Regular-season success and postseason success are often two different things in Major League Baseball, as some teams are simply better built for postseason success.
The article ahead offers an in-depth look at the seven teams best built to win in October.
The following areas carried the most weight when it came to ranking the teams:
- Projected rotation: Pitching wins championships, and it carried the most weight here. For a team to be a serious contender, it really needs to have an ace it can lean on atop the staff, two more plus starters and a passable No. 4 who is capable of turning in a quality start.
- Late-inning relief: Teams generally lean heavily on three or four bullpen arms once the playoffs roll around, so while a team does not necessarily have to have a phenomenal bullpen top to bottom, it does need a handful of arms it can count on.
- Offensive firepower: A team can get by with an average offense if it has strong pitching and is capable of coming up with clutch hits. Again, pitching wins championships, but having a high-powered offense certainly doesn’t hurt any.
Those three factors were examined for each team considered to be a contender at this point in the season, and the following is a ranking of the seven teams best built for playoff success.