MLB 2024 playoffs: Ranking teams by World Series pressure

Which playoff team needs the most to win the World Series?

Fans of any team currently competing for the 2024 title would surely say, “Mine!” Still, each team has a different context that waxes and wanes with each season. Age of teams. Free agents come and go. The disappointments in the playoffs are piling up. Playoff absences are disruptive.

Each season we evaluate franchises using an old Bill James method of calculating “pressure points.” The basic version assumes that the more success a team has without winning everything, the greater the pressure. Only when they win it all will the pressure finally ease, the valve will be turned back on and everyone who follows this team can relax. That's why only Texas Rangers fans are in a state of pure relief right now – because Texas won last year.

This time we mixed things up a bit to take other forms of printing into account and create a new printing index. Let's see how it all turned out.