The name Matt Holliday brings a chill to my spine. The name Tim McClelland brings a shudder. But more importantly those two names combined brought an end to my wonderful 2007 baseball season. Yes I admit it the “loss-that-not be-mentioned” hurt quite a bit and actually caused me to become a shut in and turn away from the T.V. during the playoffs (not to mention the horrible job TBS did and that bastard Dane Cook). So as I sat on the computer with an overgrown beard, weight dwindling down to nothing and drinking my own urine (I’M KIDDING!!) I did some research and I am about to share it with you!
To start off I wanted to figure out how all the teams in the NL stacked up both record wise & payroll wise. I picked the last 4 years mainly because that was the opening of Petco and as we all know this is a PADRES BLOG and that was the beginning of the “competitive years”. So I added up every team’s record from 2004 through 2007 with their winning percentage. Then I figured out how many games back they were and each teams overall opening day payroll’s combined.
National League 2004-2007 Regular Seasons
#1 St. Louis Cardinals ——- 366-281 —– .566 —– —- GB —– 354.51 Mil (#5)
#2 Atlanta Braves ———– 349-299 —– .539 —– 17.5 GB —– 354.08 Mil (#6)
#3 Philadelphia Phillies —– 348-300 —– .537 —– 18.5 GB —– 366.44 Mil (#4)
#4 San Diego Padres ——- 346-303 —– .533 —– 21.0 GB —– 246.68 Mil (#9)
#5 New York Mets ———- 339-309 —– .523 —– 27.5 GB —– 414.28 Mil (#1)
#6 Houston Astros ———- 336-312 —– .519 —– 30.5 GB —– 332.48 Mil (#8)
#7 Los Angeles Dodgers —- 334-314 —– .515 —– 32.5 GB —– 382.84 Mil (#2)
#8 Chicago Cubs ———— 319-329 —– .492 —– 47.5 GB —– 371.68 Mil (#3)
#9 Florida Marlins ———– 315-333 —– .486 —– 51.5 GB —– 148.05 Mil (#16)
#10 San Francisco Giants — 313-334 —– .484 —– 53.0 GB —– 352.49 Mil (#7)
#11 Milwaukee Brewers —– 306-341 —– .473 —– 60.0 GB —– 196.01 Mil (#13)
#12 Cincinnati Reds ———- 301-347 —– .465 —– 65.5 GB —– 238.32 Mil (#11)
#13 Colorado Rockies ——– 301-348 —– .464 —– 66.0 GB —– 209.25 Mil (#12)
#14 Arizona Diamondbacks — 294-354 —– .454 —– 72.5 GB —– 243.86 Mil (#10)
#15 Washington Nationals — 292-356 —– .451 —– 74.5 GB —– 190.26 Mil (#14)
#16 Pittsburgh Pirates —— 274-373 —– .423 —– 92.0 GB —– 155.61 Mil (#15)
*Records were added up using standings on ESPN.com*
*Approx. Opening Day Payroll’s were added up using USAToday.com*
So the Padres are doing great since moving into Petco. 4th place in the NL (1st in the NL West), 21 games back of the Cardinals for 1st and a mere 3.5 games back of the 2nd place Braves, is nothing to be ashamed of. Especially since we have a better record than the #1, #2 & #3 ranked teams in payroll (Mets, Dodgers & Cubs). In the West we are a good 11.5 games up on the Dodgers, 32 games ahead of the Giants, 45 games up on the Rockies and have a 51.5 game jump on the D-Backs. That’s quite the comfortable lead and it’s no wonder why the other clubs in our division are constantly calling the Padres the team to beat year in and year out. With the exception of the Marlins each team in the top 10 in record’s are in the top 10 in shelling out the bucks. I’ll delve deeper into the correlation between payroll and wins in part 3 or 4 (or even 5 we’ll see how far I really want to take this). But as we all know the regular season is practically the 1st (extended) round of the playoffs. You need to succeed there before you can make it to the next stage but once they made it there how did they do? Part 2 of my series The Last 4 Years: (The Playoffs) will be up for your enjoyment tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by!!
Filed under: Stats, The Last 4 Years ('04-'07) Series
.
Good stuff. It’s nice to see everything broken out like this. I’m looking forward to the rest of the series.
[...] The Last 4 Years: Part 1 (Regular Season) (Sdpads1 Blog). The Padres own the fourth best record in the National League since moving into Petco Park. They’ve won 12 more games than the division’s second-best team (Dodgers) during that stretch while spending $136 million less on payroll. Once again, smart money beats deep pockets. [...]
Thanks Geoff. Yeah I was curious so I thought what the heck let’s break down everything and see how the Pads stack up against all the NL teams. I actually did all the AL too. Maybe I’ll post all that info under a seperate posting.