Runaway divisional title no guarantee for World Series
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Sports Stats ‘on Tapp’ is a sports statistics blog published with a focus on stats that go beyond the numbers.
This season of Major League Baseball marks the 20th anniversary of the sport going to three divisions in each league.
Since 1994, just under 25% of the divisional winners won their division by margin of 10 games or more.
Through games of September 10, two teams (Atlanta and Los Angeles Dodgers) lead their divisions by 10 or more games and one division leader (Boston) has an 8.5 game lead.
Does winning a division by 10 or more games guarantee success in the post-season? Or an assurance of a World Series appearance?
Of the 28 teams that won their division by 10 or more games since 1994, only six made it to the World Series… and only two won the World Series. Here’s a quick look at those six teams:
Won division by 10-plus games and appeared in World Series that year
2011: Texas (won division by 10 games) Lost in World Series
2004: St. Louis (won division by 13 games) Lost in World Series
2001: New York Yankees (won division by 13.5 games) Lost in World Series
1998: New York Yankees (won division by 22 games) Won World Series
1995: Cleveland (won division by 30 games) Lost in World Series
1995: Atlanta (won division by 21 games) Won World Series
Did you know?
* No team won their division by 10 or more games in 2012.
* In 2002, four of the six division champs won their division by 10 or more games. The two teams that did not win their division by 10 games or more, Anaheim and San Francisco, appeared in the World Series that year.
* Five teams have won their division by 20 or more games since 1994. The last to do so were the Angels in 2008. They won the A.L. West by 21 games.
* The Atlanta Braves franchise has won the most division titles by 10 games or more. They have done it five times since ’94. The Yankees and Cardinals have each done it four times.
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99 Stats Until Kickoff (#98) When was the last time your team had a winning season, and when they had their last losing season
From May 30 and every day until September 5… the start of the 2013 NFL season… Sports Stats ‘on Tapp’ will publish “99 Stats Until Kickoff” a daily dose of NFL stats that will get you ready for the 2013 NFL season.)
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
A couple of streaks were extended this past season in the NFL. On the positive side, the New England Patriots in 2012 had their 12th consecutive winning season. The last time the Patriots had a losing season was when they went 5-11 in 2000.
On the not-so-positive side, the Oakland Raiders in 2012 had a 4-12 record, extending their streak of non-winning seasons to 10. The last time the Raiders had a winning season was in 2002 when they went 11-5.
Following is the last time each of the NFL teams had a winning season and when they had their last losing season. (For the record, an 8-8 season is a non-winning season.)
Team, Last winning season Last losing season
Arizona 2009 2012
Atlanta 2012 2007
Baltimore 2012 2007
Buffalo 2004 2012
Carolina 2008 2012
Chicago 2012 2009
Cincinnati 2012 2010
Cleveland 2007 2012
Dallas 2009 2010
Denver 2012 2010
Detroit 2011 2012
Green Bay 2012 2008
Houston 2012 2010
Indianapolis 2012 2011
Jacksonville 2007 2012
Kansas City 2010 2012
Miami 2008 2012
Minnesota 2012 2011
New England 2012 2000
New Orleans 2011 2012
New York Giants 2012 2004
New York Jets 2010 2012
Oakland 2002 2012
Philadelphia 2010 2012
Pittsburgh 2011 2003
San Diego 2010 2012
San Francisco 2012 2010
Seattle 2012 2011
St. Louis 2003 2012
Tampa Bay 2010 2012
Tennessee 2011 2012
Washington 2012 2011
Getting back to the streaks mentioned at the beginning, here are the teams that have the longest streaks with a winning record and those teams with the longest streak of non-winning seasons.
Active streak of consecutive winning seasons: New England, 12; Atlanta, 5; Baltimore, 5; Green Bay, 4; New York Giants, 3.
Active streak of consecutive non-losing seasons: Oakland, 10; St. Louis, 9; Buffalo, 8; Cleveland, 5; Jacksonville, 5; Carolina, 4; Arizona, 3; Dallas, 3.
“99 Stats Before Kickoff” (Stats you need to know before the start of the 2013 NFL season) is available from e-book publisher Smashwords. Go to www.smashwords.com to download a copy, including a pdf version which can be viewed on your home computer. Cost is $2.99.
99 Stats Until Kickoff (#69) Six Stats you may not know about… the NFL Conference Championship Games
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From May 30 and every day until September 5… the start of the 2013 NFL season… Sports Stats ‘on Tapp’ will publish “99 Stats Until Kickoff” a daily dose of NFL stats that will get you ready for the 2013 NFL season.)
