Runs Scored, Runs Against

I was going to wait until June 30, or the halfway point of the season, but a radio fragment caused me to jump in earlier.

The sportscaster was complaining something something about communication in the clubhouse, yadda yadda an example of a much larger problem...yawn.  You know the drill.  For June, The Red Sox are among the leaders in Runs Scored, middle-of-the-pack for Runs Allowed, so we would expect them to be doing a bit better than the last two months.  And they have. This is gradually showing in the season totals.

We are far enough into the season that we can look at teams whose won-lost records do not match their RS-RA and make predictions.  The following teams will drop off: Cleveland, Baltimore, the Mets, Pittsburgh, SF.  Maybe Miami and Tampa Bay.  The following teams will do better from here on in than their current record: Saint Louis, then probably Boston, then Arizona and Oakland. Averages say 8 of those 11 will prove out - and I lave little idea who plays for any of them.

This holds whether they have clubhouse communication, a loser's attitude, etc.  Those things can screw up a team somewhat, and make them somewhat worse than they should be.  In other sports, where berserker determination can give at least some advantage, you can bring something out of a team that wasn't there.  That is much less true in baseball.