Cubs are on record win pace, but their stretch isn’t all that unique

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How good are the Chicago Cubs? Even though they’ve lost four of their past seven games — including a 4-2 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday when Chase Anderson no-hit them for seven innings — they’re still 28-10 and on pace to win 119 games. That would be a record. The 2001 Seattle Mariners went 116-46 and the 1906 Cubs — in a much different era — went 116-36.

Is it too early to be talking about the Cubs as an all-time great team? Before we get to that, here are the teams to win 105 or more games in the 162-game era (since 1961) and their records through 38 games:

1. 2001 Mariners (116-46): 29-9

2. 1998 Yankees (114-48): 29-9

3. 1961 Yankees (109-53): 21-17

3. 1969 Orioles (109-53): 26-12

5. 1970 Orioles (108-54): 26-12

5. 1975 Reds (108-54): 19-19

5. 1986 Mets (108-54): 27-11

8. 1998 Braves (106-56): 27-11

9. 2004 Cardinals (105-57): 20-18

(I should also point out the 1995 Indians, who went 100-44 in a shortened season. Their .694 winning percentage would rank third on the above list.)

Jake Arrieta and the Cubs are on a historic win pace, but their 28-10, 38-game stretch is hardly unprecedented. Dennis Wierzbicki/USA Today Sports

Anyway, the striking result from these teams is the 1975 Big Red Machine was actually at .500 at this point in the season and below .500 at 18-19 through Game 37. It was around this time of the season that Sparky Anderson moved Pete Rose from left field to third base (where the Reds were getting no production) and inserted George Foster into left. They went 43-10 from Game 38 to Game 90.

That said, this type of stretch at any point in the season isn’t actually all that unusual. With research help from Michael Bonzagni of ESPN Stats & Information, here are all the teams that went 27-10 (the Cubs’ record after 37 games) or better at some period in the past five seasons, with their run differential:

2015 Blue Jays: 29-8 (+102)

2015 …

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