Bill James has an article up on his website that tries to quantify MLB strength-of-schedule into runs.
Bill James Online: Interactions with Bill James thru articles, conversations, and more
Say hello to your 2008 National League West Champion Baltimore Orioles - Orioles Hangout Community
The first link is directly to the article, which requires a subscription. The second is to the thread at OriolesHangout.com where it was posted, with a quote from the article directly relating to the Orioles, and where I found it.
Here's the quoted portion:
Quote:
The teams in the AL East play the strongest schedules, because there are four strong teams in that division. Baltimore plays the toughest schedule because they are the only team that has to play all four of them.
There is a lot of talk about strength of schedule. . .some whining about the imbalancing effects of the inter-league matchups, some discussion about playing so many games inside the division. This method gives us a solid, credible information with which to approach that discussion. I think that’s worthwhile.
Baltimore’s schedule is 156 runs tougher than Los Angeles’ schedule—one run a game, basically. Baltimore starts the season 156 runs behind the Dodgers. What do we think about that? Should we just live with it, or should try to do something about it?
|
Think about that. The strongest team in the weakest division of the weaker league had a 156-run advantage over the weakest team in the strongest division of the stronger league.
The difference in runs scored between the overall highest- and lowest-scoring teams was 264, and the difference in runs allowed was 357.
That kind of advantage is HUGE.
Of course, helps if the team in question was BETTER...
