Runnings - Baseball Standings on the Run in 2014

Last updated 2014-09-29 09:00 EDT.

This page has MLB's 2014 baseball standings as graphs. These are generated each morning (Eastern Time), after the previous day's scores are reported at www.baseball-reference.com and related pages. A full description of the data is at my original runnings page that I wrote the year after the Red Sox won the World Series from the Yankees. Okay, it was the St. Louis Cardinals, but beating the Yankees after losing the first three games was much more impressive than winning the World Series in four games.

Wildcard races for 2014

The interesting wildcard race in 2011 demonstrated I should include it all years. That year I simply tracked the best three contenders starting late in the season and I didn't have to change it.

The next season I added code to pick out the top contenders. Instead of watching the top four or five teams, I try to include contenders and other teams that are close in the standings. The graphs show the division leaders with narrow lines and contenders with thick lines. Note that some of the contenders can be well above the leader in another division.

The wildcard graphs aren't displayed in the first half of the season. Once we get past the All-Star game, interest in the races increases as the playoffs are now the next big event. By the way, Baseball Prospectus has an interesting standings list that shows the probability of the teams reaching the playoffs.

The 2013 wildcard code seemed to have worked just fine. It might have given up on the Yankees earlier than some Yankee fans would have liked, but it made the right decision as they Yankees never got back in playoff position.

A streaky sort of year

Perhaps I'm distracted by the Red Sox, but this year several AL teams have had longish streaks, up or down. The Red Sox had a stretch with down, up, and down. The Tigers' streaks were all up, take them away and they'd have an unimpressive standing instead of first place. Ditto the Royals, who caught the Tigers twice during their streaks.

I wrote the above after my "welcome to 2014" text had gotten extremely stale. I fully expected my comments about the streaky nature of the season at that point would soon become just as stale, but the streaks have remained and have significant impact on the playoffs.

It's a close race between the Red Sox and Chicago Cubs!

Red Sox nation has been chagrined that the beloved Red Sox, World Series Champions in 2013, will not repeat this year. In fact, they may have clinched last place in the AL East this year. What folks may not have noticed is that the Chicago Cubs will likely end the season with a better record than the Red Sox!

This ignominity deserves its own graph and I'm leading with it. Sorry, guys.:

Red Sox vs. Chicago Cubs 2014