Latest MLB win-loss projections for 2016 love Cubs but hate Royals
Let’s call the projections, predictions and World Series odds that come out this time of year exactly what they are: Fun discussion-drivers that don’t actually mean anything.
If your team gets a great projection, woo-hoo you, party like it’s uhhhh … mid-January. If the latest predictions aren’t in your favor, then feel free to type up that tersely worded tweet to the predictor and/or make a note in your calendar for Aug. 15 and call them a really mean name if they’re wrong.
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All this is a preamble for the latest set of 2016 projections that came out Tuesday. The smarty-pants baseball site Fangraphs published its 2016 win-loss projections and they have the Chicago Cubs with the best record in baseball, the Philadelphia Phillies with the worst, the Boston Red Sox winning the AL East and the defending champion Kansas City Royals finishing under .500?!
Again, it’s baseball we’re talking about. Weird stuff happens every season and it’s impossible to predict most of the time. (Like the New York Mets making the World Series last year, amirite?)
Head over to Fangraphs for their full rundown, but here are some highlights:
• Fangraphs estimates the Cubs will finish 95-67, the best in baseball, followed by the Red Sox (92-70), Los Angeles Dodgers (90-72), Washington Nationals (88-74) and New York Yankees (86-76).
• The Red Sox (plus 14 wins) would be the most improved team, while the Cardinals (minus 16 wins at 84-78) would be on the other side.
• The Royals are projected to finish a third-place tie at 79-83, behind the division-winning Cleveland Indians (85-77) and Chicago White Sox (81-81), knotted with the Detroit Tigers.
• The AL playoffs would look like this: Red Sox, Indians, Astros (86-76) as division winners, with the Yankees (86-76) as the first wild card and the Blue Jays and Mariners (both 84-78) tied for the other.
• The NL playoffs are projected as so: The Cubs, Nats and Dodgers as division winners, with the Giants (86-76) as the top wild-card and the Cardinals, Pirates and Mets (all 84-78) tied for the second spot.
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Feel free to debate any of this, but we’ll remind you again, it doesn’t actually affect anything, so don’t get too upset. The most-likely-to-still-get-upset fanbase will certainly be the Royals, who spend all of 2015 complaining that the national media didn’t give their team any respect, then told-you-so’d everyone when their squad won the World Series.
Now that fanbase will be ready to stack told-you-so’s on top of told-you-so’s. So, better Fangraphs than us, we suppose.
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Mike Oz is the editor of Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @MikeOz
