Yesterday, I looked at Andy Pettitte’s post season numbers (how great was he last night?) and compared them to his regular season numbers. I then hinted that I’d do the same with Derek Jeter. This doesn’t include his numbers from last night’s game.
We all know the story of Derek Jeter: great contact hitter who takes his fair share of walks and hits for good power, especially for his position. All told, Jeter has a .314/.385/.452/.837, 119 OP+ line. His 162 game average has those rate stats with 17 homers and 298 total bases. Like Pettitte, his playoff numbers have essentially matched that.
His average “drops” to .313 and his OBP “drops” to .381, but his SLG does “rise” to .476. In 143 playoff games, Jeter has hit 20 homers, which would put him on pace for 23 in 162 games. He’s had 277 total bases, which would be 313 in 162 games. Both of those would represent the second highest in Jeter’s career, if we made the post season as just another regular season. Oddly enough, his .857 OPS would be the 7th highest in his career.
The same thing that applies to Pettitte applies to Jeter: his playoff numbers are not outrageously different than his regular season numbers, but it’s remarkable that he’s been able to keep up the same level of consistency in the playoffs.
Where we do see a bit of a drop–albeit in a small sample size–is in the 49 game sample (237 PA) Jeter’s had in his ALCS trips. He’s got only a .771 OPS in that round. His best round has been the ALDS–.955 OPS.
The most hits he’s had in a series was 11 in the ’09 World Series against the Phils.
His worst series was the 2001 ALCS vs. Seattle when he “racked up” a .318 OPS. Ouch.
His best series was the 2006 ALDS vs. Detroit when he had eight hits and a 1.467 OPS.
Yeah, I know this post isn’t much but fluff, but I just needed something to get my mind off the kickassiness of Cliff Lee
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One Response to Examining Derek's Postseason Numbers
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TIQ IQ
The quality of posteason opposition is MUCH higher in the postseason, especially for a position player:
1. BETTER OPPONENTS — this is obvious, but the average regular season opponent is a tad under .500 (since, by definition, you’re on an above .500 team), whereas posteason opponents are probably around .575 or beter.
2.. BETTER THAN AVERAGE STARTING PITCHERS: the top 3 Rangers and Twins starters will have pitched 9 of 10 games against the Yanks, should the Yanks send it to 7. In the regular season, that figure is 6/10 — and that is putting aside how teams manage starters to get them healthy for playoffs, while in regular season, many ABs are against teams’ 7th and 8th best starters. (you don’t make it to the postseason using such guys — instead, teams add hired guns like Cliff Lee and Roy Oswalt as starters)
3. BETTER THAN AVERAGE RELIEF PITCHERS: think about how much more valuable Rivera is in the postseason, pitching nearly 12% of innings against the Twins after maybe 6% of innings in Yankee regular season wins. You can ensure that your better relievers pitch a higher percentage of innings.
So, better opponents who get to focus on their top players = much higher than average competition.
Pitchers benefit less because top position players are rested less often (think how odd it was to see Cervelli i there yesterday, and even that didn’t last the full game), but their competition is also stronger than in the regular season.