How early in the season can we start to trust run differential?
Ben and Sam discuss the Giants’ starting rotation and decide what it would take to trust Barry Zito, then talk about how they decide which teams to root for.
How Dan Duquette is offsetting run differential with roster differential.
Ben and Sam discuss two baseball mysteries: the Orioles’ success in 2012, and MLB’s blackout policy.
Do teams like the Orioles that excel in one-run games do so out of skill, or have they just gotten lucky?
The Tampa Bay Rays have managed to stay in second place in the AL East despite the second-smallest run differential in the division.
Last year, I started messing around with something I call the Walk Gap, which is just the difference between a team’s walks drawn and walks allowed. Because we’ve spent so much time hammering home the importance of plate discipline and throwing strikes, I thought this might be a good indicator of team success.