FanPost

The Brewers and Blowout Games

 

Last season after all of the talk about "throwing out games in which the Brewers blew out their opponent, they weren't very good", I decided that some kind of statistical analysis needed to be applied.  Therefore I downloaded and compiled the game-by-game results for every MLB team.  Since getting the data, I have not taken the time to analyze it, but with the coming summer break I think it's time to take a look.

Not to mention in the presence of this season's offensive woes, it might be good for us to remember that this team is capable of putting 12+ runs on the board once in a while!

One challenge I face as part of this project is to define what a "Blowout" is. I am thinking somewhere in the neighborhood of a 5+ or 6+ run differential, but if anyone has any thoughts on the matter I welcome the input.

 

Hypotheses (I have used the 8+ run difference to define blowouts):

Brewers had a higher number of "blowout games" than most teams.

  • Sure enough! The Brewers are tied for the most blowout games in the majors last year.

Brewers had a higher number of "blowout victories" than most teams.

  • Sorry, TH, but no.

Brewers scored a higher percentage of their runs in "blowout victories" than most teams.

  • "Most", yes..."all", no.  As defined here, the Brewers scored 15.5% of their runs in blowouts.  Second only to the Reds who scored 16.5% of their runs in blowouts.  However, Cincinnati had 11 blowout wins to Milwaukee's 8

Brewers had more high scoring games than usual.

  • No, but their "high scoring games" were much bigger than most.  The Brewers scored 12 or more 5 times, and 17 or more 4 times.  So 80% of the time they scored over 11, they scored over 16!

Again, any additional hypotheses you would like me to test are welcome, I want to get the combined wisdom of this site involved in the project.