19 May MLB: The strange division

We interrupt the annual Canadian orgy of hockey obsession to note the fleeting strangeness of the Major League Baseball American League East Division standings:*

There are a number of curiosities here. All five teams in the division are on losing streaks (although, in the case of the Yankees and the Blue Jays, the “streaks” are only one game long). Only the Blue Jays have a positive run differential (DIFF: more runs scored by than scored against). Though they are in third place, barely above .500, the Blue Jays are given the best chance of making the playoffs (POFF: a projection supplied by the FanGraphs website, using method opaque to me). On the other hand, Baseball Prospectus gives the Jays only the third-best chance of gaining a playoff berth, behind the Yankees and the Red Sox, methodology similarly opaque.

No larger point here. Just part of the fun of following baseball.

Speaking of Baseball Prospectus, my enjoyment of the 2014 baseball season has been enhanced by its Effectively Wild podcast in which two exceptionally knowledgeable sabermetricians, Ben Lindbergh and Sam Elliot, chat amiably about intriguing events and trends in the game for half an hour every weekday morning.

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* I’m writing on Monday morning, so if you’re an email subscriber to Contrarian, the standings will have changed by the time you read this.