Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Marlins Early Playoff Chances

We used sportsclubstats.com to determine the Panthers' playoff probabilities, so why not take an early look at the Marlins? After all, they're alone in first place 7 games into the season. How much difference does one week make?

According to them, it does make a slight difference. The Marlins currently boast a 29.9% chance of making the playoffs, fourth highest in the National League. The problem with these numbers as applied to baseball, of course, is that baseball is a streaky sport, where the landscape changes quickly. Do the Diamondbacks really have a 37.1% chance of making the playoffs because they're 6-1? I doubt it, but it's interesting to think about.

The more valuable statistic just might be the projected wins requirement. Sportsclubstats.com predicts that the Marlins would need to go 82-73 the rest of the way to have about a coin-flip's chance of making the playoffs. That would make them 86-76. I highly doubt that would be enough (88 MIGHT win the division in a very cluttered year), but we can play pretend for a day. We'll monitor that number as it goes up.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Try coolstandings.com - they have more realistic probabilities. The site takes into account last year's stats, along with current performance and record. The Marlins are currently given a 6.8% chance of making the playoffs. Beating the Nationals or Pirates early in the season unfortunately does not make the Marlins locks for making the playoffs!