Outpitching Peripherals in the Postseason

The FanGraphs Newsletter, October 19, 2023 [READ IN BROWSER]( October 19, 2023 This postseason, pitchers have allowed a .311 wOBA and a 3.74 ERA, down from .318 and 4.33 during the regular season. That part’s not terribly surprising. Since the start of the Wild Card era in 1995, the league’s postseason ERA is 3.85, nearly half a run below the regular season ERA of 4.29. The thing that caught my eye was that this year’s .311 wOBA is 21 points lower than its .332 xwOBA. In fact, for as long as we’ve been calculating xwOBA, wOBA has underperformed it in the playoffs: This year’s gap is the largest, but it’s hardly an outlier. There’s a big gap between ERA and FIP during the postseason. Pitchers have outperformed their FIP 24 times in the last 29 postseasons. Over that period, they’ve run an ERA of 3.85 and a FIP of 4.15. They’re performing better overall, but they’re also outpitching their FIP to the tune of .3 runs per game. I started thinking about the causes that might explain these discrepancies, and I realized that our [new postseason leaderboards]( would allow us to break them down in some cool new ways. [READ MORE]( [Making Quick Adjustments Comes Naturally to Evan Carter]( The rookie Rangers outfielder had two strikeouts last night but rebounded with a fantastic at-bat in his third shot against Cristian Javier. | by Esteban Rivera [Astros Get One Back, Foil Mad Max's Return in 8–5 Game 3 Win]( After dropping the first two games of the series at home, the Astros took one on the road with a breakout offensive showing and a no-no flirtation. | by Alex Eisert [Adam Wainwright Explains the Sweeper: A Close Reading]( Brushing up on the basics of one of baseball's not-so-new pitches. | by Tess Taruskin 🎧 [Effectively Wild Episode 2074: Who Had it First?]( [DOWNLOAD THE FANGRAPHS APP]( [FanGraphs & Effectively Wild Merch Is Now Available at BreakingT!]( [ORDER HERE]( [Clutch gene? The hot hand? What the numbers say about old-school playoff beliefs]( by Eno Sarris, The Athletic ($) [How Lovullo and Hazen's bond has endured]( by Alden Gonzalez, ESPN [3 biggest questions for today's LCS games]( by Will Leitch, MLB [NLCS Game 3 Preview: Brandon Pfaadt and Chase Field Will Try To Stop the Homers]( by Rob Mains, Baseball Prospectus ($) [@fangraphs]( [FanGraphs]( [FanGraphs]( [RSS]( [FORWARD]( [SUBSCRIBE]( Copyright © 2023 FanGraphs Inc, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you subscribed to the FanGraphs Newsletter. Our mailing address is: FanGraphs Inc 1200 N Hartford St. Apt 312Arlington, Va 22201 [Add us to your address book]( Want to change how you receive these emails? You can [update your preferences]( or [unsubscribe from this list](