18 Sep How good are the Jays’ chances?
On their best days, the 2015 Blue Jays seem to possess Yankee-like invincibility of the sort that tormented Boston Red Sox and Brooklyn Dodger fans for decades. Their lineup is a Murderers’ Row stretching to the horizon, offering opposing pitchers no respite from terror. Their pitching staff includes half a dozen men who—on good days—resemble mowing machines.
The Jays’ worst days make you wonder how they will fare in the post-season.
With 16 regular season games to play, the Jays have clinched a playoff berth, but what are their odds of winning the World Series?
The Age of Sabermetrics has bred battalions of statheads to ponder such questions. I looked at three sports prediction websites and was surprised to see they give the Jays the best, or the second best, chance of going all the way.
These predictions reflect games played through Thursday night, September 17. I’m inclined to throw out the Sports Club Stats as an outlier, and go with Baseball Prospectus, which has a solid reputation in the Sabermetrics community. You can find FanGraphs’ prediction here.
This means we have a four in five chance of October heartbreak, which may not sound great, but it’s better than we’ve enjoyed for the last 22 years.
They sure are fun to watch.
To keep all this is perspective, here’s a tweet from @cantpredictball:
