3 reasons Braves can win the World Series, 1 reason they won’t
By Josh Wilson
Braves perform well offensively in leverage situations
The MLB postseason is when games get intense, and every pitch matters. How your players have been able to perform under pressure in the regular season is a great indicator of how they might perform in the postseason, because the leveraged situations will be far more frequent in October than any other time of the year.
The Braves do have one thing going against them: They have not played in many leveraged situations. Their 2,684 plate attempts in medium and high-leverage situations are the second-least in the MLB, in large part because the Braves have been runaways and kept themselves out of tight games most of the regular season.
Inexperience with obstacles like that won't be an issue. Why? See point one. They have star power that can turn on the intensity at any given moment.
When the Braves have been faced with medium or high leverage situations, though, they've performed well.
In medium and high leverage situations, the Braves have the best OPS of any team (.883). That's not from a small selection of big hits, as the Braves also have the fifth-lowest strikeout rate in such situations, too.
On their heels are the Dodgers, who could be their only problem on the National League side of the bracket. The good news? The Dodgers are 10th-lowest in strikeout rate in such situations.