Stats Sunday: Most Improved Baseball Teams of 2025

 The Regular season of MLB came to an end last month some would say that for the White Sox  it did so mercifully.  I would  beg to differ. 

Me (In my best Dickensonian pauper's voice) : Please Sir, may I differ? Please?!? Could I kindly differ?

When you lose 100 or more games in a season  3 years in a row as my beloved South Sliders (misspelling intended) have it would  ostensibly make sense for anyone covering the team to write  an end of the season review as a post-mortem.  Over the past few weeks I have read many that looked just like that,

However,  as I mulled it over in my mind, I realized that the 2025 record of 60 wins paired with 102 losses ,  an abysmal 21 games below .500, was in actuality 19 wins better than their record setting (in a bad way) 2024 season total.  This made me wonder how the White Sox would match up to the rest of the league in terms of most improved win total from 2024 to 2025.

2025 MLB Teams (Listed from most improved  to least improved regular season from 2024 to 2025)

     Team                          2024      2025   

1. Toronto Blue Jays      74-88    94-68 +20 

2. Chicago White Sox    41-121 60-102 +19

3. Miami Marlins           62-100 79-83   +17

4. Los Angeles Angels   63-99    72-90  +9

5. Chicago Cubs             83-79   92-70   +9

6. Boston Red Sox         81-81    89-73   +8

7. Athletics                     69-93    76-87   +7

8. Cincinnati Reds         77-85    83-79   +6

9. Seattle Mariners         85-77   90-72    +5

10. Milwaukee Brewers  93-69   97-65   +4

11. Texas Rangers            78-84   81-81  +3

12. Detroit Tigers             86-76   87-75  +1

13. Philadelphia Phillies   95-67  96-66   +1

14. San Francisco Giants  80-82  81-81   +1

15. New York Yankees      94-68   94-68   E

16. Houston Astros            88-73    87-75 -1.5

17. Tampa Bay Rays          80-82    77-85 -3

18. San Diego Padres         93-69    90-72 -3

19. Kansas City Royals      86-76    82-80 -4

20. Cleveland Guardians    92-69    83-74 -4.5

21. Washington Nationals  71-91    66-96 -5

22. St. Louis Cardinals       83=79  78-84  -5

23. Pittsburgh Pirates          76-86   71-91 -5

24. Los Angeles Dodgers    98-64   93-69 -5

25. New York Mets              89-73  83-79 -6

26. Arizona Diamondbacks  89-73 80-82 -9

27. Minnesota Twins            82-80 70-92  -12

28. Atlanta Braves                89-73 76-86 -13

29. Baltimore Orioles           91-71 75-87 -16

30. Colorado Rockies           61-101 43-119 -18

Analysis: I marked each record in bold if that team went to the playoffs the year listed.  Of the 7 teams that made the playoffs in 2024 and 2025, three did so with more wins than the previous year, 1 team had the identical record each campaign, and 3 won more games in 2024 than they did this year.  

Of the 3 cities with 2 teams , Chicago was the only city that had both teams improve let alone be in the top 5 of improved teams.

Top 10 most improved home and road teams. (Teams in bold are in tp 10 in both categories)

Home                       Road

Blue Jays +15          White Sox +9    

Red Sox + 10            Athletics +9

White Sox + 10        Marlins +9

Marlins + 8               Blue Jays +5

Angels +7                  Mariners +3

Padres +7                   Mets +3

Yankees +6                Cubs +3

Cubs + 6                    Angels +2

Reds + 6                     Guardians +1

Brewers +5                 Nationals +1

Pirates + 5                  Giants + 1

So, yes the improvements from one year to the next for our Chicago teams is something to be celebrated.   Similar improvements next year are not impossible dreams.  If  The Cubs improve  by 9 wins next year they would be past the 100 win mark.  If the Sox win 19  more games next year they would only finish 2 games below .500.  Will that happen, who knows?  But steps in the right direction are signs of life not cause for a post-mortem.

WHYDFML Index ratings of the AP Top 25 College Football teams

 I love stats.  I don't love sports because of stats but statistics is one of the love languages I use to convey my love of sports.  

Some of my favorite stats are the ones I make up like the STBFI Or the WHYDFML Index that is reference in the title of this post.  The  STBFI stands for Soon To Be Fired Index and WHYDFML stands for What Have You Done For Me Lately,  

The STBFI is straightforward, forward it is a list of the major coaches and managers in a city, (for me it's Chicago )in order of the likelihood that they will be the next person on the list to be fired or otherwise leave their position.  The WHYDFML     (pronounced y dee eff em el) is actually a name for many statistics that measure productivity from most to least recent.

Each Sunday during the college football season, The Associated Press releases a poll of the top 25 teams in College football.  I decided to look out this past Sunday's  rankings thtough the lens of one of the WHYDFML indices.

