw it so hard that it just flew off of Lolich's bat! | ||
Rustic Member Username: Rustic Post Number: 2658 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 128.36.14.165 |
yeah but the crackpot who wrote that first article I linked to had Tiger love. Gotta love the description CHI as Alan Trammell and TB as Howard Johnson (tho KC as Kuntz is a stretch, if anything the Marlins are playing like Kuntz this season). | ||
Andysrc Member Username: Andysrc Post Number: 88 Registered: 07-2005 Posted From: 209.220.229.254 |
Rustic, I agree that last week or the week before I'd have put the Tigers #1. I also agree that their criteria seem awfully flexible in how they rank these teams. It seems more of a "gut-feeling, but maybe I'll check out some hard stats too" kind of system. It terms of this week though, I think there are three things you really examine closely: overall record (slight edge to Tigers), head-to-head (big advantage Sox) and history (big advantage Sox). All that being said, the Tigers do have the best record and hopefully in the next few weeks they'll play some great baseball and beat the Sox when they come to play in Detroit. Then there will be no doubt! |
