If one of your favorite fall traditions is watching the MLB postseason and griping about all the ways it's imperfect, you've come to the right place. The idea here is to think of how MLB's biggest problems could be solved once and for all. Among the issues that are ripe for scrutiny are the outsized influence of home runs, the steady flow of umpiring miscues, the diminished relevance of starting pitchers and the degree to which money has shaped the 2024 playoffs.
To be clear, there is no magic bullet for any of these issues. All of us should nonetheless be able to agree that it's in MLB's interest to try to fix them, as the potential reward is nothing short of a better product beloved by all. Yet before we get into it, let's start by acknowledging that this October has actually been a rough one for the griping enthusiasts among us.
I did a version of this same article in 2021 and again in 2023 . And both times, it wasn't hard to find things to winge about. That is not the case in 2024.
With the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers now in the World Series after entering the postseason as No. 1 seeds, the argument that MLB's 12-team playoff format unfairly punishes top seeds doesn't really land anymore. And the drama? It's been high indeed.
The average leverage index—which measures the pressure of a given moment based on potential swings in win expectancy—per plate appearance for the 2023 playoffs was 0.86 , well below the average of 1.0.
In 2024, it's over the line at .