Last year’s Conference Championship Games included the Baltimore Ravens going to New England in a rematch of the 2011 AFC title game, and the Atlanta Falcons hosting the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship Game. The Ravens, Patriots and 49ers were each in the conference title game the previous year.
Here are a few stats that you may find interesting about previous conference championship games.
(Note: The following stats reflect the NFC and AFC Conference Championship games that have been played since the 1970 merger of the NFL and AFL… 43 years, a total of 86 games.)
1. The home team has won 56 and lost 30 in conference championship games (a .651 winning percentage). In the last seven conference championship weekends, the home teams are 9-5. In the 43 seasons, there has been only three times where both the home teams lost: 1992, 1997 and last year. Both home teams (New England and Atlanta) were defeated in the conference title games this past season.
2. In 29 of the 86 games (33.7%) the game was decided by eight points or less. Twelve of the 86 games were decided by three points or less; 15 of the 84 were decided by 20 points or more. In the last seven seasons, nine of the 14 conference championship games were decided by one score (eight points or less).
3. Teams that scored less than 20 points in a conference championship game since 1970 has won only 13 and lost 66 (a .165 winning percentage). Teams that scored 30 or more points have won 30 and lost only 2 (a .938 winning percentage). The only teams to score 30 or more points in a conference championship game since 1970 and lose? Cleveland in 1987 when they scored 33 in their loss to Denver; and in 2006 when the Patriots scored 34 in their loss to the Colts.
4. Teams that had the better regular season record have won the conference championship game 53 times and lost 22 (a .707 winning percentage). In 11 games the teams playing for the conference championship had the same regular season record.
5. Scoring more points in the playoff game the weekend prior to the conference championship is not a big factor in determining who will win the conference title game. The team that scored more points of the two conference championship game foes the previous week won 45 and lost 37 (in four cases the teams scored the exact number of points the previous week).
6. Winning the playoff game the weekend prior to the conference championship by a bigger margin than your conference championship game foe was a little bit more of a determining factor to who wins the conference championship game. The team that won the divisional playoff game by a bigger margin the week before won 54 times and lost 26 (a .675 winning percentage). In six cases the conference championship game teams won by the same margin the previous week.
“99 Stats Before Kickoff” (Stats you need to know before the start of the 2013 NFL season) is available from e-book publisher Smashwords. Go to www.smashwords.com to download a copy, including a pdf version which can be viewed on your home computer. Cost is $2.99.
99 Stats Until Kickoff (#59) Do NFL teams have better records when they play in their own time zone?
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From May 30 and every day until September 5… the start of the 2013 NFL season… Sports Stats ‘on Tapp’ will publish “99 Stats Until Kickoff” a daily dose of NFL stats that will get you ready for the 2013 NFL season.)
Periodically you will hear football commentators talk about a team on the east coast taking a road trip to the west coast to play a foe and how the travel may affect their performance (or vice versa).
To see if there is any significant difference between teams playing in their own time zone versus traveling to other time zones to play, I looked at the last five seasons in the NFL and tracked how well teams played within their own time zone and how well they played outside their time zone.
The findings? There is a difference. Case in point: Look below at the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Steelers, who play in an eastern time zone city, were 49-17 (a .742 winning percentage) in games they played in the eastern time zone. But when the Steelers had to travel out of their time zone, they were only 4-10 in those five years, a .286 winning percentage. That’s a difference of .456 percentage points. That difference was the largest of any team in this five-year analysis.
All total, of the 32 NFL teams, 26 played better in their own time zones versus playing outside their time zone. To quantify it, NFL teams in the last five season were 951-832-3 (.533 winning percentage) when they played in their own time zone and 327-446-1 (.423 winning percentage) when they played outside their time zone, a difference of .110 percentage points.
Following is a look at each NFL team and their win-loss record when they played games in their own time zone and their record outside their time zone in the last five seasons (2008-12).
