The Baseball Guru - THE GREATEST TEAMS OF ALL TIME by Craig Tomarkin

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

It seems to me that a team cannot be considered the greatest team ever if it did not at least make it to the World Series. So, in my list of contenders, I would not inlude any Texas Rangers or Montreal Expos team as mlb.com and whatifsports did in setting up their publicized tournament in 2002. Although I respect the fan appeal aspect, I don't want to diminish the question of finding the best 64 teams.

There are those who will argue that making the World Series is not enough, you have to win it. I respect that opinion. It should be noted, as many of you are already aware, that a best of seven series is not a big enough sample size to determine who's better statistically. Although, there is something intangible about coming up big when its all on the line. Much like the age old question "If it's one game, who's gonna be your pithcher?" As a Met fan, I pick Doc Gooden in 1985, but that's another story.

In this case, we are not only looking for the best team ever, but a field of 64. It should be obvious to most that it is possible that the 64th best World Series winner may not be as good as the best loser, simply because it is possible for the two best teams to have existed in the same year. As a result, my list of the best 64 includes World Series losers. The best team was the 1939 Yankees, a winner in every sense of the word. Since whatif sports did not include this team, I consider their whole excercise a waste of time. Although I will be interested to see who they claim is the winner to determine how good their simulation is among the group they chose.

I simulate baseball using my own system. A game that I created. The computer version, which I have not circulated to the public yet, is very good. I do provide a board game version for free on my web site (baseballguru.com) for people to print out and try if they like. It is not as accurate as the computer version because of the limitations imposed by using three six-sided dice and the use of pitchers grades rather than straight pitcher to batter in the raw.

Before I give my list of the top 64 teams, I will explain how I determined them. I took the 194 World Series teams through 2001. Among those, I applied the following formula:

regular season winning pct * [(runs scored - runs allowed) / Games played]

I sorted them in descending order, giving us a list of teams by best winning record weighted by average margin of victory.

ENJOY!

Rank TeamLG Year Result score

1 NY A 1939 W 1.898
2 NY A 1927 W 1.732
3 CHI N 1906 L 1.595
4 NY A 1936 W 1.437
5 NY A 1998 W 1.342
6 PHI A 1929 W 1.313
7 NY A 1937 W 1.299
8 NY A 1942 L 1.277
9 NY A 1932 W 1.239
10 STL N 1944 W 1.225
11 NY N 1905 W 1.217
12 STL N 1942 W 1.204
13 PIT N 1909 W 1.192
14 BRO N 1953 L 1.170
15 PHI A 1911 W 1.144
16 BOS A 1912 W 1.144
17 CLE A 1995 L 1.123
18 CLE A 1954 L 1.118
19 NY N 1912 L 1.116
20 NY A 1953 W 1.103
21 CLE A 1948 W 1.091
22 BAL A 1969 L 1.088
23 PHI A 1931 L 1.068
24 DET A 1934 L 1.065
25 NY A 1938 W 1.062
26 CHI N 1935 L 1.054
27 CIN N 1975 W 1.046
28 DET A 1935 W 1.029
29 PHI A 1910 W 1.018
30 NY A 1921 L 1.005
31 BOS A 1903 W 0.953
32 CHI N 1910 L 0.934
33 CHI N 1929 L 0.926
34 NY A 1956 W 0.925
35 LA N 1974 L 0.922
36 BRO N 1949 L 0.921
37 NY A 1947 W 0.919
38 NY A 1950 W 0.915
39 PHI A 1914 L 0.906
40 BRO N 1941 L 0.905
41 NY N 1911 L 0.899
42 BAL A 1970 W 0.898
43 NY A 1928 W 0.890
44 CLE A 1920 W 0.888
45 NY A 1961 W 0.888
46 STL N 1943 L 0.886
47 CIN N 1976 W 0.871
48 CIN N 1919 W 0.862
49 BRO N 1955 W 0.862
50 PHI A 1930 W 0.860
51 BAL A 1971 L 0.857
52 BOS A 1946 L 0.857
53 STL N 1931 W 0.856
54 NY A 1923 W 0.853
55 STL N 1930 L 0.853
56 NY N 1924 L 0.853
57 NY N 1986 W 0.844
58 NY A 1941 W 0.837
59 CHI N 1907 W 0.836
60 CHI N 1945 L 0.833
61 PIT N 1903 L 0.830
62 PHI A 1913 W 0.828
63 NY N 1921 W 0.815
64 PIT N 1925 W 0.800

Greatest Teams Ever: continue to Part II