*Ed. Note: Thanks to Mike Silva's NY Baseball Digest for providing the links.
Normally I don't pay too much attention to the Cubs, or their media coverage, however this little nugget from The Mad Leprechaun AKA Chicago Tribune scribe Paul Sullivan caught my eye. Hey look, there's nothing wrong with pointing out a teams winning record in spring training, if that sort of thing excites you. That's not what caught my attention, nor why I'm writing this blog post. It did get me curious however, to see if there is any link between a having the best spring training record, and whether or not a winning record indicates strong odds of winning the World Series. I decided to check it out. Please use the following links to look at the record books for yourself here and here.
Going back to 1984, there have only been two teams that had the best record in spring training and won the World Series that season. They are the 1991 Minnesota Twins, and the 1997 Florida Marlins. So there goes that theory. Also, as Silva points out, the Kansas City Royals have had the best record in the AL in three of the past ten spring trainings. Somehow I haven't noticed the Royals even make the playoffs, let alone win the World Series in the past decade, have you? Also in the past ten years the 6 out of the 10 teams that won the World Series had winning records, so no discernible, or concrete link there either. One of the teams that won the World Series despite a losing spring training record happens to be the 2005 Chicago White Sox.
Anyway, hope always springs eternal, but I just thought it was cool to actually have hard data to compare spring training versus regular season performances. Enjoy.
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