“Though it’s notable that it’s happened thrice since 2020 after occurring in only five postseasons from 1995-2019.) Yet that undersells how unusual this year was.”
Seems like it might be worth investigating how much the extra round of playoffs is influencing this.
I think there are some things MLB could do to change the equilibrium, in both the regular season and playoffs. Restrictions on active roster size or the ability to option relievers frequently would be regular season examples. And in the playoffs, fewer offdays would be the solution. My suggestion to achieve that would be a large expansion that allows for more geographic alignment in the early playoff rounds.
Can't a lot of this just be chalked up to the fact that the top-2 offenses (by wRC+) made it to the World Series and thus 25 of 43 postseason games involved one or both of these offenses?
The xpOPS calculation I did should account for this — by that measure, this was the third-weakest crop of postseason hitters of the last 30 years. (Granted raw OPS is not as useful as wRC+, but it should work as a decent proxy.)
“Though it’s notable that it’s happened thrice since 2020 after occurring in only five postseasons from 1995-2019.) Yet that undersells how unusual this year was.”
Seems like it might be worth investigating how much the extra round of playoffs is influencing this.
I think there are some things MLB could do to change the equilibrium, in both the regular season and playoffs. Restrictions on active roster size or the ability to option relievers frequently would be regular season examples. And in the playoffs, fewer offdays would be the solution. My suggestion to achieve that would be a large expansion that allows for more geographic alignment in the early playoff rounds.
Interesting and thought provoking. Thanks!
Can't a lot of this just be chalked up to the fact that the top-2 offenses (by wRC+) made it to the World Series and thus 25 of 43 postseason games involved one or both of these offenses?
The xpOPS calculation I did should account for this — by that measure, this was the third-weakest crop of postseason hitters of the last 30 years. (Granted raw OPS is not as useful as wRC+, but it should work as a decent proxy.)
Wow, that's very surprising since over half of the postseason team games included a top-2 offense (by wRC+). Thanks for the response!
In order to find out if this is true, all we need is this incarnation of the Mariners to acquire enough hitting to actually make the playoffs!