How important is point differential?

[KirbyHawk75]

The Twins are +4.  Is this concerning or not?  

 

The other first place teams:

Yankees:  +56

Astros:  +56

Nationals:  +52

Cubs:  +22

Rockies:  +34

 

The Indians have a +12

[Brandon Warne]

Important but not all important. It speaks in some ways to the sustainability of a team's record, but can be skewed by blowouts in either direction -- especially in early season action. Over the course of the season, it becomes a bit more stable. 

 

As of right now, it would probably suggest the Twins have played more like a .500 team -- or a win or two above -- rather than seven wins above. Still....not a huge deal yet.

[Mill1634]

Point differential? Not at all. Run differential is somewhat important, however.

 

 

I'm kidding, just had to give you a little grief

[amjgt]

Teams with the best bullpens always seem to outperform their pythag. 

 

I have no idea what our bullpen ERA ranks compared to others, but my gut tells me our high leverage bullpen ERA is quite good (not that I necessarily trust them going forward).

 

We've waived the white flag a couple times which has resulted in a few big blowouts. If you take out our top 5 biggest wins and our top 5 biggest losses, we jump to +16, which is still not "7 games above 500" territroy, but it's a lot closer.

[Trov]

Not a big, the important number is the one in the win column.  Remember the couple of games against Boston where we lost by 10 runs plus?  That is like 20 runs right there, one of them it was a 1 run game until they gave up 10 in the ninth.  You take out those two games and the Twins are then a plus 24, right up with the Cubs.   

[Brandon Warne]

 

Not a big, the important number is the one in the win column.  Remember the couple of games against Boston where we lost by 10 runs plus?  That is like 20 runs right there, one of them it was a 1 run game until they gave up 10 in the ninth.  You take out those two games and the Twins are then a plus 24, right up with the Cubs.  

 

Well, no...you can't do it like that. The Twins are 8-6 in "blowouts" this year, with 92 runs scored and 92 runs allowed in those games. Those are games won or lost by 5+ runs. You can't just subtract the blowout losses and say "this is fine." 

[yarnivek1972]

It's crucial in each individual game.

 

I don't think it is terribly important to keep a running total through the season.