The Browns are so bad that ESPN listed Pittsburgh twice in the standings
September 16, 2013NFL News: Browns considering Brian Hoyer as replacement for injured Weeden
September 16, 2013What a weekend. With four straight wins over the Chicago White Sox and a boatload of help, your Cleveland Indians are suddenly one-half game behind both American League wild card spots.
With a fortunate schedule on deck, that leaves the Indians now as a near-favorite to grab one of the spots. Here are what popular playoff odds websites say about the Tribe’s current chances:
Baseball Prospectus (link) — 54.4%
FanGraphs (link) — 64.9%
ESPN (link) — 68.3%
CoolStandings (link) — 69.9%
As a brief note, FanGraphs and ESPN both use slightly altered methods related to CoolStandings’ season-to-date approach. That means they focus more on what already has happened with run differential thus far in 2013. Baseball Prospectus’ approach is much different. I’ll have more about this for The Diff on Wednesday.
Per CoolStandings, the Indians’ odds jumped over 40% with the four-game series against Chicago. Per Baseball Prospectus via MLB.com, that number was closer to about 35%. Both are still incredibly substantial changes for this late in the season. For both, Cleveland’s playoff odds are as high as they’ve been all year.
The Indians face off against the Kansas City Royals this week in a pivotal three-game road matchup. Meanwhile, the Texas Rangers and Tampa Bay Rays — the two teams tied for the wild card spots right now — play four in St. Petersburg.
[Related: Tribe Weekend Recap: “Its All Happening!”]
8 Comments
On behalf of the mighty BoSox you are welcome. Sadly you might be rewarded with a match-up against us but hey, at least you will have made it even if the stay is short.
Go BoSox this week. Beat Baltimore.
Spanked the Yanks now it’s time to pluck some Oriole feathers!
ah, boston fans, what you think you may want may be more than you can handle
If someone has to put down the Francona led Indians it’s only right that it be the Red Sox. Although truth be told there is part of my hybrid makeup that kinda wishes Francona got revenge for the way he was treated at the end.
I’m growing my Red Sox beard as we speak – that’s for the lady who reads this site!!!
speaking of playoff-level performances, a major hat-tip to Glen Perkins who somehow managed to sneak off from the bullpen during a rain delay and buy a round of beers for some Twin fans who decided to stick around:
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/twins-closer-glen-perkins-buys-round-beer-fans-185912479–mlb.html
To be fair Perez would probably share too but Brody won’t let ’em!