Best of BP: The 101 Most Dominant Teams of All Time: 1

This text was initially revealed on July 11, 2023.

We mentioned this undertaking and our scoring in this text. You possibly can learn the complete archive of the collection (introduction and summaries) right here. Right here’s the champion.

1 1998 New York Yankees

Document: 114-48, 22.0 video games forward of Boston, 25.0 forward of Cleveland, 26.0 forward of Texas and Toronto. Their 114 wins are essentially the most wins in franchise historical past, second solely to the 2001 Mariners within the enlargement period. The what-could-have-been of all that is that the Yankees slowed within the season’s last quarter, their profitable share dropping from .750 to a comparatively pedestrian .571. The Yankees began the season with three straight losses to the Angels and the A’s. After the workforce’s early exit from the 1997 postseason, this appeared to recommend that the workforce’s 1996 championship could be a one-off. “Everyone in right here appears like we’re going to return again,” David Cone mentioned because the newspapers tried to fire up the same old Bronx drama. The relentless profitable quickly started. The Pedro Martinez/Flash Gordon/Nomar Garciaparra/Mo Vaughn-powered Purple Sox saved tempo early on, however they lacked New York’s extraordinary depth and consistency. By the season’s one-third mark the Yankees had a division lead of 8.5 video games. Their lead reached double figures for good on June 24 (recreation no. 71), and the Yankees clinched on August 29, the earliest date in workforce historical past. (53 factors)

Postseason: Received the Division Collection over Texas, three video games to none. Received the Championship Collection over Cleveland, 4 video games to 2. Received the World Collection over the San Diego Padres, 4 video games to none. In his memoir The Yankee Years co-written by Tom Verducci, supervisor Joe Torre remembered that the workforce temper was very tense going into the postseason as a result of there was an consciousness that if it didn’t win its regular-season efficiency would by some means be discounted—a lot because the 1954 Cleveland and 2001 Seattle groups have been earlier than and after them, respectively. As such, it’s notable that most of the workforce’s veteran hitters carried out comparatively poorly within the World Collection. It was attribute of this explicit roster that it had a fallback place. Rookie outfielder Ricky Ledee would show to be a replacement-level participant in a 10-year profession, however nobody can take the World Collection away from him. Left off the Division Collection roster and 0-for-5 within the ALCS, Ledee performed in all 4 video games of the finals and went 6-for-10 with three doubles. The Collection MVP, although, was third baseman Scott Brosius, who mixed excellent protection with a .471 common (8-for-17) and two dwelling runs, these hit in back-to-back at-bats in Sport 3; the latter, a three-run shot hit within the high of the eighth in opposition to future Corridor of Famer Trevor Hoffman, erased a 3-2 Padres lead. In distinction to the extra skilled ace, Yankees nearer Mariano Rivera allowed six hits and no runs 13 ⅓ postseason innings. (25 factors). 

Runs Scored/Allowed: Scored 5.96 runs per recreation, Tenth-most ever, most within the league. Allowed 4.05 runs per recreation, fewest within the league, practically a half-a-game fewer than the second-best Purple Sox. Run differential 1.91 runs per recreation, Tenth-highest in a full season, second-highest (behind the 2022 Dodgers) since World Struggle II. Regardless of the primary manifestation of the throwing yips that might ultimately power second baseman Chuck Knoblauch to the outfield, the Yankees additionally led the league in defensive effectivity. (29 factors)

A lot of occasions now, baseball has seemingly aired its last episode, wrapping up all its main plot strains and coming to a pure stopping level. The 1998 season, wherein the game’s most cherished file was obliterated and a believable candidate for the best workforce of all time gained the World Collection, appeared to be one. The present went on anyway, as a result of like Batman or Spider-Man comedian books the demand for brand new content material is just too nice to let the story finish, despite the fact that all tales require an ending to have that means. This turned out to be an excellent factor, as a result of to complete the baseball saga with 1998 would have been to conclude on a type of lie. The most recent likelihood got here in 2016, when the Cubs gained the World Collection. Watching one thing that had been so lengthy caught develop into unstuck supplied the sport’s final out there catharsis. As soon as once more, baseball went on, this time with a brand new theme—bare rent-seeking from its homeowners. It would proceed on on this vein till it finds some new function, be it the reintegration of its ranks with Individuals of shade, the shattering of its last barrier, that of gender, or its last exportation to, and flowering in, another heretofore unimagined nation, the place regularly it would stop to be primarily American as an exhausted Rome was outmoded by Byzantium.

