Found July 17, 2008 on Another Cubs Blog:
I'm going to post the math behind this later on, but thought I would just throw it out there right now to see what you guys think. Using Tango's WAR (Wins Above Replacement) formulas and the in-season ZIPS projection tool, I calculated how many wins above replacement the Cubs 8 starting position players and 5 starters would contribute over the rest of the season. This does consider defense, though only an average defense. The Cubs defense is above average so you could maybe add as much as one-half or even one full win to the total. The Cubs have 57 wins right now. The updated projections for the 8 every day players has them projected to provide 6.8 WAR. The starters are projected at 7.4 WAR. A replacement level team wins 47.4 games over the course of 162 games (.292 winning percentage). Over the 65 remaining games the Cubs have, a replacement level team would win 19.6 games. The Cubs could run a replacement level team out there and they'd win 76.6 games. Add in the 6.8 for the offensive players (defense included, baserunning is not) and the 7.4 for the 5 starters (I posted these projections awhile back) and you get about 90.8 wins. That number includes the bulk of the players who will provide production to the team over the remainder of the season, but it does leave a lot out. The bullpen is not considered at all in this and neither are the bench players. The Cubs have an average to above average bullpen so you can expect at least 1-2 wins from those guys and probably 1-2 wins from the bench players. So the Cubs are somewhere between 93 and 95 wins if everybody on the team plays up to expectations. The Brewers and Cardinals played .547 and .552 ball, respectively in the first half (95+ games). They'd have to play well over .600 to pass the Cubs. If the Cubs won 95 the Brewers would have to play .657 ball in order to win the division. It's not happening.
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