In The Lab: The Astros Math Problem

It was one of the more iconic scenes in baseball moviedom. Lou Brown tells his troops that Rachel Phelps (the owner) does not want them to win. In order to win the division they will need to win 32 more games (from that point in the season) and with every win they will pull off a slice to reveal a nearly naked Rachel Phelps.

I’m sure we would all just as soon scrub that mental image in our minds when doing the same with Jim Crane and the animus is not nearly on the same level. Still, we need to look at the basic exercise because once you approach Memorial Day it is time to stop calling the season early. My comrade Patrick Creighton talked about the team only being one month in.

With the early start, we are now approaching two months of baseball. So, if we are playing the Rachel Phelps game then how many wins will it take to get to the playoffs? We need to approach this from two angles.

Obviously, we need to look at where the Astros currently are and do the simple math to get them to a certain number of wins. However, how many wins is that? Following the 2020 season, MLB permanently expanded the playoffs to add the third wild card.