So...I was looking at the NL West standings this morning, and it raised a conundrum I've had for a while.
Generally, if a team has a winning record, folks will say that the team is X games over .500, with X being the difference between the team's number of wins and number of losses. For example, as of this morning, the Red Sox are 42-19, so it would typically be said that the Sox are 23 games over .500. It works the same for a team with a losing record. The Orioles are 19-41, so they're 22 games under .500.
However, when we talk about how far ahead one team is over another, we take the difference between Team A's wins and Team B's wins, subtract the difference between Team B's losses and Team A's losses, and divide that result by 2.
Where I'm going with all this is that, as of this morning, the Diamondbacks are 32-28, so one would typically say they are four games over .500. However, the Dodgers are currently a .500 team (30-30). Therefore, the Diamondbacks are, simultaneously, four games over .500 but only two games ahead of a .500 team!
Am I the only one who thinks this makes no sense at all?