Playoffs show true strength of best players

In the NHL, it’s known as the “second season” – the playoffs. After a six-month regular season, 16 teams of the 27 in the NHL go through a grueling, 2 1/2-month battle for the Stanley Cup. The play is rougher, more intense, and scoring is always a lot less than in the regular season.

Now baseball has a second season. With expanded playoffs after a long season, the same impact on the game evident in the NHL postseason is happening in baseball. Postseason MLB is not the game seen in July.

Check out the numbers. Cleveland hit .272 for the year and their pitchers combined for a 4.45 ERA. The team has dropped to a .208 postseason average and the ERA, even while pitching poorly in the playoffs, is down a half-run per game.

The Yankees were the top offensive team in the AL all year. They hit .288 and led all pitching staffs at 3.82. Those numbers have dipped to .218 and 1.90.

The same thing has happened in the NL where the Atlanta Braves were hitting .200, while the San Diego Padres were a postseason-leading .248 among the four teams in the League Championship Series.

During the regular season, teams combined for an average of 9.6 runs per game. That figure has been reached just three times in 23 postseason games.

All of this is the natural result of expansion and watered down opposition during the regular season. In the postseason, hitters don’t have all those No. 4 and 5 starters on bad staffs to hit against. The Tampa Bay’s of MLB have gone home and hitters who pile up big numbers off weak stuff get exposed.

The same holds true for pitchers who feast on weak teams. Cleveland’s Doc Gooden was 8-6, but beat only one team that had a .500 or better record.

To really measure the quality of both hitters and pitchers today, one has to go behind the raw numbers and ask how they performed against the best.

That kind of statistical breakdown will be the next group of numbers you’ll be seeing. They are already used by teams and players in contract negotiations and arbitrations.

The league would rather not see these numbers become generally used because they bespeak of the watering down process that all pro leagues would rather not talk about, but they are real.

This reality also increases the value of the best players as each team attempts to acquire those of a talent capable of beating the best. Such is the case of the likes of Randy Johnson, the pitcher Houston thought would carry them to the World Series.

Another fact: no matter what the numbers, as Houston found out, the games still have to be played and won.

Nevertheless, a team can be good enough to win 85 or more regular-season games and still be nowhere near good enough to beat the best. A regular-season record, like individual player stats, can be deceptive.

Unfortunately, that means regular-season basic numbers are kind of a fraud. That can diminish the meaning of regular-season games if the goal is to win the World Series and a team just doesn’t compare to the best.

Interestingly, that means fans may have to decide to watch a game just for the sake of the game, knowing their team isn’t comparable. The more the raw numbers are broken down, the more fans are going to realize a lot of teams and players are pretty mediocre when compared to the game’s top echelon.

All of this is not a bad thing. Expansion is inherent in the growth of pro sports. The pace has probably been too fast in MLB, aggravating the distinction in the “classes” of teams and players.

Take heart. For those of us who are Sox fans, nothing’s changed.