The Milwaukee Brewers offense in 2023 has not been great. They rank near the bottom in batting average, on base-percentage, slugging, and OPS. Despite this they are currently on top of the National League Central division and would be a playoff team if the season ended today.
In a post from Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel he highlighted an offensive statistic called OPS+. This stat adjusts OPS for park factors and is weighted against the league average. 100 in this instance indicates “league average”, but the Brewers OPS+ this season is 13 points below average at 87.
An OPS+ of 87 is very rare among playoff teams and often does not bode well/translate into post-season success. Here is how other teams with bad offenses have fared in the past.
Milwaukee Brewers: One demoralizing team offensive stat (87 OPS+) that will crush fans hopes.
Since 1973 only two teams have made the playoffs with an OPS+ as low as the 2023 Milwaukee Brewers. This does exclude the shortened 2020 season, but over the last 50 years the teams that have made it to October with bad offenses (indicated by OPS+) have won just seven total playoff games.
This does not bode well for the Brewers. It is too late in the season to drastically change the Brewers OPS+ stat, so they are looking to defy the odds and become the third team since 1973 to make the playoffs with a bad OPS+. If they do make it the odds of winning a playoff game are also quite low.
Overall this is crushing news in regards to the potential outcome of the Brewers 2023 season, but baseball is a strange sport. There are a lot of ways to win baseball games and the Brewers clearly have a formula figured out.
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