Another Night, Another Milestone

On Sunday night's radio broadcast, I recall Pat Hughes mention "100 wins is the mark of a really good ball club".  Last night, the Cubs won their 101st game.  With every win, comes a new milestone that future teams will strive to meet or surpass.  On Tuesday, the Cubs won their 100th game, the first time having done so since 1935.  However, in 1935, the seasons were only 154 games long, seven games shorter than the 162 game season that is played today.  With this being the case, I feel that looking at the win percentage instead of raw number of wins is a lot more accurate in comparing the success of this seasons to previous seasons.

The best win percentage the franchise has ever had was in 1880, when the team was called the Chicago White Stockings.  In 1880, the White Stockings played a 86 game season and went 67-17-2 with a win percentage of .798.  In order for a team today to beat a record like that, they would have to finish the season with a record of 130-32, giving them a win percentage of .802.  I think it is also important to note that in that era, it was more plausible for a team to be much more overpoweringly talented than all of the other teams in the league. the last team to have a win percentage over .700 was the 2001 Seattle Mariners who went 116-46 with a win percentage of .716.  The 1935 Cubs went 100-54, with a win percentage of .649.

For a complete list of Cubs season records, click here

It is a pretty obvious that there is a trend of teams being more and more evenly matched as time goes on.  This has a lot to do with the a fair first year draft system, farm systems, and a somewhat universal teaching ability of player coaches through out the farm systems.

The Cubs have five more games left in the season.  As of before today's game, the Cubs are 101-56 with a win percentage of .643.  Listed below are the possible season outcomes staring with if the Cubs win out.

106-56 .654

105-57 .648

104-58 .642

103-59 .636

102-60 .630

101-61 .623

When taking the figures above into account, in order for the Cubs to truly have a better record than the 1935 Cubs, they will have to win out.  This is not at all to take away from how incredible this season has been.  Cubs players have been setting franchise records all season.  According to Joe Maddon, the Cubs will come back next year even better.  Perhaps, they will have a chance of edging closer to the 2001 Mariners.