I was looking at the playoff picture for this year and was
struck by something interesting: this might be the freshest playoff picture
we’ve had in years.
I’m not really sure what made me think of that. I think I
was just reflecting on how odd it was that the Yankees and Red Sox and Phillies
and Braves and Tigers and Cardinals were all of out of or falling out of
contention a few weeks ago. Since then, the Cardinals have come roaring back
into first place, but I still thought it might be worth looking at somewhat
analytically.
It was a pretty simple process. I simply looked at the teams
currently in place for a playoff spot, then looked at what year they last won
the World Series. Next, I repeated this for each year of the wild card era. I
realize that this method isn’t perfect, but it’s a quick and easy way to look
at it, and since the number of teams who win the World Series each year has
remained more constant than the number of teams in the playoffs to begin with,
this method seemed more stable from year-to-year.
So, for example, this year’s playoff picture looks as such:
