MLB Playoffs 2020 Bracket Math

Coming off forecasting the Miami Heat to come out of the East in the ongoing NBA playoffs, the MLB playoffs are now upon us, and I'm using my play-by-play MLB simulator to project this year's unique mess of a playoffs. Since the 3 Wild Card game matchups are set, I used the top 3 starting pitchers from each rotation pitching on short rest throughout the playoffs (Game 4 starter = Game 1 starter, for example).

Multiple wrinkles make this year way more wide open than ever before:

• 16 teams. Largest field ever
• Best-of-3 series in the first round! Extremely high variance possible
• No fans + 1st round all at home parks, but then neutral site in other rounds
• No off days during rounds

On the best-of-3 series: an illustration with the best team in baseball, the Los Angeles Dodgers. They're heavy favorites in each game against the Milwaukee Brewers, their round one opponent, on average winning any one game 64.9% of the time. In their first round, best-of-3 series, they are favored to win 69.3% of the time. However, if the same matchup was in a best-of-5, this would increase to 74.4%. And in a best-of-7, it would increase to 77.8%.

On home field, or lack thereof: home field advantage has decreased over time as of late. So in the first round (at home ballparks), should I use the last 5 years, an implied win percent bump of 1.2%? Or my original estimate of 2%? Ultimately I stuck with this season's abnormally high 2.2% rate, even with no fans. But what about the neutral sites? I relied on some research I did awhile ago that showed that the effect of batting second gives the "home" team a 1.5% advantage by itself. So 2.2% in the Wild Card round, 1.5% in all other rounds for the higher seeds.

Seed	League	Team	WC	DS	CS	WS
1	AL	TBR	52.9%	21.4%	9.5%	3.8%
8	AL	TOR	47.1%	16.1%	5.9%	1.9%
4	AL	CLE	54.0%	34.4%	20.0%	10.4%
5	AL	NYY	46.0%	28.0%	15.8%	7.9%
3	AL	MIN	63.5%	36.3%	20.8%	10.7%
6	AL	HOU	36.5%	15.7%	5.6%	1.9%
2	AL	OAK	45.3%	19.5%	7.5%	2.7%
7	AL	CHW	54.7%	28.6%	15.0%	7.5%
Seed	League	Team	WC	DS	CS	WS
1	NL	LAD	69.3%	41.8%	26.3%	16.5%
8	NL	MIL	30.7%	11.0%	4.0%	1.4%
4	NL	SDP	52.7%	25.0%	12.8%	6.5%
5	NL	STL	47.3%	22.2%	11.9%	6.3%
3	NL	CHC	55.7%	29.0%	13.2%	6.6%
6	NL	MIA	44.3%	17.8%	6.2%	2.4%
2	NL	ATL	61.3%	34.5%	17.5%	9.7%
7	NL	CIN	38.7%	18.7%	8.0%	3.6%

Takeaways:

• Dodgers are the clear favorites, but in this chaotic environment someone else still wins ~84% of the time
• The top 2 seeds in the AL, the Rays and Athletics, really look like paper tigers (the White Sox are really good is part of it)
• Indians/Yankees is the best matchup of the first round
• The Marlins have a 97.6% chance of losing a playoff series for the first time in franchise history, thanks to 2020
• There is an absurd level of advertisement on MLB's official bracket