Cubs vs. Pirates: One Of The Best Teams In Baseball Will Be Eliminated
CHICAGO (CBS) -- "Elo" loves the Chicago Cubs.
In fact, it ranks the North Siders as the third-best team in baseball right now.
It also ranks the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Cubs' wild-card opponent on Wednesday, as the second-best. This means that one of the best teams in baseball will be ending its season based on the randomness of a single game.
Oh, but what a game it promises to be, with one of the best pitching matchups in baseball playoff history along with the fact that the Cubs are the hottest team in the league right now.
The American League wild-card game is a dog, by comparison. Elo ranks the Astros and the Yankees as the worst playoff teams.
Elo is a rating system developed by a physicist to rank international chess players. It can be adapted to make predictions in other sports as well.
The FiveThirtyEight blog uses Elo to rate NFL teams and has now crunched the numbers for MLB.
Elo gives Toronto the best chance to win the World Series, but it's far from a lock at only 19 percent.
It gives the Cubs a 7 percent chance, in part because of the uncertainty of the one-game playoff.