#5/6 Seeded Teams

#61 1993 Los Angeles Dodgers

Original Season Record: 81-81,  .500, 4th place, NL West

Star Attractions: Catcher Mike Piazza was pretty much a one band for the Dodgers offence, accumulating 7.0 WAR, homering 35 times, and driving in 112 runs while hitting .318 with a .932 OPS.  Knuckleballer Tom Candiotti was the best of a strong group of starting pitchers with a 3.12 ERA in 213.6 innings.

Also Featuring: The rest of the rotation was good, too, with Orel Hershiser leading the team in innings, and winning 12 games with a 3.59 ERA, and Ramon Martinez posting a 3.44 ERA to go with 10 victories.  Young future Hall-of-Famer Pedro Martinez also made a strong career impression with a 2.61 ERA and 119 strikeouts in 107 innings, covering 63 relief appearances and two starts. 

Potential Pitfalls:  Offence was a big struggle for Los Angeles with only two starting position players having an OPS+ of better than 100.  To show how little help Piazza had within the everyday lineup, the Dodgers' starting catcher accumulated more than 3.5 times as much WAR as the second best player (Brett Butler 1.8). In fact all other position players combined for the Dodgers had less than the 7 war Piazza achieved by himself.

#5 2016 Houston Astros

Original Season Record: 84-78 .519, 3rd place, AL West

Star Attractions: The Astros featured a dynamite middle infield duo in second baseman Jose Altuve and Carlos Correa who both accumulated 7 or more WAR that season.  Altuve won the batting title with a .338 mark. scoring 108 runs, whacking 42 doubles and stealing 30 bases, while leading the team with a .928 OPS.  Correa hit 20 homers and 36 doubles to go along with exceptional defensive play.

Also Featuring: George Springer led the league in plate appearances with 744, led Houston with 116 runs scored, swatting both 29 doubles and 29 homers.  Chris Devenski was the secret weapon on the pitching staff, making five starts and 43 relief appearances across 108.3 innings, striking out 104, while achieving a glittering 2.16 ERA.

Potential Pitfalls: Starting pitching was a big weakness of this team with the four most used starters all having ERAs of 4.34 or higher.  The bullpen was really good, but at the same time overworked.  There was also a ton of swing and miss on offence with seven hitters striking out at least 100 times and five topping 120 Ks. When the home runs are not flying for Houston, The offence is prone to severe slumps.