In my recent research endeavors I’ve been looking at some more historical things related to the Cardinals. One offshoot was taking a quick look at the relationship between the various actual records and Pythagorean records. The following is a quick synopsis of what I found. First, how did the two records relate on a yearly basis. The following chart summarizes
Looking at the largest differences:
The “luckiest” (if you assume all the difference was luck) teams were 1917 and 1936 with a 10 win difference. The “luckiest” modern team was 2007.
The “unluckiest” were 1924 and 1980 with an 11 and 10 win difference. 2010 was 11th all time at -5.
I’m not certain how much of those differences to parse between luck and other things, but with that said I offer the following table without further comment
| Manager | Total “Luck” | Seasons |
|---|---|---|
| Whitey Herzog | 16 | 10 |
| Joe Torre | 12 | 5 |
| Miller Huggins | 9 | 5 |
| Frankie Frisch | 8 | 5 |
| Billy Southworth | 7 | 6 |
| Red Schoendienst | 2 | 12 |
| Tony LaRussa | 2 | 15 |
| Eddie Dyer | 0 | 5 |
| Charlie Comiskey | -3 | 6 |
| Branch Rickey | -18 | 7 |
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Completely unrelated, but Future Redbirds just finished running through their top 20 prospects. Head over there and check it out.
