Wednesday, August 29, 2007

The Brewers v. Cubs: The facts

By Nate Noy

On July 2nd the Brewers were 48-34 playing .585 ball and were 14 games over .500. The Cubs were 41-40 playing .506 ball and were a single game over .500 and 6.5 behind the Brewers.

At that time I thought to myself that the Brewers were a complete fraud and the Cubs would win the division. For the next few days and almost nightly thereafter Rick Morris and I debated how accurate my prediction would be.

Over the course of the next few weeks I continued to launch this debate with people I know, most of them responding that I was insane. However, the Cubs continued to chip away slowly at the division lead.

As of today, the Brewers are 65-66, they have gone 17-32 or .347 since I called them out. Their 14 game over .500 record is now one game under.

The Cubs are now 67-63 and have gone 26-23 since my infamous boast. No they have not exactly set the world on fire as I thought they would, (see impact of Soriano injury for that) but the Brewers did completely collapse as predicted.

As a side note, the Cards went from 37-42 and are now 64-64 going 27-22 over the same time period, one game better than the Cubs.

In two days the Brewers will be 65-68, their road record will be 25-43 (and since the Rangers and Astros both play at home this week), they will have the 29th best road record in baseball, only behind the D-Rays.

They will also be 4.5 games behind the Cubs and could be as many as 2.5 behind the Cards.

I know Rick Morris will still not concede the argument, but I am finding very little justification for a claim that the Brewers are even worth a crap at this point.

A final point: on August 12th when we did the Lounge show, the Brewers were 62-56. I blasted them from top to bottom and received a counter from every member of the show. However, since I called them out on air they have gone 3-10, and when the Cubs win the next two it will be 3-12.

Put a fork in the Brewers; they are DONE.

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