Well, we've reached the quarter-mark according to the Yahoos, so let's see how things stand. I went to MLB.com and plundered their standings page, trying to determine how teams will fare going forward. I did this using two stats I consider valuable:

1. The Pythagorean Record -- for those who don't know this very basic measurement of over- or under-achieving, it's basically: winning pct = (RS^2)/(RS^2+RA^2). It has its flaws, but it's been shown to correspond to actual winning percentage with frightening accuracy over the long term. It's also the number Bill James uses to determine the probability of a team winning a postseason series.

2. 1-Run Games -- This is my tweak. A team can defy their expected winning value by doing better than expected in close games. The more such games a team is involved in, the more they can throw a monkey wrench into things.

After the jump, the evil math and the projected final standings (when the dust clears).

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Given each team's runs scored and runs allowed on the season, below is the projected final standings.  It assumes all 2,430 games are to be played and frankly my dear doesn't give a damn who has what games left against whom.  As such, take your usual grain of salt.  However, it's fun to compare this to where we are now.  As a bookkeeping note: two teams had their win total rounded up when conventional wisdom is to round down; this was done to eliminate record discrepancies caused by rounding errors.

So after the jump: your standings, analysis, and leading statistics.

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Okay, we all remember Lastings Milledge, yes?  Good.  As of right now, he plays for Washington's AAA team.  That's right, he's not even being used as a regular on the Nationals.  I don't know why either, because it's not like the people they have are playing at major league caliber.

BUT, and this is the important part: he's on the All-Star ballot.

Gentlemen, should you choose to accept it, it is our mission to make the Nationals be represented in the All-Star Game by someone they think isn't good enough to be on their 25-man roster.  You may vote 25 times per day per email address.  If we get enough people involved, we can do this.

Benefits from doing this:

1. Exposing the All-Star Game for the farce that it is.

2. Securing Carlos Beltran a starting spot by making sure that his competition is being replaced by Lastings Milledge.

3. Setting a new record for shortest appearance by an All-Star starter ever (has anyone ever been pulled for a pinch-hitter in the first inning?)

4. Causing Mike Lupicka's head to explode on the Sports Reporters.

So... shall we?  Go to mlb.com and vote for Lastings Milledge.  The more ex-Mets on the team the better... and the dumber the ASG is, the better.  The Red Sox fans (SoSH) are already doing this full-blast.  Let's make it a league-wide act.