rany on the cubs historic start

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It’s hard to talk about the 2016 Cubs without descending into what can only be called baseball stat porn. The numbers that surround this team range from the astonishing to the unbelievable. Here is the simplest way to sum up how good this team is with facts that should be mutually exclusive:
1. The 2016 Chicago Cubs are on pace to challenge the all-time record for victories in a season.
2. They are underachieving.

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By comparison, they’ve won 27 games by three runs or more. That 27–4 mark in such contests is staggering and would easily eclipse the modern major league record if it held:

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They’ve scored 297 runs and allowed 156, giving them a ratio that would be the best in modern major league history:

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The Cubs have drawn 250 walks in 55 games, an average of 4.55 walks per game. The average NL team has drawn just 3.23 walks per game, meaning the Cubs are on pace to draw 213 more walks than a league-average team. That would be, easily, a National League record

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The Cubs have used only five starting pitchers all season, and all five starters have an ERA under 3. In fact, of the 11 pitchers who have thrown at least 10 innings for Chicago this year, Justin Grimm (3.48) is the only one with an ERA over 3. The team ERA as a whole is 2.57, which is, well, nuts. The Cubs are on pace to allow 459 runs; the only team of the live-ball era to allow fewer runs per game is the 1972 Orioles.

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Factor in home-field advantage and the Cubs basically have a 50–50 shot of reaching the World Series for the first time in 71 years.

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