Rebbiv....you seem to be doing a lot of work on this thread on stats that seem to be just common sense. It is kind of like tracking if a team only gives up 3 runs they win at a high percentage of the time.
I have been studying and using run data for a few years now. It might be intuitive to think you would do equally well by limiting a team to 3 runs or less. Let?s look at the facts (2010 and 2010 records).
AL Teams scoring 5 runs or more
1941 games .790 WPCT 68.5% of all wins
DET = .822 WPCT 71.0% of all wins
Top 5 teams = .821 WPCT 71.1% of all wins
Bottom 5 teams = .742 WPCT 62.1 of all wins
AL Teams limiting 3 runs or less
1990 games .795 WPCT 69.4% of all wins
DET = .836 WPCT 66.5% of all wins
Top 5 teams = .829 WPCT 67.6% of all wins
Bottom 5 teams = .768 WPCT 71.8% of all wins
At first glance, the two look basically equal, except the bottom 5 teams get a higher percent of their wins when limiting their opponent to 3 runs or less. The top 5 winning teams (DET is 5th) are also the top 5 teams with number of games scoring 5 or more runs. Is this a coincidence?
So, let?s look at the games in which neither team scores 5 runs or more.
1489 games .501 WPCT 32.7% of all wins
DET = .537 WPCT 29.0% of all wins
Top 5 teams = .542 WPCT 28.9% of all wins
Bottom 5 teams = .463 WPCT 37.7% of all wins
The AL record is .501 (interleague play skews this). The top 7 teams have the top 7 WPCT in this area. The bottom 7 has the worst records. There are 3 teams with the most number of games played in this area, SEA, OAK and LAA. Arguably, the 3 teams that have the best AL pitcher friendly parks. TBR would be fourth. Again, another pitcher friendly park.
Teams win by scoring more runs than the other team. I am a proponent that scoring runs (i.e. Run Support) helps the pitcher. Certainly, good pitching is a factor.
Number of games scoring 5 runs or more and also limiting the opponents to 3 runs or less (think blowout wins)
NYY 85 (192 wins, #1)
TBR 78 (187 wins, #2)
DET 65 (176 wins, #5)
Bottom 5
SEA 37 (128 wins, #14)
BAL 41 (135 wins, #13)
KCR 41 (138 wins, #12)
The issue with DET?s offense, is that it is all or nothing from one game to the next. It isn?t consistent. Consistent offense helps in the low scoring games. Again, some of the teams that limit their opponents, do not have the offense to capitalize.