Standing, according to Pythagoras

Jason

It's hard to believe, but the 2008 MLB season is just about 25% complete. There's a lot of ball left to be played, for sure. We also have some good data to look at the Pythagorean standings to see what teams are under or over performing in the win column. The complete standings are below. Here are a few things that stand out to me.

AL East -
Toronto really is this bad. They've only under preformed by a little more than a game. With Wells now hurt, it looking like it will be another disappointing year from the team north of the border. It's too bad to. Come next year, Toronto might be the standard pick for 5th in the AL East - it's going to be a tough division.

AL Central
Cleveland has under preformed by nearly three games - which is huge. They appear in good shape to right the ship and win the division.

AL West
What's more surprising? The fact that the Angles are over performing or that the A's have under preformed. Not having seen any A's games outside of Japan this year, I'm not really up on the team. Guess I'll need to spend some time watching, but how can they be this good? If it's the youth, will it last?

NL East
Atlanta has under preformed by 4 games and the Marlins have over preformed by 3. All the talk before the season was about the Phillies and the Mets. However, its plausible that two teams from this division will make the playoff this year and both will play well south of the Mason-Dixon line. I'm not saying its going to happen (Go Phillies!). I'm only pointing out that base on a quarter of the season - it's a real possibility.

NL Central
I hate to say it but, ... the Cubs are a darn good team. St Louis too appears destined to make my last-place pick for them continue to look horrible. Another shock is the Brewers. You'd think a team with so many blown saves would be under performing - but they aren't. I'm still a believer in them, but they need to have a really good next month - or it might start getting late early. And then there are those almost 500 Buccos! The pitching is starting to come together and the bats are OK. A word to the rest of the league - don't let this team start to believe in themselves.

NL West
Bad news for the Giant - you've been over performing at 16 -22. Worse news for the Padres 14-24 seems to suit you fine. The Diamond Backs are clearly the cream of the crop here.

W%=[(Runs Scored)^2]/[(Runs Scored)^2 + (Runs Allowed)^2]

Pythagorean Winning Percentage.
Boston 0.587 1.1
Tampa Bay 0.549 0.7
NY Yankees 0.509 -0.3
Toronto 0.483 -1.4
Baltimore 0.465 1.3

Cleveland 0.576 -2.8
Chicago Sox 0.564 -2.3
Minnesota 0.480 1.2
Detroit 0.426 -0.2
Kansas City 0.400 1.2

Oakland 0.625 -1.4
LA Angels 0.500 2.5
Seattle 0.430 -1.8
Texas 0.418 1.7

Atlanta 0.632 -4.1
NY Mets 0.542 0.0
Florida 0.540 3.0
Philadelphia 0.528 0.4
Washington 0.370 0.9

Chicago Cubs 0.641 -1.7
St. Louis 0.569 0.8
Houston 0.554 -0.1
Pittsburgh 0.455 0.6
Milwaukee 0.438 1.8
Cincinnati 0.418 -0.9

Arizona 0.617 -0.4
LA Dodgers 0.548 -1.3
Colorado 0.407 -0.5
San Francisco 0.361 2.3
San Diego 0.354 0.6