The variance is just wider than you think. If this were a true 81 win team and you got to replay this season 100 times they would occasionally break 90 wins. The 2009 Seattle Mariners is the classic example. In 2008 they won 61 games, they added a couple of minor players and in 2009 they won 85 games. In 2010 they added more talent and won 61, 65, 67 the next 3 years. 2009 they had a 70 or less win team that just played way over its head. You bring up the pirates and 18 years, they played over their heads in 1999 to get to 78 wins when they probably had a 69 or 70 win team. This Brewers team has low 80s win talent on it. Those pirates teams had maybe 1 player that you could even imagine making an all star team. This team has a core lineup that could be all star level. It has pitching that in the past has been at least league average. This is not the pirates or Brewers of the big losing streak at all. This team is perfectly capable of going on a run and breaking .500 on the year. It just has played really bad baseball overall on the year so far. I still think the most likely scenario is we play .500 from here on out and the bad start makes it a dead year. I just can be realistic about how baseball actually works. Bad teams don't always have a losing record and good teams don't always have a winning one, it just doesn't work like that.