In MLB, how can you figure out for yourself how many games a team is ahead of or behind of, another team?

Question

Also, how does a team get ahead or behind by a half game?

Answer 1

subtract the wins from one team from the wins from the other

example: Yankees 18 wins - Royals 16 wins - Yankees would be 2 games ahead of the royals in the wild card

Answer 2

It is easy. You have to compare the wins and loses of both teams. For each game won more than the other team, it moves that team 1/2 game ahead. For each game lost more than the the other team, it moves them 1/2 game back.

Think of two teams with the same record.

If team A wins a game and team B loses, then Team B is 1 game behind team A.

That is easy, right. And if teams always had the same number of wins under their belt it would easy to see that if team A had 5 more wins than team B, team B would be 5 games behind.

It gets more complicated when the teams have unequal numbers of games played.

Imagine team A and B have an equal number of wins but team B has played 2 more games than team A and lost both of those games. Team B would have 2 more loses. Each extra loss would put Team B 1/2 game back for a total of 1 game back.

If team A has a record of 60-49 and team B has a record of 60-50, Team B would be 1/2 game back.

Answer 3

Absolute value of (differential of wins) plus absolute value of (differential of losses), divided by two.

Boston 100 62
Noo Yawk 62 99

delta W == 38
delta L == 37
games behind == (38 + 37)/2 == 75/2 == 37.5

The Yankees would have to play Boston 37 more games and win them all (gaining 37 wins, adding 37 losses to the Sox' total), plus play a makeup game against some other opponent, to catch the Sox. The opponent in the makeup game "owns" the other half-game; that team would also have a 0.5 decimal to its games behind relative to Boston, but not to the Yankees.

One game -- two teams -- each outcome from the game (win, loss) is worth one-half game in the standings (because they are relative to other teams). It's just bookkeeping.

Answer 4

Lets say the Bosox are 50-20 and the yankees are 48-18 well the sox have won 2 more games then the yanks so they are 2 games ahead but if the sox were to be 50-20 and the yanks are 49-21 then they are only 1 game down but if it was to be 50-21 then they are a 1/2 game down since they played more games and lost more

Answer 5

If the team has played more or less games than the other team. If the team plays one more game and wins they will go up .5 a game if they lose they will go behind .5 a game.