I mentioned Baseball Prospectus’ playoff odds yesterday. They’re a fun way to keep the season in perspective, and they seem particularly valuable this time of year when assessing a team’s best approach to the trade deadline.

Anyway, the cool thing about the Mets’ playoff odds is they’ve slowly been going up over the past month or so. The not-as-cool thing is they’re still pretty long: 2.8 percent as of this morning.

What struck me today is that, if you’re looking to contextualize what a 2.8 percent chance looks like, it’s not terribly far off the chances of hitting any one number on an American roulette wheel. Technically 2.8 percent is about a 1 in 36 chance and hitting a 7 on a roulette wheel would be 1 in 38, but, well, close enough for jazz.

Of course, a roulette wheel is (in theory, at least) entirely random and the remainder of the baseball season is not, so it’s not a perfect comp.