Postseason Experience

Most everyone agrees that playing in the Postseason constitutes a qualitatively different baseball experience than playing in the regular season. Although the format of the game itself remains the same, it's easy to point out some vastly different circumstances:

- You're playing for one of eight teams in contention rather than one of 30.

- The games are elimination tournament style.

- Every moment of every game is crucial and receives intense media scrutiny.

Given these discrepancies, it's natural to think that success in the postseason requires a different set of attributes than success in the regular season (see the ongoing debate over the existence of Clutch Hitting). And thus it's natural to think that having experience playing in the postseason can help one develop these attributes.


If you accept the above two propositions as true, then it follows logically that a team employing a greater number of players with significant postseason experience should have an advantage over a team that employs a lesser number of such players.


If all the above is true, than the charts provided below - which show the postseason experience (not counting the 2010 DS's) of the players on each remaining playoff team - could potentially tell us something about who might win the two upcoming league championship serieses. If the above is meaningless - well, at least the charts are pretty to look at.

YANKEES
POS	Name	Games	AB/IP	__swp__	swp/g
SS	Derek Jeter	138	559	1,923	13.9
C	Jorge Posada	111	372	958	8.6
3B	Alex Rodriguez	54	199	876	16.2
DH	Lance Berkman	29	106	493	17.0
2B	Robinson Cano	28	106	227	8.1
RF	Nick Swisher	24	71	115	4.8
1B	Mark Teixeira	19	76	202	10.6
LF	Brett Gardner	14	13	7	0.5
CF	Curtis Granderson	13	53	187	14.4
DH	Marcus Thames	8	21	36	4.5
C	Francisco Cervelli	2	1	-2	-1.0
SP	Andy Pettitte	40	249	1,877	46.9
SP	CC Sabathia	10	61.1	398	39.8
SP	A.J. Burnett	5	27.1	122	24.4
SP	Phil Hughes	11	12	74	6.7
CL	Mariano Rivera	88	133.2	3,081	35.0
RP	Kerry Wood	8	36.2	309	38.6
RP	Joba Chamberlain	12	10	88	7.3
RP	David Robertson	5	5.1	114	22.8
RP	Dustin Moseley	1	1	13	13.0

The Yankees obviously dominate the competition here. Jeter and Posada, both members of the Yankees legendary "Core Four" - have what basically amount to a single season's worth of at-bats. Pettitte and Rivera - the other two members of the above-mentioned group - have logged enough innings to make up for about a season-and-a-quarter's worth. All four have performed admirably.


Other standouts include A-Rod (having appeared in playoff series with both Seattle and New York), Lance Berkman (who slugged pretty well during the Astros' World Series appearance in '05), and Cano (who seems to have struggled a bit under the pressure).

As for pitchers, Sabathia carried the Brewers into the playoffs in '08 and was an absolute horse as part of a three-man rotation for the Yankees in '09. If Phil Hughes and Kerry Wood look like they have disproportionate numbers based on their roles, you're right - Hughes appeared last year as a reliever and Wood started for the Cubs during their '03 Steve Bartman-shortened playoff run.

RANGERS
POS	Name	Games	AB/IP	__swp__	swp/g
DH	Vladimir Guerrero	29	112	305	10.5
C	Bengie Molina	29	91	231	8.0
RF	Jeff Francoeur	4	17	40	10.0
SP	Cliff Lee	5	40.1	589	117.8
RP	Darren Oliver	14	26	190	13.6
RP	Dustin Nippert	2	2.1	36	18.0

Oof, not much to say about these guys. We all remember Lee's dominance against the Yankees in last year's World Series, and are interested in seeing if he can repeat the feat in the AL. A fun bit of trivia: Molina and Guerrero played the exact same number of postseason games, both with the Angels, but in different seasons. (However they did overlap in '04 and '05.)

PHILLIES
POS	Name	Games	AB/IP	__swp__	swp/g
SS	Jimmy Rollins	32	134	362	11.3
RF	Jayson Werth	35	123	600	17.1
CF	Shane Victorino	32	119	509	15.9
1B	Ryan Howard	32	118	490	15.3
2B	Chase Utley	32	115	538	16.8
C	Carlos Ruiz	32	99	393	12.3
3B	Placido Polanco	25	81	177	7.1
LF	Raul Ibanez	24	71	204	8.5
3B	Greg Dobbs	16	21	39	2.4
OF	Ben Francisco	11	11	-11	-1.0
SP	Cole Hamels	10	60.2	566	56.6
SP	Roy Oswalt	8	46.2	371	46.4
SP	Joe Blanton	8	34.2	295	36.9
CL	Brad Lidge	32	39.1	908	28.4
RP	Jose Contreras	14	45	362	25.9
RP	Ryan Madson	24	23	283	11.8
RP	J.C. Romero	23	19	170	7.4
RP	Chad Durbin	13	8.2	73	5.6
RP	Antonio Bastardo	2	0.1	3	1.5

 
Talk about solidarity: five of the starting eight have played the exact same number of games, and they all played them together and all in the last two years. A sixth (Werth) played every game with those other five, but he got an additional taste of the tournament in '04 with the Dodgers.

Hamels pitched all his games with the Phillies, Oswalt pitched all his with the Astros, and Blanton made an additional playoff appearance with the A's in addition to the last two years. Contreras started about half his October appearances, including the '05 World Series against Berkman's Astros, which is why his numbers look a little inflated for a setup man.

GIANTS
POS	Name	Games	AB/IP	__swp__	swp/g
SS	Edgar Renteria	55	207	523	9.5
CF	Aaron Rowand	15	57	139	9.3
LF	Pat Burrell	17	55	159	9.4
SS	Juan Uribe	16	54	159	9.9
2B	Mike Fontenot	5	8	3	0.6
(SP)	(Barry Zito)	7	44.1	409	58.4
RP	Guillermo Mota	7	8.1	66	9.4
RP	Jeremy Affeldt	7	5.1	62	8.9
RP	Javier Lopez	8	5	-46	-5.8
RP	Ramon Ramirez	1	0	-35	-35.0

Slim pickings here: Renteria's been around the block (who remembers his hit for the '97 Champion Florida Marlins?), Rowand and Uribe are two more members of those '05 White Sox, and Burrell played all his postseason games with his opponents. One notable exception from their roster is the only starting pitcher who has appeared in the playoffs: Barry Zito. I guess Manager Bruce Bochy is smart enough to realize that he's a different pitcher now than he was then: not only much much richer, but he's also much less effective.