FanPost

Are the Padres the 2005 White Sox?

I confess, I got this idea from Ray Lankford (of The Sacrifice Bunt fame) on the UT Padres forum. Here's the link to the thread.

For those of you who are too lazy to click the link, here's what he said:

If my memory serves me correct, Chicago was a team that not much was expected from who got off to a hot start that everyone figured would temper eventually but never did. They were average offensively, but above-average in pitching and defense

I decided to take a look at the stats and see if they measure up. Check it out.

For the uninitiated, wOBA stands for "weighted On Base Average", and is a measure of overall offensive performance. FIP stands for "Fielder Independent Pitching", and measures how good a pitcher is when you screen out defense and luck. UZR stands for "Ultimate Zone Rating", and is an overall measure of defense. UZR/150 is UZR pro-rated over 150 games.

Now, here are the team stats for the 2005 White Sox.


Team wOBA: .324 (17th in MLB)
Starter FIP: 4.13 (10th in MLB)
Reliever FIP: 4.09 (8th in MLB)
Total team FIP: 4.12 (10th in MLB)
Team UZR: 38.8 (4th in MLB)
Team UZR/150: 4.0 (7th in MLB)

Now, here are the 2010 Padres stats:

Team wOBA: .316 (21st in MLB)
Starter FIP: 3.82 (7th in MLB)
Reliever FIP: 3.28 (2nd in MLB)
Total team FIP: 3.62 (4th in MLB)
Team UZR: 17.2 (2nd in MLB)
Team UZR/150: 13.0 (2nd in MLB)

So far, the comparison seems valid. If the Padres keep doing what they are doing, there is precedent for a team built in a similar fashion winning their division and the World Series.

Plus, we have Jon Garland.

This FanPost was written by a member of the Gaslamp Ball community and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Gaslamp Ball staff or SB Nation.