First round playoff exits are piling up... also, lost a play-in game a couple days ago.

Dodgers~88~Padres	Theme	MLB129157	90-72	Division Series Runner-Up	L: 3 - 2	[none]
Lefebvre Fever	Theme	MLB129158	88-74	Division Series Runner-Up	L: 8 - 6	[none]
Murphy's Lawn	Theme	MLB129102	97-65	Division Series Runner-Up	L: 9 - 1	[none]
Nuf Ced Ronny	Theme	MLB129072	86-76	Division Series Runner-Up	L: 3 - 2	[none]
Shama Lama Ding Dong	Theme	MLB129002	90-72	Division Series Runner-Up	L: 5 - 4	[none]
White Walshed Sox 1916	Theme	MLB129010	88-74	Division Series Runner-Up	L: 18 - 1	[none]

Watch out for the curse of the "best record". Have experienced that often.
Also, dont know if who you played rested and played partial year cookies (i.e. 1988 Milacki). (Legal but nothing you can do about it)
WIS seems to be a bit more streaky over the past 12-18 months..maybe just me. But if you went into the playoffs on fire, it usually reverses.

Short series continue to be very unpredictable. Road teams usually win more than home teams. Streaks will happen. We are dealing with an algorithm that uses 100 sided dice. I just used '15 Rich Hill to start a deciding TOC Final game. Nothing wrong with stashing a guy for key games.

the more my teams win in the regular season, the lower the chance they reach the WS (assuming the make the playoffs in the first place). the best regular season teams are constructed differently; more depth and B+ players across the board. the best playoff teams make good use of not only cookies like Milacki and Hill, but well-rested platoon guys. I do this a lot and it happens in real life too - look at Howie Kendrick last year for the Nats or what Giancarlo Stanton is doing for the Yanks right now. Is that really any different than stashing a 200 PA guy in AAA the whole season and getting max usage out of him in high leverage games?

one approach I've been doing more recently: downgrade the back end of your rotation to innings-eaters. a three headed monster rotation might mean you win 110, but I'd rather have two absolute studs and an innings eater, who win 100. if you're confident enough that your team will still perform, and get close to .500 performance from those guys, you can lean on the better players in the postseason. in fact, it's what the Yankees should have done with JA Happ last night - let him throw 10 garbage starts in the regular season then stash him on the bench for October!

I share your sorrow. In the last 9 teams of mine making the playoffs, 7 of them have been defeated in the Divisional Series (at least one, and I think two of them teams having over 100 wins with the overall best record). Might have to consider tpistolas' strategy.