Schedule strength

Much has been made around the general baseball blogosphere regarding the weakness of the cardinals schedule being a partial determinant of their success this year. Though this may be partially true, i think that this is something much exaggerated. This year, the cardinals have vaced 19 opponents. A quick look at the standings will show that of these opponents, 11 have losing records, and on average, are 6.6 games under .500.

Howevewr, all of these things factor in the games that these teams played against the cardinals. It seems odd to me to peanalize the cardinals schedule strength, when they consistently beat the teams that they play, thus weakening their standings.

If you eliminate the games these 19 teams played against the Cardinals from their record, 2 of these opponents, Houston and Milwalkee, go from being losing teams to having winning records. The Cardinals' opponents go from being 6.6 games under .500 to being 4.4 under, resulting from the awful records of the Rockies, D-Rays and Royals. Overall, they have played 47 games against teams that have losing records vs. non-cardinals teams, and 44 against teams that have winning records elsewhere. Also note that playing 8 games against the Rockies (who they finishted 4 and 4 against) has also severely dragged these averages down.

The point? The Cardinals, though not having the strongest schedule in the history of baseball, have also not had as weak of one as they have been said to. Also, this week offers another, especially savory opportunity to turn a winner into a loser--the stupid Cubbies (at 46 wins and 45 losses). Come on Cards, "weaken" your schedule, and make a winning team into a losing one!