Do the Playoffs determine the best team?

[Toro]

Depends on how you define best team. A team can be built to be the best for the long grind of a 162 game season like the Yankees were in 2004. But the Red Sox, with the bookend aces were built to win in the playoffs.

I think any team that has 2 great starting pitchers and a good to great closer can win in the playoffs even if they have mediocre to bad #3 thru #5 starters. The trick is you have to win enough of the 162 games with those bad 3 to 5 starters to get there.

[Rasputin]

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is this poll/thread serious?

are we really suggesting that the best team doesn't win?

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The best team doesn't always win.

If you think otherwise, you are deluding yourself.

Think of it this way, if the best team always won, then the best team in every sport would always go undefeated and the worst team in every sport would always go winless.

[nyc999]

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Depends on how you define best team. A team can be built to be the best for the long grind of a 162 game season like the Yankees were in 2004. But the Red Sox, with the bookend aces were built to win in the playoffs.

I think any team that has 2 great starting pitchers and a good to great closer can win in the playoffs even if they have mediocre to bad #3 thru #5 starters. The trick is you have to win enough of the 162 games with those bad 3 to 5 starters to get there.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree -- and you don't need a great team overall if you have Schilling/Johnson starting 5 games out of a 7 game series. You can even overcome having an abysmal closer.

[andyfox]

Arizona in 2001 is a good example of what you are saying. Schilling and Johnson were the team. Thus, in a short series, they were awfully tough to beat.

I think Josh's point is cogent. Seven games is too small a sample size to determine the best team. The better record over 162 games seems a better test of "bestness.

Of course, in the Al this year, there are five teams within a few games of each other. Pretty hard to say which of them is the best, no matter who wins the Series.

[Dudd]

I think it's pretty clear that the best team wins less than 60% of the time. Let's assume that the better team wins 70% of the time in a 5 game series, and 80% of the time in a 7 game series. I think that's pretty generous, given that even the best team in baseball history only won 73% of their games over a 162 game schedule, and the teams in the playoffs are markedly better on average. Anyways, simple math shows that the probability of the best team winning is .7*.8*.8, or only 45% of the time, and that's with fairly high win percentages in any one series.

[Josh W]

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why do you assume that the best team over the past 6 months is the best team today?

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I haven't read your entire response yet just do to other obligations, but wanted to throw something out quickly regarding this, your first sentence.

It's not so much 'me' that assumes the "best team over the past 6 months", it's everybody. When a team win the World Series, on say November 2nd, the announcers don't say "The New York Yankees, your November 2nd champions", they say "The New York Yankeese, your 1998 champions".

I mean, it could be argued that two days ago, the best team in baseball was Baltimore. They scored 17 runs vs. a good Yankee team. However, I don't think anybody (yourself excluded because of the avatar!!) would say they are the best team this year.

The playoffs and world series are the culmination of the year. Yeah, teams change throughout a season, as do playing/coaching strategies. But the world series winner is the champion for that YEAR, not just for that day or week.

Josh

(With that long, rambling response, I guess I could/should just read your post...)

[Soul Daddy]

In our culture a champion is not a measurement who the best team has been for an entire season. The regular season in any sport should be looked at for what it is: A very long qualifying event.

[BreakfastBurrito]

If the best team always won wouldn't that take pretty much all the fun out of being a sports fan?

[mrbaseball]

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Let's assume that the better team wins 70% of the time in a 5 game series, and 80% of the time in a 7 game series.

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These are thoroughly ludicrous assumptions. For 2 "winning" teams anything over 55% is ridiculous as talent gaps aren't so dominant.

[Voltron87]

this thread makes baby jesus cry.