Playoffs: Who Would Be In?

Well, it's pretty cut and dry as to who will be in the playoffs as of today:

Team     Games W  L T  W%   GB
Seibu      49 30 19 0 .612   -
Daiei      48 26 20 2 .565  2.5
Nippon Ham 48 25 22 1 .532  4
Kintetsu   49 22 26 1 .458  7.5
Orix       45 19 25 1 .432  8.5
Lotte      49 19 29 1 .396 10.5

Now go and read this thread and you will see that the answer is Seibu, Daiei, and Nippon Ham. (We'll just leave the fact that all of the teams haven't played the same number of games out of this.) To answer the question you didn't ask yet, I'll quote the above press release:

The second and third place teams will have a best two out of three (if necessary) game series with the winner going against the first place team in a best of five (first to win three) game series.

More information on the subject is available in the above thread.

Looking at the previous discussion of the Pacific League playoff format, I wanted to mention something about mediocre teams making these playoffs.

Using the spreadsheet of team records at baseballguru.com, it looks like a team with a win% of 0.500 or less would have qualified for a Pa League playoff (at #3) eight times since the two leagues were established. Three of these times occurred since 1990, so it seems like the trend is actually increasing.

If the Pa League had always had these playoffs, what was the worst team which would have had a shot at Japan Series glory? The 1978 Nippon Ham Fighters, with a winning percentage of 0.466 (55-63-12)!

Using this playoff for the Central League, the numbers are actually pretty close - nine times since the leagues were established, and three times since 1990. The worst team here? The 1974 Yakult Swallows, with a winning percentage of 0.488 (60-63-7).

Just a bit of statistical curiosity.

- Stevie