We're not ones to blast folks for making predictions. No one, not you nor I, can accurately predict sports. If we could, we would all be rich. But when someone's prediction is so deeply seeded in moronic logic, well, then we're going to tear them a new one.
Joe Sheehan, an experienced baseball writer for SI.com, gave his top ten predictions for 2011 and said the Phillies will win less than 96 games. We dissect.
The Phillies will win fewer than 96 games.
Oh goodie, do tell us how, Mr. Joe.
That figure is the current line for the Phillies' 2011 win total set by your finer, ahem, establishments.
A gambling man, you say. Go on.
It's easy to win December: make the biggest trade, sign the biggest free agent, lose the least talent, and no one is shredding their elbows or having trouble locating their fastball or just plain feeling old. It's harder to win September, when stat lines give way to baseball games, bad bounces, human frailty.
Right. That same human frailty suffered by this current group of core players that has led them to a record of 72-38 in September (.654 winning percentage) since 2007?
It was three years ago that pundits — myself included — were raving about the Tigers' 1,000-run offense in the wake of their trades for Edgar Renteria and Miguel Cabrera. That team won 74 games, finished last and fell just 179 tallies shy of a grand.
So let's just throw out that four-consecutive division title track record, shall we?
This isn't to say that the Phillies aren't the best team in the NL or won't win the NL East for the fifth year in a row.
Woop, I'll remove it from the trash.