EASTERN TIME ZONE In time zone Outside time zone Difference
Atlanta 45-17 .726 11-7 .611 + .115
Baltimore 46-20 .697 8-6 .571 + .126
Buffalo 23-42 .354 6-9 .400 – .046
Carolina 27-34 .443 8-11 .421 + .022
Cincinnati 31-36-1 .463 6-6 .500 – .037
Cleveland 20-48 .294 3-9 .250 + .044
Detroit 18-34 .346 4-24 .143 + .203
Indianapolis 37-23 .617 12-8 .600 + .017
Jacksonville 23-37 .383 4-16 .200 + .183
Miami 31-33 .484 7-9 .438 + .046
New England 50-15 .769 10-5 .667 + .102
New York Giants 37-24 .607 11-8 .579 + .028
New York Jets 38-27 .585 5-10 .333 + .252
Philadelphia 35-26-1 .573 7-11 .389 + .184
Pittsburgh 49-17 .742 4-10 .286 + .456
Tampa Bay 23-36 .390 10-11 .476 + .086
Washington 24-40 .375 9-7 .563 – .188
CENTRAL TIME ZONE In time zone Outside time zone Difference
Chicago 31-24 .564 14-11 .560 + .004
Dallas 27-21 .563 15-17 .469 + .094
Green Bay 40-16 .714 13-11 .542 + .172
Houston 31-19 .620 14-16 .467 + .153
Kansas City 16-28 .364 9-27 .250 + .114
Minnesota 31-24 .564 10-15 .400 + .164
New Orleans 34-15 .694 18-13 .581 + .113
St. Louis 11-35 .239 8-25-1 .250 – .011
Tennessee 29-22 .569 13-16 .448 + .121
MOUNTAIN TIME ZONE In time zone Outside time zone Difference
Arizona 24-16 .600 13-27 .325 + .275
Denver 21-20 .512 20-19 .513 – .001
PACIFIC TIME ZONE In time zone Outside time zone Difference
Oakland 17-29 .370 13-21 .382 – .012
San Diego 29-17 .630 16-18 .471 + .159
San Francisco 29-15-1 .656 16-19 .457 + .199
Seattle 24-22 .522 10-24 .294 + .228
“99 Stats Before Kickoff” (Stats you need to know before the start of the 2013 NFL season) is available from e-book publisher Smashwords. Go to www.smashwords.com to download a copy, including a pdf version which can be viewed on your home computer. Cost is $2.99
99 Stats Until Kickoff (#55) Patriots open up big lead in ‘Team of the Century’ race
From May 30 and every day until September 5… the start of the 2013 NFL season… Sports Stats ‘on Tapp’ will publish “99 Stats Until Kickoff” a daily dose of NFL stats that will get you ready for the 2013 NFL season.)
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
With a 12-4 record this past season, the New England Patriots have now opened up a 13-game lead in the “Team of the Century” standings.
The Pats have won 151 and lost 57 since 2000, a .726 winning percentage. They are 13 games better this century than the Indianapolis Colts who are 138-70 (a .663 winning percentage).
The Green Bay Packers have the best record of NFC teams since 2000 with a 131-77 win-loss mark (a .630 winning percentage).
Following are the records of each of the 32 NFL teams this century (since 2000).
Winning percentage since 2000, team
1. New England .726
2. Indianapolis .663
3. Pittsburgh .651
4. Green Bay .630
5. Baltimore .606
6. Philadelphia .603
7. Denver .567
8. New York Giants .558
9. New Orleans .548
10. Tennessee .538
11. Atlanta .536
12. Chicago .529
13. San Diego .524
14. Seattle .514
15. New York Jets .505
16. Dallas .500
17. Minnesota .495
18. Tampa Bay .481
19. Miami .476
20. San Francisco .474
21. Carolina .452
22. Cincinnati .440
23tie. Jacksonville .438
23tie. Washington .438
23tie. Houston .438
26. Kansas City .428
27. St. Louis .421
28tie. Buffalo .394
28tie. Oakland .394
30. Arizona .385
31. Cleveland .341
32. Detroit .298
We are now three seasons into the decade of the 2010’s. The Patriots are also at the top of that list with the most wins in this decade (since 2010) with 39. They have three more victories than the two teams tied for second on the list with 36, Atlanta and Green Bay. Here’s a look at how many wins each of the NFL teams have this decade.
Wins since 2010, team(s)
39: New England
36: Atlanta, Green Bay
34: Baltimore
32: Pittsburgh
31: New Orleans
30: San Francisco
29: Chicago
28: Houston, N.Y. Giants
25: Denver, N.Y. Jets, Seattle
24: San Diego
23: Cincinnati, Indianapolis
22: Dallas, Philadelphia
21: Tennessee, Tampa Bay, Washington
20: Detroit, Miami, Oakland
19: Kansas City, Minnesota
18: Arizona
16: Buffalo, St. Louis
15: Carolina, Jacksonville
14: Cleveland
“99 Stats Before Kickoff” (Stats you need to know before the start of the 2013 NFL season) is available from e-book publisher Smashwords. Go to www.smashwords.com to download a copy, including a pdf version which can be viewed on your home computer. Cost is $2.99
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