Chart

Observations:

  1. Three of the four teams with the best record vs other playoff teams advanced to the LCS.
  2. All four teams with the best record vs non-playoff teams failed to advance to the LCS.
  3. TOR was the only AL team with a winning record against other playoff teams.
  4. SD and CHC were the only NL teams with a losing record against other playoff teams.
  5. SEA is the lone LCS team with a losing record against other playoff teams.
  6. Five teams are close to the (not shown) line of having the same win pct against playoff and non-playoff teams – three of them are in the LCS.
  7. The Yankees feasted on non-playoff teams (.660) but were 9th of 12 in win pct against playoff teams (.452).
  8. The Phillies are the only team that performed better against playoff teams (.608) than non-playoff teams (.586). Despite this, they were bounced in the NLDS by the Dodgers.
  9. The trendline isn't all that interesting. Probably just driven by the fact that, if you're in the playoffs and played poorly against other playoff teams, you had to make up the wins somewhere else.

3 comments

  1. This is exactly why I’m not upset about the Yankees losing this year. They were fools gold.

    (I am upset about wasting Judge’s prime, but that’s beside the point.)

  2. I think points 2, 3, 4, and 6 are the most interesting.

    – Beating up on bad teams does not seem to correlate with postseason success.
    – Having roughly the same win pct against everybody *does* seem to correlate to postseason success.
    – Why does the NL occupy the right portion of this chart? Is the top of the NL just dominating interleague play against the top of the AL?
    – The pod that got SEA to the ALCS was made up of DET, CLE, SEA. SEA is the worst LCS team on paper, but they’re the best of the pod they came from when it comes to beating other playoff teams.

    As a reminder, here are the WC/DS pods (LCS teams bolded):
    – CLE, DET, **SEA**
    – BOS, NYY, **TOR**
    – CIN, **LAD**, PHI
    – CHC, **MIL**, SD

    Of those pods, the team with the best win pct vs playoff teams emerged from each except for LAD vs PHI, but their records are very close (.571 vs .608). The other major correlation there, however, is that LAD is the only LCS team that started in the wildcard round. The other three LCS teams got byes.

  3. Damn I’m sure their against playoff record surely helped the Phillies go much much further than the Yankees.

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