Craig Tomarkin / History & Historic Teams

Greatest Teams Ever: Part I  Part II Part III Part IV Greatest Non-Champion Teams Ever

THE GREATEST TEAMS OF ALL TIME - PART IV

Only a few objections were made about the previous list of the best 64 teams of all time. I sense that we are approaching consensus on this exciting endeavor. Perhaps this is the final list.

Part III of this analysis was based on the following formula, applied to regular season champions since 1893 (excluding the Federal League champs of 1914 and 1915):

Regular season winning pct * (runs scored/runs allowed)

I sorted them in descending order, giving us a rank ordered list of teams by best winning record weighted by indexed margin of victory. If anyone wants to read Parts I, II and III for more details, and for the wisdom behind the quest, I posted them at http://baseballguru.com/ctomarkin


To fine-tune the list, Paul Wendt made the suggestion to include postseason games, thus treating regular season and postseason games equally. This would certainly make a good tiebreaker between two equal regular season teams. It also creates a way to award World Series champs and penalize postseason losers. Thereby, reducing or perhaps eliminating the need to limit the list of eligible teams to "World Series winners only" for those who believe that a team must win it all to earn a spot among the elite.

In order to maintain an "apples to apples" comparison, the teams must be limited to those reaching the post season. Otherwise, a team finishing in first place, earning a spot in the postseason due to superior play, could end up with a worse final ranking than that assigned to the team it finished ahead of during the regular season.

Paul recognized that postseason opposition is above average, furthering the point about needing to limit the comparable teams to post season teams only. I took it a baby step further and limited the teams to first place finishers only, thus eliminating wild card teams since 1995. I did this to balance the number of teams eligible per year with historic levels. Most of this nit picking is moot, as variations of the analysis will show that teams not making the playoffs, were much less likely to earn a spot in the best ever list. A list of the exceptional non-champion teams will be provided along with their presumed rank if they had been included.

1893 was chosen as the starting point because it was the first year of modern rules with the pitchers mound at 60 feet 6 inches. Also, years previous to 1893 were typically dominated by one or two teams, which would skew the results. Who wants to read that the top ten teams were all in the 1800's?

Another issue is that it is widely agreed that players today are better than players of past eras. If that is true, how can team from the first decade of the twentieth century be among the greatest ever? Does some sort of weight need to be applied, forcing recent teams to sort near the top of the list?

The point is interesting to contemplate, but no attempt was made to apply this kind of weighting. In this analysis, the greatest teams of all time are defined as the most dominant ones.

The following formula was applied to regular season champions since 1893 (excluding the Federal League champs of 1914 and 1915):

Combined regular and post season winning pct * (runs scored/runs allowed)

Here is the finely tuned, grand list of the Greatest 64 Teams Ever, using the complete records including the postseason, for all regular season champions from 1893 through 2001 as discussed. The column labeled "CHG" indicates whether adding postseason performances helped or hurt the score.

Rank TEAM LG Year WS Score CHG
1 CHI N 1906 Lost 1.340 -
2 PIT N 1902 N/A 1.305
3 NY A 1939 Won 1.242 +
4 NY A 1927 Won 1.182 +
5 PIT N 1909 Won 1.106 -
6 NY N 1904 N/A 1.083
7 BAL N 1896 N/A 1.081 +
8 NY N 1905 Won 1.080 +
9 STL N 1942 Won 1.076 -
10 STL N 1944 Won 1.069 -
11 CHI N 1907 Won 1.063 +
12 NY A 1998 Won 1.063 +
13 PHI A 1910 Won 1.062 +
14 PHI A 1929 Won 1.022 +
15 BOS N 1897 N/A 1.017 -
16 BOS A 1912 Won 1.012 -
17 NY A 1942 Lost 1.011 -
18 CLE A 1954 Lost 1.010 -
19 BAL N 1895 N/A 0.995 -
20 BAL A 1969 Lost 0.995 -
21 SEA A 2001 DNP 0.993 -
22 CIN N 1919 Won 0.992 +
23 NY A 1937 Won 0.983 +
24 NY A 1932 Won 0.982 +
25 NY A 1936 Won 0.980 +
26 BOS N 1898 N/A 0.972
27 PHI A 1911 Won 0.967 +
28 NY N 1912 Lost 0.960 -
29 BAL A 1970 Won 0.954 +
30 NY A 1953 Won 0.953 -
31 CIN N 1975 Won 0.953 -
32 CLE A 1995 Lost 0.951 -
33 PHI A 1931 Lost 0.944 -
34 PIT N 1901 N/A 0.941
35 BAL N 1894 N/A 0.935 -
36 STL N 1943 Lost 0.932 -
37 BOS A 1903 Won 0.930 +
38 BRO N 1899 N/A 0.925
39 NY A 1961 Won 0.925 +
40 CLE A 1948 Won 0.921 -
41 ATL N 1998 DNP 0.916 -
42 CHI A 1917 Won 0.915 -
43 BRO N 1953 Lost 0.910 -
44 NY A 1938 Won 0.907 +
45 BOS A 1915 Won 0.901 +
46 CHI N 1910 Lost 0.899 -
47 CHI N 1935 Lost 0.892 -
48 NY N 1986 Won 0.891 -
49 CIN N 1976 Won 0.888 +
50 BAL A 1971 Lost 0.888 -
51 CHI N 1908 Won 0.882 +
52 NY A 1928 Won 0.881 +
53 PHI A 1914 Lost 0.879 -
54 LA N 1974 Lost 0.875 -
55 NY A 1947 Won 0.874 -
56 NY A 1941 Won 0.871 +
57 CHI N 1918 Lost 0.868 -
58 BOS A 1946 Lost 0.868 -
59 ATL N 1993 DNP 0.867 -
60 CLE A 1920 Won 0.865 +
61 HOU N 1998 DNP 0.863 -
62 NY A 1923 Won 0.862 +
63 BRO N 1941 Lost 0.861 -
64 NY N 1954 Won 0.861 +



