No Series Sweeps in 2010 World Series!

Playoff Team Performance
Team	Rank	Season WL %	Rank	Sweep Factor	Rank	Playoff W-L
Giants	5	0.568	8	133	1	11-4
Rangers	8	0.556	5	150	2	8-8
Phillies	1	0.599	3	367	3	5-4
Yankees	3	0.586	4	300	4	5-4
Rays	2	0.593	2	450	5	2-3
Braves	6	0.562	6	160	6	1-3
Reds	7	0.58	7	133	7	0-3
Twins	4	0.562	1	550	8	0-3

In prior posts, seriesweep.blogspot.com reviewed the 2010 season through the Divisional Playoffs.  From a series sweep perspective, the 2010 MLB Championship Series and World Series were of no consequence. The Texas Rangers beat the New York Yankees 4-2 in the American League Championship Series.  The San Francisco Giants bested the Philadelphia Phillies by a similar 4-2 game record.  The Giants went on to beat the Rangers 4-1 to win the 2010 World Series.

But the 2010 MLB Playoffs overall results do provide some “food for thought” for interpreting the implication of our favorite new statistic, the Sweep Factor or SF. As displayed in the chart above, we list the eight playoff teams with their respective performance statistics in three areas – Season Won/Loss Percentage, Season Sweep Factor Value and Playoff Won/Loss Record.  In addition, we show each team’s relative rank for each of the measurements.

A cursory examination brings to mind Matthew 20:16: “So the first shall be last and the last shall be first”.  The Giants as World Series winners ranked first in playoff wins and losses with a record of 11-4.  They finished the season with the worst Sweep Factor rating of 133 for all the teams in the playoffs. Paradoxically, The Twins performed exactly the opposite with MLB’s best Sweep Factor rating of 550 and a tie with the Reds for the worst playoff W/L result of 0-3.

Another curiosity is the underachievement of the Phillies with MLB’s best season record of .599 and not getting to the World Series.  More study is needed to see if the Giants who were on a roll at the end of the 2010 season performed well in Sweep Factor for the September and October.

Well, Opening Day is less than a month away, there’ll be plenty more games to ponder and analyze.