Why do I struggle in the playoffs? Is there a secret to winning in the playoffs?

There are a number of possible reasons why a team may cruise through the regular season and then struggle in the post-season.

• Your opponent may have been in a very tough division or a division in which his team didn't match up well with his divisional opponents either due to style of play or ballpark, etc.
• Each team has the same amount of cash, unlike real baseball. It's very difficult to have teams dominate over the course of the season and truly be superior (more like the current NFL).
• There is no inherent home field advantage in the sim, e.g. we don't increase your stats simply because you're playing at home.
• There is no differentiation in the sim from regular season to the playoffs. Each game is treated the same.
• The sim does not employ any type of streaks (either for teams or players). Each game is treated the same.
• The sim is not aware of the owners or their records. Each game is treated the same.
• Even if you had a significant number of wins against a particular opponent in the regular season, that may not guarantee success in the playoffs. Your earlier success might have been due to the way the pitching matchups lined up for those series, changes to his team later in the season and/or more likely that he's simply relying on 2 pitchers throughout the playoffs which can level the playing field over a 5 game series.
• Fatigue is catching up to your players.

Here are the actual stats as of 10/1/2003:
Theme Leagues ONLY

Open Leagues

These statistics reflect the general increase in competition level in theme leagues. Overall the top 2 seeds will win 64.2% in theme leagues, 68.3% in open leagues and 67.2% overall.

*Keep in mind that the #4 seed (wildcard winner) could have up to the 2nd best record overall in that league whereas the #3 seed (division winner with the worst record) can have no better than the 3rd best record overall.