Vindication! In the last installment I mentioned that in creating a set of the top 16 teams for my simulation game, I chose the 1942 Cardinals over the 1944 Cardinals, despite the teams reverse ranking in all of the previous formulas. My reasoning was based on Stan Musial's subjective opinion (being the key player on both teams) and factoring in the reduced level of competition during the war years. Supposedly, no formula could capture that truth.

While the new formula still does not factor in the reduced level of competition, it does capture some of Musial's preference for the World Series champion team. To my delight (and his), the addition of postseason performance boosted the 1942 Cardinals ahead of the 1944 team.

More vindication. Based on regular season performance, the 2001 Seattle Mariners managed to make it to #11 all-time. Using the previous methodology, their absence from the World Series was not a factor. I asserted that although based on regular season performances, the 1998 Yankees were ranked behind the Mariners (18th), they were the better team. I based that opinion on the feeling that the 1998 Yanks would find a way to beat the 2001 Mariners if they could play head to head. The list that includes postseason results, above, proves the Yankees superior.

For the math minded, here is how the revised system works. The 2001 Mariners were 116-46 with a run scored over runs allowed index of 1.48, giving them a regular season score of 1.059.

Meanwhile, the 1998 Yankees were 114-48 with a run scored over runs allowed index of 1.47, giving them a regular season score of 1.035. Under the previous system those are the final results.

However, a comparison of postseason performances completes the picture. During the post season, the Yankees were 11-2 with a run-scoring index of 1.82. This increased their final score to 1.063.

The Mariners by contrast fell apart in the postseason. They were 4-6 with a run-scoring index of 0.75. This dropped their final score to 0.993.

A simplified comparison of total won-loss records, which include postseason results, reveals the same assertion: Yankees 125-50, Mariners 120-52.

Also of interest is a list of the best teams by era. For more detail about the era designations, read my article about it at http://baseballguru.com/ctomarkin.

Rank TEAM LG Year WS Score CHG
Era 1, 1893: 7 BAL N 1896 N/A 1.081 +
Era 1, 1893: 15 BOS N 1897 N/A 1.017 -
Era 2, 1901: 1 CHI N 1906 Lost 1.34 -
Era 2, 1901: 2 PIT N 1902 N/A 1.305
Era 3, 1920: 3 NY A 1939 Won 1.242 +
Era 3, 1920: 4 NY A 1927 Won 1.182 +
Era 4, 1942: 9 STL N 1942 Won 1.076 -
Era 4, 1942: 10 STL N 1944 Won 1.069 -
Era 4, 1942: 17 NY A 1942 Lost 1.011 -
Era 4, 1942: 18 CLE A 1954 Lost 1.01 -
Era 5, 1961: 20 BAL A 1969 Lost 0.995 -
Era 5, 1961: 29 BAL A 1970 Won 0.954 +
Era 5, 1961: 39 NY A 1961 Won 0.925 +
Era 6, 1973: 31 CIN N 1975 Won 0.953 -
Era 6, 1973: 48 NY N 1986 Won 0.891 -
Era 6, 1973: 49 CIN N 1976 Won 0.888 +
Era 6, 1973: 54 LA N 1974 Lost 0.875 -
Era 7, 1993: 12 NY A 1998 Won 1.063 +
Era 7, 1993: 21 SEA A 2001 DNP 0.993 -
Era 7, 1993: 32 CLE A 1995 Lost 0.951 -
Era 7, 1993: 41 ATL N 1998 DNP 0.916 -

As promised, here are the diamonds in the rough. These are the top 16 teams among non-first place finishers since 1893. The "BestRank" indicates where they would conservatively fit in the overall list had the list been expanded to include all teams since 1893. In this scenario, teams with a "-" indicating postseason failure, retained their higher regular season score so as not to penalize them for facing above average competition.

BestRank TEAM LG Year score
6 CHI N 1909 1.107
25 BAL N 1897 0.991
28 BRO N 1942 0.983
34 BAL N 1898 0.965
39 NY A 1954 0.956
51 PHI A 1909 0.921
53 NY N 1908 0.910
54 CHI N 1905 0.907
80 PHI A 1928 0.863
81 OAK A 2001 0.842
82 NY A 1931 0.863
93 CHI A 1915 0.851
96 DET A 1915 0.846
102 BOS A 1949 0.837
105 CLE N 1895 0.836
109 CHI A 1954 0.833

Greatest Teams Ever: back to Part III continue to Greatest Non-Champion Teams Ever

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