The comparison

Benchmarks.

Mechanical rules, not people. “Bet the closing favorite in every MLB game.” No judgment, no discretion, no editing after the fact — the rule is published before results exist and never quietly changes.

This is the point of comparison. A capper who doesn’t beat “just take the favorite” isn’t adding anything — the same reason an index fund is the bar an active manager has to clear. These are graded by the exact same engine as every wallet on the leaderboard, losses shown at the same weight as wins, and they are never ranked alongside real cappers or counted as one.