[ATMREPORTS] New definitions of World Champions & AL/NL Champions

[Lee Sinins]

Some of you may recall that, several years ago, I announced that was 
withdrawing my recognition of the postseason and of the World Series 
winners due to the meaningless of small sample sizes in baseball. 
Making ANY baseball determination based on small sample sizes is the 
height of stupidity. That doesn't change just because the calendar 
says it is October.

I changed my recognition of the champions to be the team with the 
best record during the season.

Over the weekend, I realized I was wrong. The correct system is not 
the best record during the season, but rather the most wins during 
the season + the postseason.

I now recognize the World Champions as the team with the most total 
wins, with the respective league champions being the teams in each 
league with the most total wins.

During the postseason, the ATM reports will include a daily update on 
the race for my World Championship and respective league titles.

It is a near certainty that the World Champions will come from the 
American League. The only National League teams still in the running 
are the Diamondbacks and Rockies. In order for them to win the World 
Championship, all of the following must happen--(1) they must sweep 
the World Series, (2) the World Series victory must be against either 
the Yankees or the Angels and (3) they must beat the Yankees or 
Angels in the tiebreaker. No other team in the NL can have 11 wins 
added to their total and still be ahead of any AL team that has 7-10 
wins added to their total.

By the way, the tiebreakers are--

1) winning percentage
2) postseason success

Tiebreaker #1 only had to be used on a handful of occasions. 
Tiebreaker #2 only had to be used once. But, I forgot to keep a record of this.

The postseason teams are not currently on equal footing. Well, they 
shouldn't be. Reggie Sanders is not the equal of Alex Rodriguez. 
Sanders was the 2007 Royals RCAA Champion. Rodriguez was the 2007 
Yankees RCAA Champion. Being their respective teams' RCAA champion 
does not make them equals, nor is it the case that each team in the 
postseason should be considered equal just because some of them have 
the same title, Division Champions, and the others have a title, Wild 
Card, that people want to pretend to be its equal, since they both 
put you into the postseason.

And to those who consider this to be insanity, well, I consider 
recognizing a team as a champion because of small sample garbage to 
be insanity.

Lee