In early October, I watched an interview on X (well, twitter). A head of baseball operations mentioned his team’s struggle in the postseason. In particular, his team didn’t hit well against fastballs in the postseason.
That answer was quite interesting. And I was thinking about each team’s performance against fastballs in the postseason. In particular, for those teams that didn’t play in the Wild Card Series, did those teams have trouble hitting fastballs after taking some days off?
A third wild card spot was created in 2022. So, let’s look at the stats in the division series over the last 2 postseasons first.
Looking back at the 2022 postseason, the Guardians and the Mariners won the AL Wild Card Series. In the 2022 ALDS, the Guardians hit .248 against fastballs. Meanwhile, the Yankees automatically advanced to the ALDS and batted .218 against fastballs in this series. However, the Yankees were able to beat the Guardians in 5 games in the 2022 ALDS. The other ALDS matchup was the Astros against the Mariners. The Mariners defeated the Blue Jays to advance to the ALDS and they batted .212 against fastballs in this series. Against fastballs, the Astros did hit a little bit better than the Mariners did and the Astros won the series.
In the National League, the Phillies and the Padres each won the Wild Card Series. In the 2022 NLDS, they did hit well against fastballs. In particular, the Phillies had a batting average over .300 against fastballs and they defeated the Braves, which hit .225 against fastballs in the 2022 NLDS. At the same time, the Padres batted .263 against fastballs and the Dodgers only hit .192 against fastballs in the NLDS. And the Padres won the series.
And looking back at the last postseason, the Rangers defeated the Rays in the AL Wild Card Series. In the ALDS, the Rangers outperformed the Orioles on hitting fastballs. The Rangers had a batting average of .297 against fastballs and the Orioles only batted .179. In the meantime, the Astros and the Twins didn’t have many differences in hitting fastballs. But the Astros won the series.
Additionally, the Phillies did hit well against fastballs again in the NLDS. They defeated the Marlins in the NL Wild Card Series and the Phillies batted .301 against fastballs in the NLDS. The Phillies’ opponent, the Braves, didn’t hit fastballs well in the 2023 NLDS. Moreover, the Dodgers hit only .169 against fastballs in the 2023 NLDS and they were swept by the Diamondbacks that won the Wild Card Series and batted .222 against fastballs in the NLDS.
Finally, let’s look at the division series this year, the Phillies didn’t hit well against the fastballs with a batting average below .200. Meanwhile, the Mets did hit fastballs well and they defeated the Phillies in the NLDS. Additionally, the Dodgers and the Padres had performed similarly against fastballs in the NLDS.
In the AL, the Yankees and Guardians earned a first-round bye. With extra rests, it seemed that they had enough time to prepare against fastballs. The Yankees hit .292 against fastballs in the ALDS and the Guardians owned a .284 BA against fastballs.
When we look at the division series these 3 years, it’s quite clear that most teams that automatically advanced to the division series didn’t hit well against the fastballs. In particular, in 2023, all 4 teams that got a bye in the first round had troubles against fastballs. Nonetheless, things have changed in 2024. It seemed that the Dodgers learned a lesson over the last 2 postseasons and performed much better against fastballs. Furthermore, the Yankees and the Guardians might do some work to face fastballs during those off days. Hence, for the teams that didn’t have to participate in the Wild Card Series, a key thing to do before the division series is probably that they have to seriously prepare to hit fastballs.
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