9 Wins Over 6 Months

[Crash Course]

Is this the difference between an average team and a very good team?

[sweaver]

Pretty much.....

Doesn't seem like much. But, it's the difference between the 90 wins of a contender and the 81 wins of a .500 team.

[Crash Course]

Amazing, the difference between .500 and 90 wins is 1.5 wins per month.
Doesn't seem like much.

[KCBOOMER]

Makes sense, though I might have picked ten games just so the great team would have 100 wins.

[mgoettsche]

Yeah, my measuring stick has always been 90 wins as the separation point between average and above average teams. 100 wins for great teams.

Its easier to make the distinction if you say the 90 win team won 18 more games then they lost...sounds a lot more impressive!

[gyb13]

Amazing, the difference between .500 and 90 wins is 1.5 wins per month.
Doesn't seem like much.that's why you need the large sample size of a full season ;)

[Joseph]

One reason why interleague games and the unbalenced schedule are unfair, especially with teams competeing with other divisions for the wild card.

[nyy26wc]

It's also why it is silly to ever come up with favorites in the postseason.

Even a team like the 1998 Yankees should never have been considered a serious favorite.

When they played the Rangers, the 26 win difference between the teams only came out to a difference of 1 win over an entire week. Over a 5 game stretch, that's way too close to call.

When they played the Indians, the 25 win difference between the teams is just a sliver under 1 win over the course of a week. Since a best of 7 series is essentially a week's worth of games, that's a 4-3 rate, which is too close to call.

When they played the Padres, the 16 win difference between the teams is the difference of 1 win spread over the span of 1.6 weeks. Way too close to call that 7 game series.

And when even a dominant outlier like the 1998 Yankees have their postseasons too close to call beforehand, when dealing with mortal teams, like we do almost every other season, it's even more foolish to make anyone a favorite, ever.

Now, if we ever get to the day when a 120 win team gets to play against the 48 win 12th wild card added for extra TV revenue kind of series, that's when it's appropriate to make someone the favorite.