clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Less Fun(?) With Numbers

ACTUALLY it's "Fewer Fun(?) With Numbers".

Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images

Hello and welcome to the 2nd of somewhere between several and many looks at the historical and statistical tidbits that arise from having a W-L record somewhere near the tail end of possible.  Inspired by the 1-9 post earlier this week, I've painstakingly collected the data from the Baseball-Reference season logs for each team-season from 1995 to 2016 and, through ExcelMagic TM, am now passing the savings along to you!  Onward!

Record

The Blue Jays are 2-11

Ugh.  Could you communicate that in gif form instead?

Number of teams with the same record since 1995

Of the 654 team seasons from 1995 to 2016, 9 teams (1.4%) have started a season 2-11.  The most recent team to do so was the 2015 Brewers, who finished 68-94.

How many of those teams made the playoffs?

0, or 0%.  4 of the 9 teams lost 100 or more games.  The 2006 Kansas City Royals are one of 'em.  The Royals' lineup contains an astounding number of "Oh yeah, [name] existed and was kinda good some seasons".  Not 2006 though.  Here's to one more 100-loss season for each hair on Neckbeard's neckbeard.

Give me an end of season record distribution

99th percentile: .525 (85-77 BOS 1996)
90th percentile: .441
75th percentile: .414
50th percentile: .401 (65-97 ARI 1998)
25th percentile: .383
10th percentile .340
1st percentile: .333 (54-108 FLA 1998)

Given your chosen projected estimates of the Blue Jays' true talent going forward and the number of wins required to make the playoffs, the Jays have a ___% chance of making the playoffs

Over their remaining games, the Blue Jays would have to play like a ___ team to win ___ games

Summarize the above in one word

Worse.