You never know

Now and again I see comments when a Wild Card team wins a championship about some strat bias, etc. and I just finished a season where my 78 win team won the championship, a team that I all but, given up on since very early in the season, I thought I would look a little deeper.

I was very surprised to make the playoffs (in by 1 game on the last day of the season) and that league had 3 very powerful teams with a 101 win division winner a 96 win division winner and a 99 win WC. Not only was my team not winning, it was behind most of the season despite being in a very weak division. We were down 5 after game 128. I was happy to make the playoffs and did not figure on winning anything after that. But, we swept the 101 win, 23 games better than me team in the semi's then beat the 99 win WC team in 7 for the championship.

What I did noticed was that the 101-61 team was only 8-8 in the last 16 games, not great. That the 99 win WC team was only 11-10 in his last 21, again not great. My team (after a minor lineup change for game 129) had played .606 ball down the stretch when it mattered most. Was it an upset or momentum?

It's was hard collecting those credits after that 78 win season. We did so with our heads bowed.

Good luck all.

Very often a good team, starts off really good and never makes a lot of changes, while a bad team has to flip a lot players and make a lot of moves just to get into the playoffs. So, by the time of the playoffs, the wild card team, despite being the wild card, is actually a much better team on paper when looking at all the players and their years than all of the other playoff teams. As a result, wild card teams win it all more often than you would expect a wild card team to win.

After looking at all the actual player years now that the season is over it is pretty clear that...

that is NOT the case here. How on Earth did you beat me?

Just kidding.... mostly. you played well.

Congratulations on winning.

It wasn't a wild card team, but my first 70s Mystery League championship occurred with a team that was 15-30 after the first 45 games, but I made some roster changes which included picking up the '72 Steve Carlton, which just may be the best pitcher's card of the 70s game (it's amazing to think that he was a 27 game winner with a team that won only 59 games that season). http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/PHI/1972.shtml

I was in an admittedly weak division, but I finished first with an 83-79 record, so my team had a 68-49 record after the roster changes. So the team which came into the playoffs was not an 83 win team, but a team which had a 0.581 winning percentage in the 117 games leading to the post season.

The team that I competed against in the championships had a monster 115-47 record for the season. Before the finals, our teams had the best home records of the twelve teams in the league, and when the Finals arrived, my opponent had home field advantage. When I won the first two games of the playoffs away from home, I thought I had it made, but then he went on to sweep me the next three games at home. I won Game 6 behind Carlton, but then came Game 7, and I ended up starting Alan Foster, who had a so-so season up to that point. Well, he pitched well enough for the win, and then I learn following the reveal of the seasons that I had Foster's '73 season, his best.

So during that seven game Finals, the visiting team won every single game.

Like the saying goes, it's better to be lucky than good, and I freely admit to being lucky at that time.

After looking at all the actual player years now that the season is over it is pretty clear that...

that is NOT the case here. How on Earth did you beat me?

I just took a look at the cards I had for this season and I do not know how that team won 78 games much less Everything. I didn't have a primo card of the bunch. Overachievers one and all.

Strat, you have to love it!