"Playoff Experience"

"Playoff experience" is a phrase you hear a lot on baseball telecasts. It's a nice sounding phrase. Sounds meaningful. What it really is, is something broadcasters use to make it sound like they have something enlightening to say, when in fact they're simply too unwilling or lazy to do actual research. "Playoff experience" is a bunch of bunk. A team may have "playoff experience" but there's nothing to it to make you believe that this gives an advantage over any other team.

The rules remain the same. Still nine innings. Still three outs per inning. Same positions. Yet still, when someone wants to try to offer new and exciting analysis about the game, out comes the absurd concept of "playoff experience."

...But maybe there's some intangible power a team has because they've faced the pressure of elimination...

Maybe not.

How about the 2008 Rays? In the first round, the Rays, whose starting lineup playoff experience looks like this: Jason Bartlett - 3 games, Cliff Floyd - 12 games (4 hits in 19 ab...). And that's it.

They beat the White Sox, whose roster has AJ Pierzynski (with some wild playoff experiences), Jermaine Dye, Paul Konerko, Joe Crede, Juan Uribe, Bobby Jenks, and Mark Buehrle all with a World Series ring.

Next, they beat the Red Sox, whose team was nearly intact from their 2007 World Series win.


Back to those 2005 White Sox.

At the time, they were relatively green as far as playoff action is concerned. Iguchi, Crede, Uribe, Podsednik, Rowand, Buehrle, Garland, Jenks... all had yet to taste the playoffs. Konerko played three games. Dye, Pierzynski, and Contreras played a bit in the postseason, but the Red Sox had just won a World Series the previous year.

Three game sweep.

The Angels still had many players from their 2002 Series win. White Sox in five.

Then the Sox took on an Astros team who were led by a pitching staff featuring Clemens and Pettitte, mainstays from the Yankees winners in the late 1990's. The team as a whole had played up to the NLCS the previous season. They had much more "playoff experience" than did the White Sox.

Sox in four.

How about the 2003 Marlins?

Juan Pierre, Miguel Cabrera, Derrek Lee, Mike Lowell, Juan Encarnacion, Alex Gonzalez, Luis Castillo... The whole pitching staff: Beckett, Pavano, Redman, Penny.... Ivan Rodriguez had a few previous series and Jeff Conine was on the 1997 Marlins, but that's it...

And stack them against the Yankees, who won the 1996, 98, 99, and 2000 World Series and lost in the 2001?

If there were ever any mismatch as far as playoff experience goes, this is it. And the Marlins won the damn thing.

It goes on... the 2002 Angels... even back in the 90's with the 1990 Reds beating the defending champion A's. Or the 1987 Twins beating Whitey's Cardinals, who were in the World Series two of the previous five seasons.

And you could find even more if you scour the pages of your baseball encyclopedia.

"Playoff experience" doesn't mean a thing.