Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
April 13, 2007
Tied but Behind

The AL Central holds a nice lesson in how standings are calculated today. The Tigers, Twins and Indians all own the same winning percentage, .667, but the Indians are listed as 1/2 game behind the other two. Which is right? Winning percentage is the appropriate way to rank teams as 1st or tied for 1st. WPCT is a window into the long term probability of teams winning. Games behind is a measure of the difference in games over .500 (1/2 the difference actually). So if the Indians were to play three games to catch up to the same total as Detroit and Minnesota, and won two out of three, the teams would be tied. The winning percentage wouldn't change, but the games back would. In extreme case, the team in first place can actually be games behind the second place team!


Posted by David Pinto at 01:03 PM | Standings | TrackBack (0)
Comments

I really love this blog...constant insightful baseball updates served up multiple times daily. But I think you take "musings" to a whole new level when trying to explain games behind / percentage differences in the standings. After the first reading I just stood back, mouth agape, and declared, "WHAT?" ....
Keep on keepin' on!

Posted by: johnnymac at April 13, 2007 07:34 PM
Post a comment









Remember personal info?