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With the 2012 postseason underway, Alex Remington takes  a look at the statistics that might make a difference in each of the four first-round series. Next up is the NLCS, which begins Sunday night at AT&T Park and features a matchup of the NL West champion San Francisco Giants and NL wild card champion St. Louis Cardinals.

-4 The Giants' run differential against the Reds in their five-game NLDS victory. The Reds had a .716 team OPS and the Giants had just a .606 OPS, and the Reds had a 3.13 team ERA while the Giants had a 4.11 team ERA. The Reds did everything better than the Giants except win.

(Getty Images)

With the 2012 postseason underway, Alex Remington takes  a look at the statistics that might make a difference in each of the four first-round series. Next up is the ALCS, which begins Saturday night in the Bronx and features a rematch of the 2011 ALDS — the AL East champion New York Yankees against the AL Central champion Detroit Tigers.

$114 million The amount of money, from 2013 to 2017, that the Yankees still owe Alex Rodriguez, the man they pinch hit for in Games 3 and 4 and then benched for Game 5.  The 37-year old Rodriguez was famous for his lack of playoff success with the Yankees before he got old and rickety (that's not entirely fairly; including this year, his career Yankee playoff OPS is still  .830). But the team is starting to treat him like a part-time player and one wonders what the Yankees will do with him since all of the Tigers starters are righthanded. Never mind his next five seasons in the Bronx, the soap opera that will take place against Detroit should be fun.

[Related: Alex Rodriguez becomes $29 million pinch hitter]

With the regular season over, many teams are facing an offseason filled with golf rounds and hot-stove strategy.

But we're not going to let them get off that easy. No sir. No way. In an attempt to bring some closure between franchise and follower, we're giving a blogger from each team the opportunity to give a concession speech for this year's squad. Up next is Alex Remington of Braves Journal, Fangraphs and Big League Stew fame.

My fellow Braves fans:

Today is not a day of sadness, but of affirmation. Though our ultimate celebration of the 2012 season will not occur on the fading green of autumn fields, it occurs here, today, in each of our hearts and memories. It has been a good season, and we have been fortunate indeed to bear witness to it.

We said goodbye to Chipper Jones, who has been a Brave for 22 years, and true to form, he had one of the greatest farewell seasons in baseball history. The team will badly miss him — he led the team in on-base percentage — but it's always better to retire a year too soon than a year too late. Someone might want to pass that memo to Rafael Furcal.

With the 2012 postseason underway,  Alex Remington takes  a look at the statistics that might make a difference in each of the four first-round series. Last up is the ALDS featuring the AL East champion New York Yankees and the AL wild card champion Baltimore Orioles. The first two games of the series will be held at Camden Yards and the first pitch of Game 1 is scheduled for 6:07 ET on Sunday night.

245 The Yankees' major league-leading homer total, the third time in the last four years that the Yankees have led the majors in that category. As a matter of fact, it's the most home runs that the Bronx Bombers have ever hit as a team — one more than the 244 that they hit in 2009, and five more than the 240 that they hit in 1961. Those are the only three times the franchise ever cleared the 240 home run mark as a team. These Yankees hit homers, and lots of 'em.

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With the 2012 postseason underway,  Alex Remington takes  a look at the statistics that might make a difference in each of the four first-round series. Next up is the NLDS featuring the NL West champion San Francisco Giants against the NL Central champion Cincinnati Reds. The first two games will be held at AT&T Park and the first pitch of Game 1 is scheduled for 9:37 ET on Saturday night.

2.65 The Reds' bullpen ERA, best in the majors. And it wasn't all Aroldis Chapman, either: The ERA of all Reds relievers other than Chapman was 2.88, which would have been tied for third in baseball this year, and with the Braves eliminated, it's still better than the bullpen of any other remaining playoff team. They received terrific work from rookies Tony Cingrani and J.J. Hoover, and veterans like Jonathan Broxton, Sean Marshall, and Jose Arredondo. The Reds had seven different relievers who pitched at least 30 innings with an ERA under 3.50, and Broxton was a midseason trade acquisition who gave them 22 1/3 innings of 2.82 ERA ball. If you're going to score on the Reds, score early.

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With the 2012 postseason underway,  Alex Remington takes  a look at the statistics that might make a difference in each of the four first-round series. First up is the ALDS featuring the AL West champion Oakland A's against the AL Central champion Detroit Tigers. The first two games will be held at Comerica Park and the first pitch of Game 1 is scheduled for 6:07 ET on Saturday night.

.761 The Oakland A's team OPS with two outs, second-best in baseball behind only the Rockies — and better than their overall team OPS of .714. For some reason, the Athletics are much better with their backs against the wall than they are with no outs on the board.

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As the postseason opens with its first-ever wild-card games,  Alex Remington takes  a look at the statistics that might make a difference in each do-or-die contest. Next up: The American League game featuring the Baltimore Orioles visiting the Texas Rangers. First pitch is scheduled for 8:37 p.m. ET  with the game broadcast on TBS.

71 The average number of wins for the Baltimore Orioles since 1997, their last playoff appearance, to 2011. Back then, the 98-win Orioles were led by Davey Johnson (current manager of the Nationals) Cal Ripken, Brady Anderson, Rafael Palmeiro, B.J. Surhoff and Mike Mussina. These days, their leaders have been Adam Jones, Matt Wieters, J.J. Hardy, Chris Davis and Wei-Yin Chen. To put it mildly, it's been a team affair. But you don't win 93 games by accident, especially not in the AL East.

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As the postseason opens with its first-ever wild-card games,  Alex Remington takes  a look at the statistics that might make a difference in each do-or-die contest. First up: The National League game featuring the St. Louis Cardinals visiting the Atlanta Braves. First pitch is scheduled for 5:07 p.m. ET  with the game broadcast on TBS.

23 The number of consecutive Kris Medlen starts that the Braves have won. That's the most in history — Whitey Ford and Carl Hubbell were each tied with 22. Kris Medlen has pitched parts of four seasons, and in 315 2/3 career innings he has a 2.85 ERA. After spending the first half of the 2012 season in the bullpen, Medlen was moved to the rotation, and in his 12 starts he pitched 83 2/3 innings (averaging seven per start), with an ERA of 0.97, a WHIP of 0.80, and 84 strikeouts against just 10 walks. He may not actually be the best pitcher in baseball, but no one in baseball is pitching better than him right now. Except possibly the guy who could close