re: FiveThirtyEight: Cardinals have been luckiest MLB team since 1998 Expansion

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I'm all about advanced metrics, but saying one of the more poorly run franchises over the last decade is simply unlucky is absurd

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They aren't saying that they're simply unlucky. From the article:

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Although the Mariners have hardly been uniformly great during their drought, no franchise has had more bad luck keeping it out of the playoffs over the past couple decades, given its yearly records.

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The whole point of the article is a simple comparison between the actual playoff appearances and expected playoff appearances in relation to the average wins generally needed to gain a postseason berth. In essence they're just good (the few years they are good) in the wrong years, while the Cardinals are bad (the few years they are bad) in the right years. For example they missed the playoffs twice while winning 93 games, while the Cardinals made the playoffs in a year they won 83 games.

The point wasn't to say that the only thing separating the Cardinals from the Mariners is luck