Postseason Odds

Last update: Thu May 15 08:00:59 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 Thu May 15 07:20:57 EDT 2008


Average wins by position in AL East:  96.8 90.0 85.0 80.0 73.4
AL East           W    L    Pct3  Avg W  Avg L  Champions  Wild Card   Playoffs      1D Change 7D Change
Red Sox           24   19   .575   92.4   69.6   48.62918   20.61934   69.24852       -1.79249  -5.66653
Rays              23   17   .542   88.2   73.8   25.87204   22.21545   48.08748       -3.41501  21.25198
Orioles           21   19   .483   78.9   83.1    4.82700    7.06025   11.88725         .94236   2.19761
Yankees           20   21   .514   81.9   80.1    8.46799   11.51053   19.97852        3.46904   1.87541
Blue Jays         20   22   .537   83.8   78.2   12.20379   14.97684   27.18063        1.72456  -7.25724

Average wins by position in AL Central:  89.6 83.4 78.7 74.0 67.8 89.7
AL Central        W    L    Pct3  Avg W  Avg L  Champions  Wild Card   Playoffs      1D Change 7D Change
Indians           21   19   .496   82.4   79.6   32.69810    3.17456   35.87266        2.97551  11.38337
Twins             20   19   .466   77.9   84.1   15.36186    2.12174   17.48360       -1.53131  -2.87775
White Sox         19   20   .508   82.1   79.9   31.06839    3.26954   34.33793        3.87014  -1.57797
Royals            18   21   .458   73.9   88.1    7.46075    1.00873    8.46948         .38916  -0.22830
Tigers            16   24   .492   77.1   84.9   13.41090    1.78025   15.19115       -3.89220 -10.87319

Average wins by position in AL west:  91.4 82.6 75.5 66.5 91.5
AL West           W    L    Pct3  Avg W  Avg L  Champions  Wild Card   Playoffs      1D Change 7D Change
Angels            24   18   .480   81.1   80.9   21.66193    5.03971   26.70163       -2.53522  -5.61710
Athletics         23   18   .539   88.8   73.2   65.20394    3.90793   69.11187       -0.28316  -6.83581
Rangers           20   22   .478   77.5   84.5   11.46577    2.96305   14.42883       -0.37257   5.64908
Mariners          16   26   .440   68.6   93.4    1.66836     .35207    2.02043         .45117  -1.42357

Average wins by AL Wild Card:  90.8

Average wins by position in NL East:  93.8 87.0 81.7 76.0 67.5 93.8
NL East           W    L    Pct3  Avg W  Avg L  Champions  Wild Card   Playoffs      1D Change 7D Change
Marlins           23   17   .493   82.1   79.9   16.29949    6.52901   22.82850       -3.91665   6.51054
Phillies          22   19   .488   80.4   81.6   12.03964    5.09002   17.12966       -2.10819  -5.78203
Mets              20   18   .523   85.5   76.5   28.14808    9.18253   37.33062       -5.13300  -3.64684
Braves            20   19   .552   88.3   73.7   42.58966    9.32260   51.91226        5.54090  -0.13998
Nationals         17   24   .434   69.7   92.3     .92312     .46537    1.38849         .28311  -0.57458

Average wins by position in NL Central:  96.0 88.7 84.0 79.8 75.3 69.1 96.1
NL Central        W    L    Pct3  Avg W  Avg L  Champions  Wild Card   Playoffs      1D Change 7D Change
Cubs              24   16   .563   92.7   69.3   57.39716   12.04470   69.44187        1.47175  20.34001
Cardinals         24   18   .519   85.6   76.4   19.27751   14.21025   33.48776        5.32067 -13.50915
Astros            23   18   .489   81.7   80.3   10.04559    8.23842   18.28401        1.06425   5.26552
Brewers           20   20   .482   78.8   83.2    5.12261    5.19614   10.31876       -2.21828   1.91305
Pirates           19   21   .462   74.7   87.3    2.32016    2.24429    4.56445       -1.89293    .41140
Reds              18   23   .506   79.4   82.6    5.83696    5.86910   11.70606        1.23560   2.20517

Average wins by position in NL West:  95.5 85.4 78.4 72.2 65.0 95.5
NL West           W    L    Pct3  Avg W  Avg L  Champions  Wild Card   Playoffs      1D Change 7D Change
Diamondbacks      25   15   .559   93.7   68.3   73.84610    6.06577   79.91187       -0.38604   5.02103
Dodgers           20   19   .516   83.9   78.1   18.80603   10.74854   29.55456        1.61188 -14.61606
Giants            17   24   .457   71.6   90.4    1.57005     .87832    2.44837       -0.69399  -0.26918
Rockies           15   25   .497   76.8   85.2    4.70845    3.28798    7.99643         .31208  -3.47709
Padres            15   26   .453   70.4   91.6    1.06938     .62696    1.69633       -0.49116    .34817

Average wins by NL Wild Card:  91.3

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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