The Cubs have added White Sox ace Jose Quintana to their pitching staff via a trade. With this acquisition, the defending champs are certainly not sitting still in their attempt to overtake the Milwaukee Brewers in the N.L. Central and hopefully make a return trip to the World Series. History (and stats), however, has shown that winning the N.L. Central and getting back to the World Series might take a historic second half for the Cubs.

The Cubs are 43-45 (a .489 winning percentage) at the All-Star break. Since 1913, only four teams that were .500 or worse at the All-Star break played in the World Series that season. The five teams: 1914 Boston Braves (they had a winning percentage of .434 at the All-Star break when they made the World Series that year), the 1973 Mets (.452), the 1964 Cardinals (.494), the 1991 Braves (.494) and most recently, the 2007 Colorado Rockies, who were at .500 at the All-Star break and then made it to the World Series that year. Of these five teams, only the 1914 Braves and ’64 Cardinals actually won the title that season.

Since 2000, only four teams with a winning percentage under .500 at the All-Star break were able to win their division that season… the 2013 Twins (.473), the 2015 Rangers (.477), the 2008 Dodgers (.484) and the 2015 Blue jays (.495).

StatsonTapp