Benjamin Hochman | Post-Dispatch

Sports columnist

It’s unclear whether Pythagoras would’ve actually liked baseball. But here’s thinking the Greek philosopher would’ve at least appreciated the geometry of the diamond — and perhaps might’ve joked to his pals that two players in an A’s hat and two players in a Red Sox hat “equal C squared.”

But the bearded brainiac actually has a connection to modern Major League Baseball, thanks to, well, baseball’s forebear of bearded brainiacs, the legendary stat man Bill James.

So, follow me on this. James created the Pythagorean winning percentage (or Pythagorean win-loss record) for MLB teams. It predicts what a team’s record should actually be, based on runs scored and runs allowed. Feel free to skip this sentence, but the Pythagorean W-L formula

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