Postseason Odds

Last update: Fri Jul 4 08:46:00 2008 PT



Playing the rest of the season a million times

by Clay Davenport

See the PECOTA-adjusted version of this report. As well as the ELO-adjusted version of this report.

Generated Fri Jul 4 07:19:39 EDT 2008


Average wins by position in AL East:  99.4 93.2 85.2 80.4 75.4
AL East           W    L    Pct3  Avg W  Avg L  Champions  Wild Card   Playoffs      1D Change 7D Change
Rays              52   32   .607   97.5   64.5   64.09570   28.98171   93.07741       -0.05072   9.64228
Red Sox           51   37   .611   94.6   67.4   34.26613   49.63106   83.89719        3.93536  -1.24172
Yankees           45   41   .533   82.7   79.3    1.05518    5.01764    6.07282       -2.44619  -6.23262
Orioles           43   41   .498   79.4   82.6     .26289    1.62807    1.89096       -0.86712  -1.88475
Blue Jays         41   45   .546   79.3   82.7     .32010    1.64912    1.96922       -0.19905  -1.27234

Average wins by position in AL Central:  92.4 84.7 79.9 74.8 69.6 92.5
AL Central        W    L    Pct3  Avg W  Avg L  Champions  Wild Card   Playoffs      1D Change 7D Change
White Sox         49   36   .568   91.7   70.3   81.61019    1.16280   82.77299       -2.25706   8.73816
Twins             47   38   .479   82.5   79.5   10.22598    2.14541   12.37140         .32740    .30020
Tigers            43   42   .509   81.2   80.8    7.30406    1.31707    8.62113        1.42502  -3.95269
Royals            39   47   .471   73.1   88.9     .52851     .03291     .56142         .12620  -1.17077
Indians           37   48   .480   72.9   89.1     .33126     .03705     .36831         .01250  -1.76030

Average wins by position in AL west:  91.4 85.9 79.4 65.8 91.5
AL West           W    L    Pct3  Avg W  Avg L  Champions  Wild Card   Playoffs      1D Change 7D Change
Angels            51   34   .501   88.1   73.9   46.54567    3.69494   50.24060       -1.95044    .32698
Athletics         46   39   .560   88.0   74.0   45.72705    3.81205   49.53910        2.52660  -5.59604
Rangers           44   42   .499   80.6   81.4    7.71102     .88987    8.60089       -0.57198   4.09470
Mariners          33   52   .447   65.9   96.1     .01627     .00030     .01657       -0.01049    .00890

Average wins by AL Wild Card:  93.5

Average wins by position in NL East:  90.9 85.1 81.0 76.4 63.4 91.0
NL East           W    L    Pct3  Avg W  Avg L  Champions  Wild Card   Playoffs      1D Change 7D Change
Phillies          47   39   .533   89.3   72.7   66.24003    4.96089   71.20092        5.79039  10.48458
Marlins           44   41   .470   80.2   81.8    7.77115    3.06143   10.83259       -2.29580  -0.91625
Mets              42   43   .509   83.2   78.8   17.66497    6.21475   23.87971        3.16971   4.17048
Braves            40   46   .520   80.8   81.2    8.32039    3.81272   12.13312       -3.96339 -13.80439
Nationals         34   53   .390   63.5   98.5     .00346     .00008     .00354       -0.00329  -0.00537

Average wins by position in NL Central:  96.1 89.5 84.7 79.2 74.9 70.1 96.2
NL Central        W    L    Pct3  Avg W  Avg L  Champions  Wild Card   Playoffs      1D Change 7D Change
Cubs              51   35   .556   95.0   67.0   73.87921   16.40709   90.28629       -1.20573  -2.95392
Cardinals         49   38   .502   87.2   74.8   13.10809   30.40221   43.51030       -2.64164   5.92017
Brewers           46   39   .502   87.2   74.8   12.57759   30.35425   42.93184         .55083  -2.40108
Pirates           40   44   .420   73.7   88.3     .07067     .56287     .63354         .05864    .06055
Astros            40   46   .458   76.3   85.7     .22723    1.26928    1.49651       -0.21422  -0.83641
Reds              40   47   .445   75.1   86.9     .13721     .88011    1.01732         .17929  -0.20584

Average wins by position in NL West:  86.2 80.9 76.4 72.0 65.5 86.3
NL West           W    L    Pct3  Avg W  Avg L  Champions  Wild Card   Playoffs      1D Change 7D Change
Diamondbacks      43   43   .509   83.6   78.4   53.95858     .85733   54.81591       -1.61783  -8.00097
Dodgers           41   44   .499   81.4   80.6   34.42390     .93984   35.36374        1.16164  11.16421
Giants            38   48   .473   75.6   86.4    7.60195     .18409    7.78604        1.09239   1.61997
Rockies           35   51   .474   73.8   88.2    3.77017     .09055    3.86071         .00499  -3.10976
Padres            33   53   .429   66.7   95.3     .24540     .00251     .24791       -0.06598  -1.18597

Average wins by NL Wild Card:  90.0

As the title says, the post-season odds report was compiled by running a Monte Carlo simulation of the rest of the season one million times. Current wins, losses and expected winning percentages are taken from the Adjusted Standings Report.

Expected winning percentages (EWP) for each team starts with their W3 and L3 from the Adjusted Standings. A regression is applied to derive the EWP for the rest of the season, which is going to be between the current winning percentage and .500. To allow for uncertainty in the EWP, a normal distribution centered on the EWP is randomly sampled, and that value is used for the remainder of the season in that iteration. To simulate the normal 4% home-field advantage, the home team gets a .020 point bonus, while the visitors take a 0.020 penalty. The likelihood of winning each game is determined by the log5 method. W and L are the team's wins and losses through yesterday's games.

Pct3 is the expected winning percentage, taken from W3 and L3, with the regression-to-mean component.

Avg W and Avg L are the average number of wins and losses each team finishes over the million season iterations.

Champions is how often, in percentage terms, this team won the championship of their division. Ties are not broken, but credited as 0.5 championships apiece (for a two-way tie), .333 apiece for a three-way tie, .25 for four-way, etc. This is why the final decimal place is not an error!

Wild Card is how often, in percentage terms, this team won the wild card. As with championships, ties are not broken, but apportioned among the tied teams.

Playoffs is how often, in percentage terms, the team either wins the division or the wild card.

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