Report: Padres Best Baseball Team in County
A new report suggests that the San Diego Padres are the best team in the county – with one big caveat.
For a fandom used to a team struggling, recent years have been a breath of fresh air as the Padres have become contentious once again. Unfortunately, they do share a division with the Dodgers, whose stacked (and expensive) roster is difficult to best.
But some hope lies on the horizon as a report is out ranking the Padres against the rest of the teams in the county, placing them at the top spot.
“It’s difficult to compare teams across leagues, but advancements in methodology have allowed us to do this,” explained baseball scientist and statistician John Boyd. “Most people have a familiarity with some of the legacy statistics we use. You can’t use things like batting average to compare teams in other leagues, however. It’s an entirely different ballgame. Well, not a different–you know what I’m saying.”
AI-powered data analysis has led to the adoption of new stats. “From WAR we have derived PEACE and SANCTIONS stats. Everyone knows on-base percentage (OBP) and slugging percentage, and more recently people combine the two into OPS (on-base plus slugging): But if you add the slugging percentage again, it becomes SLOPS.”
Even if you don’t understand the details, one thing is clear: the Padres are at the top spot.
“Clear as one-way window wrap, Padres are the best in the county. You think about all the other teams we have in the county, we’re talking high schools, hell even little leaguers. They don’t stand a chance. The only one that comes close is San Diego State.”
Boyd did warn of one exception to the data: “Well, this assumes that another MLB team isn’t in town playing the Padres. Our numbers go out of the window when they cross the border into San Diego county.”