This particular index takes the results of the last 5 games and scores them this way.  A win in the most recent game counts as 5 wins whereas a loss in the least recent game counts as only 1 loss.  In cases of ties a tie would be treated as 1/2 the points in the win column and 1/2 the points in the loss column  . You then fihure out the win percentage by taking the adjusted win amount and dividing it by the adjusted total game amount.  

For example, if there are 4 teams that are 4-1 in their 5 most recent games (let's call them Teams A through E), and each one of them lost a different game on the time line between most and least recent they would all have different winning percentages in their WHYDFML Index.

Let's say Team A just lost their most recent game after winning the previous four.  Their results would wook like this with the point value for the loss or win in parentheses:

L(5)W(4)W(3)W(2)W (1)

This would make Team 10-5  with a winning percentage of .667 (10/15)

If Team B won 3 games in a row, then lost, and then won again, their results, adjusted record and winning percentage would look like this

W(5)L(4) W(3) W(2) W(1) 11-4 ..733

Team C 

W (5) W(4) L (3) W(2) W (1) 12-3 .800

Team D 

W (5) W (4) W (3) L (2) W (1) 13-2 .867

Team E 

W (5) W(4) W(3) W (2) L (1) 14-1 .933

Now that we have a better understanding of the WHYDFML index, we can compare the AP top 25 using said index.  At this point in the season, most teams have played 2 games.  Some, like Notre Dame, have only played one, and some, like Iowa State, have already played 3.  In order to use a record over the last 5 games, we will need the results of the last 2-4 games of the previous season, including bowl games and playoffs.  I will list each team from the best to worst by its WHYDFML winning percentage, with the best ranking breaking any ties.  

Team              C         L5R         L5C            WHYDFML    AP Rank 

Ohio State    2-0      5-0 1.000 WWWWW  15-0 1.000           1

LSU              2-0      5-0 1.000 WWWWW 15-0 1.000           3

Illinois          2-0      5-0 1.000 WWWWW 15-0 1.000           9

Missouri        2-0      5-0 1.000 WWWWW 15-0 1.000      25

Iowa State     3-0       4-1  .800 WWWWL   14-1 .933        14

Ole Miss        2-0       4-1  .800 WWWWL  14-1 .933        17

South Florida 2-0       4-1  .800 WWWLW 13-2 .867         18

Penn State      2-0       4-1  .800 WWLWW 12-3 .800          2

Oregon            2-0      4-1  .800  WWLWW 12-3 .800          4

Georgia            2-0     4-1  .800 WWLWW   12-3 .800          6

South Carolina 2-0     4-1 .800 WWLWW    12-3 .800        11

Tennessee          2-0    4-1 .800 WWLWW     12-3 .800       15

Utah                    2-0   3-2 .600 WWWLL        12-3 .800      20

Texas Tech         2-0    4-1 .800 WWLWW     12-3 .800       21

Auburn                2-0    4-1 .800 WWLWW     12-3 .800      24

Florida State       2-0     3-2 .600 WWLWL       11-4 .733      10

Indiana                 2-0    3-2 .600 WWLWL       11-4 .733      22

Miami (FL)         2-0     3-2 .600 WWLLW       10-5 .667      5

Oklahoma           2-0      3-2 .600 WWLLW       10-5 .667      13

Michigan            1-1      4-1 .800 LWWWW       10-5 .667      23

Texas A&M        2-0      2-3 .400 WWLLL          9-6  .600      16

Texas                   1-1      3-2 .600 WLLWW         8-7 .533       7

Clemson              1-1      2-3 .400 WLLWL          7-8 .467       12

Alabama              1-1       2-3 .400 WLLWL          7-8 .467      19

Notre Dame         0-1       3-2 .600 LLWWW        6-9 .400       8

Notre Dame by virtue of their loss in the CFP finals, their first week loss to Miami and a second week bye has  the lowest percentage of the AP 25. Illinois, Ohio,State, LSU, and Missouri have all won 5 of their last 5 games but if any of them lose this week they will be down near the bottom to .667 and some won’t stay on the AP 25 with a loss.

I meant to share this on Sunday after I did all the research, but had a very busy week. I will  try to publish an updated list after the new AP poll comes out tomorrow.

Fisk gets two outs at home plate

"Moments" | Pierce Pettis | "Studio-A: New Music" | WFSU-TV (1983)

As we speak, I am watching Pierce Pettis in concert in Lake Forest (Go Bears!) Illinois. I was first famiiar with Mr. Pettis' work as a song writer in the late 1980. He wrote I don't ever want to live without You which is a cornerstone of Randy Stonehill's 1989 Return to Paradise. This song Moments is the title tune of his 1984 independently released debut album. Bot sure if he'll play it today, but it should be a good concert either way.