can someone explain to me the standings(or whatever they're called) in the MLB?

Question

How are the indians are a game and a 1/2 ahead of Detroit? i dont understand any of that, so if you could help, id really appreciate it!!

preferably in a way that is easy to understand.

Answer 1

Ok the way the standings system works in Major League Baseball works like this:

If a team finds themselves with a record of say, 20-10,
and another team in their division has a record of 19-11, then the team with the record of 20-10 is 1.0 game in front of the other in the division race, because they have won one more game, and lost one less.

Now, this is where your question comes into play. the Indians (at the time you posted this question) were 1.5 games ahead of the Tigers.

This happens around the league because the two teams in question haven't played an equal number of games up to that point. In the example I gave earlier, each team had played 30 games each. Now, say that one team has played 30 games, yet the other team has only played 29.

So, we will say the first place team's record is still 30-10, but in this case, the second place team's record is 29-10, meaning they have only played 29 games. This means that the team is .5 game back of the other team, because they aren't quite a whole game back, yet aren't quite tied either. So that is where the .5 game senarios come into play.

But by the end of a major league season, each team must play 162 games, no exceptions. So the half games in the standings eventually go away once the season ends.

Answer 2

A team can get a half game lead if they have played more games than the other team.

Example

Team A 2-0
Team B 1-0

Team B is 1/2 game down because they are a full game down, but it's a game that they havent played in yet (they have played on they have played 2) so it's not fair to say they are a whole game down.

But the number of games behind is all determined by a formula. The formula is...

Note: Team A is the team ahead

(Team A Wins - Team B Wins) + (Team B Losses - Team A Losses) divided by 2.

The number (after dividing by 2) is the number of games down Team B is from Team A

Answer 3

A win or a loss count as 1/2 game

So during the season if a first place teams wins and the second place team loses they fall back 1/2 game.

if the first place team wins and the second place team wins
there is no change. Example

Mets first place 1/2 ahead
Braves second place no change

Look at the sports section each day and watch when a team wins a few and moves up 1/2 game on each team

Answer 4

Each win or loss is worth half a game, it is as simple as that. If a team has two more wins than another team, they have a 1 game lead. Two more wins and one less loss, 1.5. You dig?

Answer 5

All it is is a comparison of Win-Loss records between teams in their respective divisions.

Answer 6

Win-loss PCT ranking in their division.
So if I said the Cubs were in 3rd, that means they are 3rd in the NL central.