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Astros: Projecting regular season win total for 2021

(Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)

One of the more ubiquitous of the modern metrics is applying the Pythagorean Win Percentage to an MLB team run differential. It’s tracked by MLB, ESPN and Baseball-Reference, among others.

Earlier this season, as the Houston Astros were bludgeoning the Oakland A’s, I noticed Houston’s expected wins by this formula seemed out of whack, so I flipped over to FanGraphs and theirs seemed a bit conservative. My initial thought was the number in my head would be somewhere between the two. “It’s early in the season, surely corrections are coming.