The Pirates and Cubs are among the best non-division-winners of all time (the Pirates’ 98 wins tie them for sixth all time among non-division-winners; the Cubs’ 97 ties for 10th). That had me wondering whether this year’s NL Central was one of the strongest divisions all time. One way to measure that: divisions with the strongest two runners-up since divisional play began in 1969.
Somewhat surprisingly, this year’s NL Central doesn’t rank among the top 10 historically. Perhaps that stems from the Cubs’ sudden rise in 2015 — at least some of the team’s combined Elo results from the below-average 1484 rating it carried into the season.
