The Difference between the O's and other Playoff teams

[bpilktree67]

I honestly think there is very little difference in most the teams that made the playoffs.  The most wins was 98 wins and there was 12 teams with 86 wins or more.  It also seems that many of the teams are on the same page with scouting and analytics now hitting wise.  Years back you had moneyball which the A’s used before anyone else.  Then the Astros and few teams started with analytics and seemed to be ahead of the rest of the league but they have caught up now imo.
 Now the move seems to be on launch angle and hitting homers by getting the ball in the air but that seems to be across the league.  Obviously some teams have more money and more talented players but the strategy seems about the same.  The main differences I see is in pitching in the playoffs which is bullpen games and using openers rather then a starter to go 7 innings and carry your team to win now a slight sign of trouble they are taking them out.  With all these short inning guys and pitching them in certain pockets we are seeing very little offense and the hitting with runners in scoring position has been awful.  It all comes down to RISP at bats and getting 1 or 2 big base hits in those situations.  We just haven’t been able to get those hits so far in short series.  

[Safelykept]

7 hours ago, Ripken said:

You mean like not letting Cowser face lefties all year, even though he hit them in the minors, and then having him take the biggest at bat of the entire season against a leftie?  

Someone is obsessed with L/R & R/L matchups, even in the face of reverse splits, to the detriment of the team.

???. Cowser took more swings against LF than any other LH hitter on the team ( not named  Henderson). He was one of the guys they did not platoon.

[sportsfan8703]

The difference is that those playoff teams actually realized it’s the playoffs and adapted their approach.

Maybe we add a vet or two just to add some vets, but I think the players stay the same. We just gotta grow up this offseason. 0-5 is what it is. We have to change as a team. 

[Chromehill]

39 minutes ago, sportsfan8703 said:

The difference is that those playoff teams actually realized it’s the playoffs and adapted their approach.

Maybe we add a vet or two just to add some vets, but I think the players stay the same. We just gotta grow up this offseason. 0-5 is what it is. We have to change as a team. 

It would be nice to add a quality hitting RH bat to outfield who can play a solid CF.  He can platoon with Mullins allowing Cowser and   Kjerstad to play every day.

[Warehouse]

3 hours ago, Safelykept said:

???. Cowser took more swings against LF than any other LH hitter on the team ( not named  Henderson). He was one of the guys they did not platoon.

Cowser also wasn’t good against LHP, putting up a .660 OPS and 35% strikeout rate with expected stats and second half stats that were worse than that.  However, we needed either Cowser or Mullins to play CF.

[TommyPickles]

In fairness to Hyde, his pinch hitters had the best batting average in baseball this season. And it wasn't even close.

[Sports Guy]

Games get managed differently in the playoffs vs the reg season

[Warehouse]

I went and checked how we compared to other playoff teams in platooning and pinch-hitting during the playoffs.  I used the first two wildcard games as the sample to keep it apples to apples with the Orioles’ experience.  For the 8 wildcard teams, I counted the number of line-up changes from game 1 to game 2 and the number of pinch hit PAs and added them together.  For lineup changes, I didn’t consider batting order or positions, only the number of hitters that started game 1 but didn’t start game 2 (only McCann for the Orioles).

The Orioles were middle of the pack - 4th highest moves among the 8 wildcard teams.

#	Team	Lineup changes	Pinch hits PAs	Total
T1	Tigers	3	5	8
T1	Astros	1	7	8
3	Mets	1	6	7
4	Orioles	1	5	6
5	Royals	1	4	5
6	Braves	1	2	3
7	Brewers	1	1	2
8	Padres	0	0	0

For some additional context, only the Orioles and Tigers faced different-handed starters the first two games AND had opposing pitcher handedness change at least 5 times in those games.

Teams that faced same-hand starter both days:

Royals

Astros

Mets

Braves

 

Number times opposing pitcher handedness changed in game:

Astros - 8

Royals - 8

Orioles - 5

Tigers - 5

Mets - 4

Padres - 3

Braves - 2

Brewers - 1