If you follow any Cubs blogger on twitter, you’re almost certain to have come across the following stat in the past 7 weeks:
“Ever since <date>, the Cubs have been <record that is close to .500>!”
That’s cool, but I want to take it one step further. I want to find the dates that satisfy this criteria:
If the season started on this date and ran through today, the Cubs would have qualified for the postseason.
Turns out, there are some days!
July 20 – August 3
After July 19, the Central shakes out thusly:
Chicago 22-20
St. Louis 20-19
Pittsburgh 20-20
Milwaukee 19-19
Cincinnati 15-25
So while it’s conceivable that the Cards and/or Brewers could run out the table, I ended the season today and those games never get played.
On August 2:
St. Louis 16-12
Chicago 16-13
Milwaukee 12-14
Pittsburgh 12-15
Cincinnati 11-16
The Cubs are the 2nd WC (1st WC: San Francisco at 15-12).
Technically, September 1 is a complicated playoff scenario, so we might not qualify.