Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Reconfiguring the MLB Standings by Removing Cluster Luck

As detailed in Grantland's most recent weekly MLB roundup, "cluster luck" has a big impact on how many runs a team scores/gives up, which then translates into wins and losses. Cluster luck is calculated by Grantland contributor Ed Feng, and described as follows:
Cluster luck stems from the idea that teams have little to no control over when hits occur, either the ones batters try to collect or the ones pitchers try to prevent. If a starting pitcher allows nine singles, but scatters them to avoid allowing a run, he’s lucky; and if a team manages eight hits in a game, but gets seven in one inning, it’s also lucky.
So, I determined the luck-independent MLB standings by first accounting for teams' "cluster luck" in their runs scored and runs allowed, and then calculating they're Pythagorean expected record from these adjusted runs scored/allowed (using an exponent of 1.83, which is the most accurate (and used by Baseball-Reference)).

Here are how the standings would look if luck was completely even across the board:

AL EastWinsLossesWin %GB
TB574953.77%-
TOR565152.34%1.5
BAL525250.00%4
NYY495646.67%7.5
BOS485845.28%9
AL CentralWinsLossesWin %GB
DET554753.92%-
CLE525349.52%4.5
CWS525449.06%5
KC495547.12%7
MIN465844.23%10
AL WestWinsLossesWin %GB
OAK654061.90%-
LAA634160.58%1.5
SEA555052.38%10
HOU456142.45%20.5
TEX406637.74%25.5
NL EastWinsLossesWin %GB
WSH574655.34%-
ATL535350.00%5.5
NYM515548.11%7.5
MIA505547.62%8
PHI466043.40%12.5
NL CentralWinsLossesWin %GB
STL554952.88%-
PIT545051.92%1
MIL555251.40%1.5
CIN515349.04%4
CHC505448.08%5
NL WestWinsLossesWin %GB
LAD604656.60%-
SF545151.43%5.5
COL495646.67%10.5
ARI465943.81%13.5
SD456042.86%14.5

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