Petti: Does consistent play help a team win?
From SABR member Bill Petti at FanGraphs on March 8, 2012:
One of the many insights to come from Bill James was the fact that a team’s winning percentage could very easily be estimated based simply on the difference between the runs they scored and the runs they allowed. And while James’ Pythagorean Expectation cannot account for all variation in team performance, it does a fantastic job.
One possibility that is not accounted for is that teams may distribute their runs differently, game to game, than others throughout the season. It’s possible that two teams with identical run differentials could have significantly different records. Here’s a short example:
Assume two teams, A and B, both with a run differential of 0 (both score and allow 29 runs) over the course of a 10-game series against each other. The Pythagorean Expectation tells us that both teams should have a record of 5-5. However, in this scenario, team B wins 6 out of 10.
Read the full article here: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/does-consistent-play-help-a-team-win/
Originally published: March 9, 2012. Last Updated: March 9, 2012.