You Should Probably Just Start Thinking About Football

by 100% Injury Rate

This is the time of the baseball season - the beginning of the second half - when a lot of fans and teams say "It's time to make a push." But in reality - or if you're a Giants fan like me - your season is already over.

I know some of you die hards out there are saying, "But we can easily make up 3 or 4 games" or "We can grab the wild card" but you're really just kidding yourself. Your team sucks and you're not making the playoffs. And here's the data to back it up.

These are the statistical odds for each team in baseball making the playoffs as of today. That means either as a division winner or as a wild card - just making the playoffs period. Everything has been included to get these stats, meaning remaining strength of schedule, history against opposing clubs, how many errors your third baseman is likely to make, everything. This is why some teams, even though they're in first place, actually have a slightly less good chance of making the playoffs than a team one game behind them. You're also going to be shocked by how low some teams chances are. It makes me especially happy to see the Yankees sitting at a lowly 21.8% chance of making the playoffs.

So here we go. By division. The likelihood your team will make the playoffs in any capacity.

AL EAST
Boston...............94.6%
Yankees............21.8%
Toronto.............1.6%
Baltimore..........0.3%
Tampa Bay.......0% (I find this utterly hilarious)

AL CENTRAL
Detroit..............92.6%
Cleveland.........57.7%
Minnesota........14.2%
Chicago.............below 0.1%
Kansas City......below 0.1%

AL WEST
Los Angeles......79.9%
Seattle...............36.7%
Oakland............0.6%
Texas................0.2%

NL EAST
Mets..................62.9%
Atlanta..............37.8%
Philly.................14.3%
Florida...............3.3%
Washington.......below 0.1%

NL CENTRAL
Milwaukee........79.5%
Chicago..............44.2%
St. Louis............0.4%
Pittsburgh........below 0.1%
Houston............0.1%
Cincinnati.........0.1%

NL WEST
Los Angeles......65.5%
San Diego..........78.4% (even though they're a game behind the Dodgers)
Arizona..............3.6%
Colorado............9.7% (even though they're a game behind Arizona)
San Francisco...0.2%

As you can see, even teams that appear to be as close in the standings as Seattle and Philly have some serious work to do if they think they're going to make the playoffs.

And for most of us, the odds tell us it's time to look ahead to the football season.

stats courtesy of Cool Standings.