I beg to differ.
Infamous New York Daily News columnist Mike Lupica wrote a column praising the Padres for nearly matching the Yankees’ success this year despite spending $173 million less on players.
Bla bla bla … the Yankees are evil … bla bla bla.
Lupica forgot to mention one thing, and it seemed fairly obvious to me: Strength of schedule.
Yes, only a game-and-a-half separates the Friars and the Yanks, but the Yankees play the two toughest teams in baseball (besides themselves) more than most teams. Let’s compare divisions, shall we?
| AL East | W | L | PCT | NL West | W | L | PCT |
| Yankees | 75 | 46 | .620 | Padres | 73 | 47 | .608 |
| Rays | 74 | 47 | .612 | Giants | 68 | 54 | .557 |
| Red Sox | 69 | 53 | .566 | Rockies | 62 | 58 | .517 |
| Blue Jays | 63 | 57 | .525 | Dodgers | 62 | 60 | .508 |
| Orioles | 43 | 79 | .352 | Diamondbacks | 47 | 75 | .385 |
| Total | 324 | 282 | .535 | Total | 312 | 294 | .515 |
If you look at the MLB RPI rankings, the Yankees are well in front of the Padres in strength of schedule and are a few spots ahead in RPI.
So there.
P.S.: The last sentence of Lupica’s column will crack you up, unless you’re a Mets fan.
