This doesn't help me hating ESPN, or the A's.

by PhiSlamma on May 10, 2008 6:57 AM PDT

Although I know most of you may not care about things like power ratings, the easter bunny, santa claus or other things made up by some people, I wanted to address this weeks lovely botching of said rankings.

Check this badboy out if you havent already

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/powerranking

Now, what irks me is about several thousand things. Ill start with the obvious. And Ill just do it in list form to avoid actually bothering with sentence structure.

a) The Angels and the A's have the same record.

b) They are tied in the season series against each other

c) The A's have had an easier schedule, and have played more home games than the Angels. (The Angels have had more games against teams with good winning percentages)

d) The A's team average is far less (.251) than the Angels (.269) and have far less home runs (A's with 20, Halos with 38), Stolen bases (13-32), and Slugging (.358-.419)

e) They have ugly ass uniforms

Sure they have better pitching as of yet, but the Angels are superior in literally every other statistical category. And this is without the Angels two most effective pitchers of yesteryear. Keep in mind, Angels had a one game lead in the AL-West for the vast majority of the last week, which these power ratings were apparently based off of.

Adding to the infuriating nature that is the Angel snubbing/A's loving whoretown that is ESPN, the Angels were actually LOWERED in the ranking from last week from fifth to sixth. This while playing the same ball, having the same record, and playing just as effectively as the first ranked A's.

A shame that they obviously place the utmost importance on run differential on a list that could have been put together better by a two year old with a crayon tied to his hand. Obviously to be a good team you need to win a lot of games, sure. But to be the best team in MLB you need to win by lots of runs when you do win, and when you lose, lose by just one run.

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ESPN Baseball Tonight

Last week I was out of town and couldn’t get any of the games on TV, even tho’ I watched the Game Channel on the ‘puter. So, after the Halos won 4-0 at KC with Santana’s GREAT CG, I figured I watch the highlights on Baseball tonight.
Well, I watched about 10 minutes of blather about the Yankees, a bevy of meaningless highlights of 3rd and 4th place Nat’l league teams, and then the Web Gems and HR highlights. NOT 5 seconds of ANYTHING on the Angels.
Fuck ESPN.

by SocalAngelFaninOC on May 10, 2008 7:43 AM PDT reply reply 0 recs

Thats rough man.

There was a thread on here awhile ago about this. I never knew they would ignore our games, but apparently it happens a lot. F those guys.

Whatever dude.

by Mayheminthehood on May 10, 2008 10:34 AM PDT up reply reply 0 recs

WOW

I wasn’t going to check out their rankings because I figured your beef was simply that the A’s were above the Angels. I actually laughed out loud when I saw they had them number 1. What a joke. I do agree that those “Power Rankings” are such BS. It almost seems like the person that did the ESPN ones just did it to be provocative, and get people talking. The Fox Sports Power Rankings, while just as meaningless, seem a bit more in line with my thoughts. They have Boston at 1, Arizona at 2 and Angels at 3. Actually, I’d place Arizona at number 1, but other than that their list seems a little more realistic.

F ESPN

Whatever dude.

by Mayheminthehood on May 10, 2008 10:33 AM PDT reply reply 0 recs

ESPN will do anything to knock theh Angels

and Fox Sports has a love affair with the Red Sox.
a few days after we came in a took 2 of 3 from them, the rankings from Fox had the Sawx at number 1, because they had been “playing better”, or some stupid crap like that. i was pissed.

we could sweep the Sawx out of the playoffs and go on to win the World Series, and they would STILL rank them better than us.

Eff the media

Bring up Wood!!!

by howiestheman on May 10, 2008 10:43 AM PDT up reply reply 0 recs

Yes, and 2 weeks ago,

when we beat the Sox 7-5 at Fenway, the ES “Pee” N Baseball Tonight lead-in at the commercial break was …coming up: “Big Papi Does it Again”!
They proceeded to show Ortiz’ home run, and some play by Pedroia, NOTHING of Napoli’s home run, NO defensive plays by the Halos, and ended the piece by saying (under their breath), “Angels, 7-5”.

If you had watched the show with the sound off on your TV, you would have clearly come away thinking we were TROUNCED by the Red Sox!!

Eff – ESPN

by SocalAngelFaninOC on May 10, 2008 12:35 PM PDT reply reply 0 recs

ESPN is a commercial interest, not a news outlet

it just likes to pretend to masquerade as the latter instead. Fact is the Angels don’t sell as well as the Yankees, and Yankees fans won’t tune into watch Angels’ highlights. It bothers the fuck out of me, but I just have to remind myself that they’re not actually news…and are therefore not reporting on things as they are, but rather as the viewers want them to be. Sad fact of life. Everyone who knows their head from their ass can tell you the Angels are better than all except maybe the Diamondbacks.

by Caseys Kiss of Death on May 10, 2008 1:20 PM PDT reply reply 0 recs

At least

biased reporting of sporting events isn’t going to lead our nation into recession, or influence people to put a big chode in the oval office. It’s the rest of the media world that gets me riled.

