Risers and Sinkers: August 10, 2010

By crakpot, 10th Aug 2010 | Follow this author | RSS Feed | Short URL http://nut.bz/1oc70a4e/
Posted in Wikinut>News>Sport

Which MLB teams have raised their status in the past week? Is your favorite team still in the mix?

Risers and Sinkers: August 10, 2010

Welcome to the third installment of Risers and Sinkers. By now, my veteran readers should know the drill; I'll repeat myself for those unfamiliar with the concept. Every week, I track the fortunes of all 30 Major League Baseball teams, and track which ones have rose or sunk in value. For many of the teams, this shift doesn't matter, but this system has successfully predicted the collapse of the Detroit Tigers as well as other teams. Now without further ado, are the shifters:
Risers:
Baltimore Orioles (up 4 games since August 1). Is there any creative way to say that this doesn't matter in the slightest? In fact, tying with Pittsburgh at the end of the season may come back to bite the lowly Orioles; it would hurt their chances of getting the highest draft pick come June next year.
Los Angeles Dodgers (+4). It won't be enough to succeed in the NL West, a fantastically tough division this year, but at least the Boys in Blue can assure themselves of a winning record at the end of the season.
Arizona Diamondbacks (+3). What can I say? They probably won't lose 100 games?
Philadelphia Phillies (+3). It won't be enough to wrest this division from the Bobby Cox Braves, but the Phightin's shoved themselves into the thick of the wild card race.

Sinkers:
Chicago Cubs (-3). 102 years and counting. The North Siders removed all pretense that they were a contending team, and, for Chicago-area fans, football season can't come soon enough. (Actually, if Jay Cutler is as bad as last year....)
Los Angeles Angels (-3). Texas has this division wrapped up, but The Halos just forfeited second place to the lowly A's. What a disappointing season this has been.
Detroit Tigers (-3).... and if you want to talk about disappointing, look no further than The Tigs. Just one month ago, Detroit was on top of their division; now it looks like they'll finish 15 games back of Minnesota.
Florida Marlins (-3). What do you expect from a team that hasn't written a check since 2003?
New York Mets (-3). A fall from grace for a team that was in the hunt as recently as a month ago.
New York Yankees (-3). They'll still win 100 games and their division; this loss is less meaningful when you consider that the Rays also slipped two wins in the rankings.

Full data can be found here.