The American League standings are ... weird. Here'...
Key takeaways
- In fact, the AL-worst Los Angeles Angels are only three games out of a playoff spot, too.
- While six weeks of a baseball season is not nothing, it's still early, and just from a visual standpoint, the standings look a little more bunched than they would if we were looking at a 162-game version.
- At current paces, the final standard deviation in wins among AL teams would be 14.4.
Why this matters: a sports story that could shift standings, legacies, or fan conversations.
Nearing the quarter mark of the season, two of the AL's three division leaders are just two games over .500 (the 20-18 Athletics and 21-19 Cleveland Guardians) while the Detroit Tigers and Seattle Mariners are tied for the final wild-card berth at 18-21. In fact, the AL-worst Los Angeles Angels are only three games out of a playoff spot, too.
While six weeks of a baseball season is not nothing, it's still early, and just from a visual standpoint, the standings look a little more bunched than they would if we were looking at a 162-game version. But even if you extrapolate the current winning percentages out to 162 games, we'd still see 10 of the 15 teams landing in the 68-to-77 win zone, plus a couple more at 83.
What is going on? Are teams really this clustered? Is the league really this ... basic? Let's dive into it.