Three World Series in three years is remarkable. Winning 10 consecutive postseason series is remarkable. Winning four titles in five years is remarkable.

Since 1996, the Yankees are 51-17 in the postseason, a winning percentage of .750. That's higher than the Mariners' .716 regular-season mark of this year.

Now, that's remarkable.

Obviously, the Yankees haven't played anywhere near that pace during the regular season. Which means the team performs better during the postseason. Which means somebody steps it up. Or everybody.

Let's find out and compare the regular-season stats and postseason stats for the primary Yankees since they began their historic run in 1996. We'll use numbers from 1996 through 2000 only in both instances, including OPS (on-base + slugging) and at-bats per RBI and at-bats per HR. For Derek Jeter, Paul O'Neill, Tino Martinez, Bernie Williams and Jorge Posada, we checked '96-00. For Chuck Knoblauch and Scott Brosius, we checked since '98 (when they joined the Yankees).

             AVG   OBP   SLG   OPS  AB/RBI  AB/HR  
Jeter       .323  .396  .470  .866    7.6    39.5
postseason  .324  .398  .488  .886   11.6    30.5


O'Neill     .302  .374  .476  .850    5.4    28.4
postseason  .276  .349  .421  .769    8.6    42.8


Martinez    .278  .352  .486  .838    5.0    20.4        
postseason  .264  .352  .391  .743    9.2    44.0


Williams    .324  .410  .551  .961    5.0    20.5
postseason  .263  .378  .456  .834    6.2    20.7


Posada      .265  .371  .461  .832    6.3    22.9
postseason  .200  .339  .350  .689    8.3    33.3


Knoblauch   .280  .374  .418  .792   10.2    40.2
postseason  .250  .331  .329  .660   12.7    70.0


Brosius     .261  .328  .422  .750    6.3    28.3
postseason  .288  .336  .482  .818    5.8    19.9

Only two of the seven -- Jeter and Brosius -- have hit better in the playoffs. Here are the seven hitters, with their percentage increase or decrease in OPS:

Brosius     +9.0%
Jeter       +2.3%
O'Neill     -9.5%
Martinez   -11.3%
Williams   -13.2%
Knobluach  -16.7%
Posada     -17.2%

Is Scott Brosius the true Mr. October for the Yankees? In fact, he has 24 RBI (in 139 at-bats) in the three postseasons he's participated in. That's more than Jeter has in five postseasons (21), the same as Martinez and only one less than O'Neill. Only Bernie Williams has more (37), although Brosius has had a better RBI rate. Brosius won the 1998 World Series MVP award for his postseason efforts.

But, looking at the above numbers, it should be apparent the true genius of the October Yankees comes from the pitching staff. In fact:

                                 Reg. season  Postseason
Runs per game, 1996-2000           5.56         4.42
Runs allowed per game, '96-00      4.54         3.29

The numbers for the pitchers:

Pitcher    Years    W- L  Pct.  GS  IP/Start  ERA
Pettitte   '96-00  88-46  .657  164   6.3    3.96
                    8- 4  .667   18   6.3    4.23


El Duque   '98-00  41-26  .612   83   6.6    4.00
                    8- 1  .889   10   7.3    2.20


Clemens    '99-00  27-18  .600   62   6.3    4.13
                    4- 3  .571    7   6.4    3.22


Cone       '96-00  55-38  .591  131   6.3    3.93
                    5- 1  .833   10   6.1    3.55


Wells      '97-98  34-14  .708   62   7.0    3.85
                    5- 0 1.000    5   7.9    3.18


Rivera     '96-00  28-14  .667               2.13
                    3- 0 1.000               0.78


Mendoza    '96-00  38-26  .594               4.27
                    2- 1  .667               2.77


Stanton    '97-00  14- 7  .667               4.17
                    3- 0 1.000               1.84


Nelson     '96-00  22-19  .537               3.41
                    2- 2  .500               3.69

Sorry, you Kenny Rogers fans can figure his numbers on your own. Let's present the increase or decrease in ERA from the postseason compared to the regular season:

Rivera      -63.4%
Stanton     -55.9%
El Duque    -45.0%
Mendoza     -35.1%
Clemens     -22.0%
Wells       -17.4%
Cone        - 9.7%
Pettitte    + 6.8%
Nelson      + 8.2%

Not surprisingly, the bullpen duo of Mariano Rivera and Mike Stanton have "stepped it up" the most, along with Orlando Hernandez. Andy Pettitte's ERA, heading into this postseason, had actually been worse in the playoffs than in the regular season.

One other stat: In 62 postseason games from 1996-2000, the Yankees allowed just nine unearned runs. Their opponents allowed 38.

So, while Derek Jeter continues to get most of the publicity -- and he has been terrific in October -- it should be noted that the most valuable October Yankee, at least in this writer's opinion, has been the great Mariano Rivera.

David Schoenfield is the baseball editor at ESPN.com.