Saturday, September 23, 2017

4

Go Bucs!

The Northsiders lost to the Brewers in 10, but the Pirates got the job done against the Cardinals, so the number drops!

The Cubs have 8 regular season games left. The Cubs Magic Number to win the NL Central equals:

163 - (Cubs wins + losses of NL Central rival with fewest losses).

As of now, that's 163 - (86 + 73), or 163 - 159. 163 - 159 = 4.

Thus, the Cubs Magic Number is 4. Follow CMN on Twitter!

7 comments :

Unknown said...

There are only 162 games in a regular season not 163

Anonymous said...

So if two teams never play each other and each win all 162 of their games. They would tie. So magic number is 163. Not theoretically possible but it's the starting point for the math.

EKL said...

He/she is right! Also I love you still do this!

RFBleachers said...

Again, Anonymous is correct. Starting point is 163 because the division champion has to have one more win or one fewer loss than the runner-up.

A theoretical 162-0 Cubs team only ties a theoretical 162-0 NL Central foe, so that foe would have to lose at least one game for the Cubs to clinch the division. That's 162 Cubs wins plus 1 foe's loss, or a magic number of 163 to start the season.

Non-theoretically, the Cubs are currently 86-68. Both the Brewers and Cards have 73 losses, so the most wins either of those teams could finish the season with is 89.

In that case, the worst finish the Cubs could have and still clinch the NL Central would be 90-72. In other words, if the Cubs get to 90 wins, there's no way for an NL Central rival to finish with a better record ... so the Cubs clinch the NL Central with 90 wins.

To get there, they'd have to win 4 more games ... CMN = 4.

If the best the Brewers and/or Cards do is finish with 88 wins (i.e., only 1 more loss), the Cubs would need 89 wins to clinch the Central. That'd be 3 Cubs wins plus 1 rival loss, and since 3 + 1 = 4, the CMN still equals 4.

Etc.

Either way, the math that leads to a CMN of 4 is this: 163 minus (Cubs wins + best rival's losses) or 163 - (86 + 73) or 163 - 159 = 4.

So, the formula is based on 163, not 162. Here's another explanation (and no, I don't work for NBC!).

Thanks for following the site and GO CUBS GO!

RFBleachers said...

EKL - glad to do it! Thanks for following and GO CUBS GO!

marco4401 said...

Cardinals lost...Magic Numbet 3

Bradman77 said...

Nope... if brewers win it's still 4.. if we beat brewers it's 2