StatMan Contender Index: Week of September 10, 2012

The Yankees have not gained ground in the playoff race in four weeks, but they are still ahead of Baltimore and Tampa in the division. The saving grace for the Yankees is their remaining schedule.  The Yankees' remaining opponents this season have a combined winning percentage of .477, while Baltimore (#11, 277.7 SCI) has a .501 and Tampa Bay (#8, 279.8 SCI) has a .513.

Washington looks like a serious lock for the playoffs at this point, leading baseball over the past week in gaining ground.  The Nationals added 180.7 points to lead the way at 661.5 points in the StatMan Contender Index.  Washington trailed Cincinnati by 3 points last week, but took a commanding 78.5-point lead.

Atlanta is the top Wild Card leader in the rankings at #3 and the lowest division leader is the Chicago White Sox, which come in at #8 (292.9 SCI).  While Chicago leads the division, Detroit (#14, 266.8 SCI) has an easier schedule the rest of the way (DET .469, CHW .481).  Tampa Bay is the top-ranked team that would not have a playoff spot if the season ended today, as the Rays rank #9 (279.8 SCI).

StatMan CONTENDER RANKINGS - as of September 10th

#	Team	SCI	Record	Standings	Magic/Elimination	OWPCT Season	OWPCT Week 24	OWPCT Weeks 24-25
1	Washington	661.5	86-54, .614	+5.5 NLE	DIV M# 29, PLY M# 10	.5103	.5190	.5140
2	Cincinnati	533.0	84-57, .596	+8.5 NLC	DIV M# 30, PLY M# 12	.4890	.4825	.4690
3	Atlanta	404.6	81-60, .574	-5.5 NLE, +7.0 NLWC	DIV E# 17, PLY M# 15	.4966	.5535	.5118
4	San Francisco	393.5	79-61, .564	+5.5 NLW	DIV M# 29, PLY M# 17	.4608	.4460	.4378
5	Texas	370.1	83-57, .593	+3.5 ALW	DIV M# 26, PLY M# 17	.5177	.4480	.4803
6	NY Yankees	309.3	79-61, .564	+1.0 ALE	DIV M# 24, PLY M# 21	.4766	.5050	.5063
16	Philadelphia	206.5	69-71, .493	-17.0 NLE, -6.0 NLWC	DIV E# 7, PLY E# 18	.4880	.3710	.4393
19	NY Mets	143.9	65-75, .464	-21.0 NLE, -10.0 NLWC	DIV E# 3, PLY E# 14	.5125	.5535	.5118
25	Boston	68.3	63-78, .447	-16.5 ALE, -15.5 ALWC	DIV E# 6, PLY E# 7	.5413	.5055	.5311

Key:
SCI - StatMan Contender Index, DIV - Division, PLY - Playoff, M# - Magic Number, E# - Elimination Number, OWPCT - Opposing Winning Percentage, R/S - Rest of the Season
Divisions: NLE - NL East, NLC - NL Central, NLW - NL West, ALE - AL East, ALC - AL Central, ALW - AL West