"Erstad says he's got it. Erstad makes the catch!..."

by Rally Manatee on May 10, 2008 3:29 PM PDT reply reply 0 recs

Er, eh?

a) The Angels and the A’s have the same record.

True.

b) They are tied in the season series against each other

True.

c) The A’s have had an easier schedule, and have played more home games than the Angels. (The Angels have had more games against teams with good winning percentages)

Er, mostly not true.

The average win percentage (using records as of now, including all the games played on 5/10,) of the A’s opponents is .492. The average win percentage of the Angels opponents is .482.

It is true that the A’s have had more home games, (three more, although two of those “home” games were in Tokyo) but if you’re going to bring up the 4 games the A’s and Angels have played so far, I’d point out that all four were in Anaheim.

The parenthetical statement is a bit vague, as it doesn’t say what a “good” record is. If you want to say a good record is .500 or better, the A’s have played 22 of their games against teams fitting that description, vs 19 for the Angels. If you want to say a good record is better than .500, the A’s and Angels have both played 16. If you want to really try and target it, saying that the “good records” are the four AL teams that are better than .550, then the Angels have played 9 vs 8 for Oakland.

Anyway you slice it, saying the Angels have had a significantly harder schedule is at best a reach and at worst not true.

d) The A’s team average is far less (.251) than the Angels (.269) and have far less home runs (A’s with 20, Halos with 38), Stolen bases (13-32), and Slugging (.358-.419)

Ok, technically all of that’s true, although when it comes to measuring offense, I think they’re probably using a stat called “runs”. Oakland’s got 175 of those versus 173 for the Angels.

Sure they have better pitching as of yet, but the Angels are superior in literally every other statistical category.

So, yeah, the A’s have scored more runs (175 vs 173) and allowed fewer runs (139 vs 170,) but the Angels are better in “literally” every other category, (except OBP), and I suppose we can assume that “pitching” encompasses just about every pitching category in existence (A’s pitchers have allowed fewer hits, runs, walks, extra-base hits and home runs, have a lower opponents’ batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage, they strike out more batters.

I suppose that’s sort of true.

by Nate on May 10, 2008 11:31 PM PDT reply reply 0 recs

The biggest problem is

that even if ESPN is taking into account all of this, it leaves no room to discuss how well the Angels are doing in spite of the absence of its two best pitchers, a short period of time without its closer, without its leadoff hitter, without its best for-average hitter, and without its best power hitter producing. and in spite of all of that, they still match the A’s in w/l…ESPN’s rankings lack perspective, context, or foresight.

as for the runs measurement…the important thing is that, though the A’s lead in runs as of right now, the fact that they lead in NO other offensive categories shows a huge problem: that their run production is almost wholly unsustainable.

by Caseys Kiss of Death on May 11, 2008 12:06 AM PDT up reply reply 0 recs

Oh I agree

that the ESPN ranking is a snapshot of the performance to date and not an in-depth analysis of either of these two teams, let alone all thirty, but the OP’s arguments didn’t really speak to that. He brought up strength of schedule, (which did not actually favor the A’s as he claimed,) home field advantage (of fairly marginal benefit even if there weren’t a trip to Tokyo involved,) and he cherry-picked a few hitting categories the Angels were better in, glossing over the pitching categories which are all markedly in favor of the A’s.

I’d also suggest that while Oakland’s run production may be unsustainable given current performance, (though given the large number of A’s hitters who are either young players without a long MLB track record or older players at the tail end of their careers, predicting future performance is a crapshoot at best,) the Angels’ win percentage is also unsustainable if they continue to allow almost as many runs as they score.

by Nate on May 11, 2008 8:52 AM PDT up reply reply 0 recs

Except there are factors in the Angels' favor on that

for one, their run differential is so small because of a select few blowouts (14-2, 15-8, and 10-4) rather than an indicator of day-to-day differences. It’s so early in the season that ONE blowout, let alone two or three, can suddenly make the “expected” wins/losses completely skewed. Also, the removal of Dustin Moseley from the rotation, and the return of John Lackey (and potentially Escobar at some point), coupled with something of a return to the mean for Jon Garland and his track record indicate that it is extremely likely that the run differential really means absolutely nothing for the team right now.

by Caseys Kiss of Death on May 11, 2008 10:11 AM PDT up reply reply 0 recs

Please don't mention the A's

I am on probation for the f word

"Santa Claus brings pennants to the teams with the best chemistry"

by vladtheimpaler on May 11, 2008 12:36 AM PDT reply reply 0 recs

The list I saw over the weekend

On Baseball Tonight that had the A’s 1st, was voted on by the readers of ESPN.com, not the experts. They compared it to Eduardo Perez’s list which had the Angels 3rd after the Diamondbacks and Red Sox.

