Man, I hate math.
Have you ever tried to come up with a stat?
I was in a cab today, literally minutes after the Cubs hideous, lifeless, impotent loss to the White Sox, and I started talking to the driver.
He happened to be a Sox fan.
He had the radio tuned to a sports station, which was talking about the game.
"Are you a baseball fan?" I ask.
"Sox fan." he says.
"Ahh God..."
"Ahh ha ha ha ha..."
"What's so funny?" I ask.
"Sorry. It must be not so fun."
"It's the worst. I've never seen a team that's paid so much just...not be able to hit." I say.
"Yeah. What would the ratio of money to hitting be?"
Ding.
Bell went off.
How would you figure out that stat?
Something simple.
I tried dividing team batting average into team salary.
Then I tried multiplying it.
It seemed inconsistent when I compared the Cubs to the Mets (2nd best BA) or the Pads (worst BA).
So I gave up and made this visual thing.
It's all about angles.
The steeper the angle of the line going UP left to right is the best Suck Line.
The steeper the angle of the line going DOWN left to right is the suckiest Suck Line.
Of course, it doesn't take into account injuries and I'm sure lots of other things, but you get the picture.
That white dashed line going from almost the top to almost the bottom is the steepest in the Bigs.
That would be our favorite team.
I dashed the teams in the NL Central so we could compare easier.
The Pirates have a pretty good Suck Line.
The Reds and the Brewers are kinda tied.
The 2nd best Suck Line belongs to the last place Astros who are 2 games behind the Cubs.
Obviously, my Suck Line has nothing to do with standings.
But hey, I'm an art guy.
Don't EVER come to this blog looking for stats.
Cubs 1 Sox 4.
The #1 highlight vid on Cubs.com is Dempster fielding a grounder to get a double play.
Mother of God.