Pain heals, Chicks dig scars, Glory lasts Forever!

by billhune on May 12, 2008 7:44 AM PDT reply reply 0 recs

Media Attention

The A’s are not covered very well in the Bay Area, and that’s kind of the eternal struggle between Oakland vs. SF. I can tell you as an Oakland fan that lives in Oakland, nobody, including ESPN, is favoring the A’s in any way. I’d say that Oakland is even more obscure to the national media than the Angels are.

Another thing worth mentioning is that both the A’s and Angels performance to date are worth mentioning, without a doubt. The thing that makes the A’s even more deserving of media coverage is that many people did not expect the A’s to be here at even this point in the season. To be frank, the Angels were already crowned the toast of the AL West, so with any objectivity, how can’t you feature the A’s at this point?

Team Payroll Average – Average Team Salary

N.Y. Yankees $209,081,579 $6,744,567

Detroit 138,685,197 4,622,840

New York Mets 138,293,378 4,609,779

Boston 133,440,037 4,765,716

Chicago White Sox 121,152,667 4,487,136

Los Angeles Angels 119,216,333 4,110,908

Chicago Cubs 118,595,833 4,392,438

Los Angeles Dodgers 118,536,038 4,233,430

Seattle 117,993,982 4,538,230

Atlanta 102,424,018 3,414,134

St. Louis 100,624,450 3,049,226

Toronto 98,641,957 3,522,927

Philadelphia 98,269,881 3,388,617

Houston 88,930,415 3,293,719

Milwaukee 81,004,167 2,793,247

Cleveland 78,970,067 3,037,310

San Francisco 76,904,500 2,651,879

Cincinnati 74,277,695 2,971,108

San Diego 73,677,617 2,376,697

Colorado 68,655,500 2,640,596

Texas 68,239,551 2,353,088

Baltimore 67,196,248 2,099,883

Arizona 66,202,713 2,364,383

Minnesota 62,182,767 2,487,311

Kansas City 58,245,500 2,240,212

Washington 54,961,000 1,895,207

Pittsburgh 49,365,283 1,898,665

Oakland 47,967,126 1,713,112

Tampa Bay 43,820,598 1,460,687

Florida 21,836,500 661,712

The fact that the Angels are outspending the A’s at such a rate and virtually tied not only is worth mentioning, but is worth your respect. Here’s to some good baseball…..

by passionately objective on May 12, 2008 1:19 PM PDT reply reply 0 recs

Yawn

Maybe the payroll would increase if anybody actually went to the games…................

Sea-at-ha-ha-ha that's funny.

by hauldog on May 12, 2008 2:47 PM PDT up reply reply 0 recs

Tied in May

with the top 2/5ths of our rotation not making a start this year (37 wins worth of pitching last year, mind you), our lead off hitter on the disabled list, our best hitter for average on the disabled list, our closer missing time earlier in the year, our best overall hitter not heating up yet, our de facto ace starter not settling into his role just yet, and our #2 depth chart guy behind our leadoff hitter/best average hitter guy ALSO down.

I don’t care much what whining about payroll you want to do…most teams tend to struggle when that much of your team is gone.

Which of course says nothing of the fact that the A’s payroll situation is entirely of their doing because they’d rather cheat the 10 fans who show up (who can find non-tarped over seats to sit in), and not ever re-sign anyone to long term contracts unless they’re a third baseman who can play about 30 games a year.

by Caseys Kiss of Death on May 12, 2008 6:08 PM PDT up reply reply 0 recs

What's this?

An Angel fan complaining about injuries?

"It's like déjà vu all over again." -yogi berra

by Cheezombie on May 13, 2008 3:42 PM PDT up reply reply 0 recs

No it explains why the Fremonters are hanging around

Not an excuse.

Sea-at-ha-ha-ha that's funny.

by hauldog on May 13, 2008 3:43 PM PDT up reply reply 0 recs

USING INJURIES

Would be kind of like saying the Mariners wouldn’t have been good last year had they used the disabled list more often….......which is probably true….but this 2/5ths of the rotation missing etc etc…..

the standings are what they are. Possibly if Rich Harden weren’t always injured and Ducscherer hadn’t missed his starts the Angels would be trailing by 3 games rather than .5.

"The two of them deserve each other. One's a born liar, the other's convicted."

by SwampyD on May 13, 2008 3:01 PM PDT reply reply 0 recs

The sun rises in the east

Harden gets hurt

This was the first time ever, that Lackey has missed a start. Please bring something relevant to the discussion if you must thrust your tired Gree and Gold bullshit on us.

Sea-at-ha-ha-ha that's funny.

by hauldog on May 13, 2008 3:44 PM PDT up reply reply 0 recs