The 1998 season, billed as the best season ever on the time, not only for the Yankees however the totality of it, the one that might convey Individuals again to the sport after Bud Selig’s 1994-1995 march of folly, is now at the very least partially poisonous. Just like the land round Chernobyl, it has been sealed off. The query, then, is whether or not the 1998 Yankees are proof against the disillusioned disappointment that a lot of the remainder of that season now invokes.

The excellent news is that, except for Andy Pettitte’s admitted dabbling with human progress hormone, the workforce has been exempted from subsequent revelations about juicing. It might be naïve to imagine that simply because nobody has spoken up the Yankees have been by some means faraway from the tradition wherein they existed. That mentioned, this was a workforce with a refined strategy that wasn’t constructed round brutalizing baseballs. The Yankees hit over 200 dwelling runs, however that wasn’t outsized energy for the time. Nor did this workforce attempt to overawe hitters with energy pitching. In our final entry we quoted a recent reflection on the 1927 Yankees: “They don’t simply beat you; they break your coronary heart.” Evaluate that to what Padres hitting coach Merv Rettenmund mentioned after the Yankees had swept his workforce within the World Collection: “New York’s not a workforce that blows you away. They only play baseball and beat you any means they should.” Oakland’s Billy Beane put the identical thought in a extra elegant framework to Verducci: “They did it with class. It was as in the event that they beat you in rented tuxedos.”

Once more, elegant doesn’t equal drug-free. There have been probably at the very least just a few Yankees with needles of their posteriors, however this wasn’t a roster of massive, muscle-bound sluggers. Gamers like Derek Jeter, Scott Brosius, Bernie Williams, and Paul O’Neill have been versatile and athletic, and Torre emphasised what was then known as a Nationwide League fashion of play, with a concentrate on the hit and run. The Yankees have been fourth within the AL in homers (207) however first in on-base share, first in walks drawn, and second in stolen bases. In a season wherein home-run data have been obliterated, first baseman Tino Martinez led the membership with 28 dwelling runs. The Yankees have been simply the second workforce ever (following the 1991 Reds) to have six gamers attain double-figures in each dwelling runs and stolen bases. Or, to place it one other means, Roger Clemens and Alex Rodriguez weren’t there but.

The Yankees labored the depend, hardly ever swung and missed (with the bottom share of swinging strikes within the league) and, barring the times Torre pets/character guys Joe Girardi and Luis Sojo have been within the lineup, they’d no gentle outs. Except for the left discipline congeries of Chad Curtis, Tim Raines, Darryl Strawberry, Shane Spencer (who slugged .910 in one of many hottest cups of espresso ever), and Ricky Ledee, which was simply enough, each spot within the lineup was at the very least above-average, and customarily an excellent deal extra. On the time, it was widespread for the mainstream press to surprise at how the workforce was so good regardless of its absence of an MVP candidate. This was simply sclerotic, pre-analytic pondering on the a part of old-school writers. Before everything, the Yankees had a shortstop, Derek Jeter, who hit .324/.384/.481, led the league in runs scored, stole 30 bases, and hadn’t but develop into incorrigible by way of lateral defensive motion. Middle fielder Bernie Williams gained the AL batting title at .339/.422/.575, though he missed 5 weeks on account of a sprained knee. By WAR these weren’t one of the best gamers within the league. We ranked Albert Belle and Ken Griffey Jr. as being roughly equally worthy of that title, with Williams seventh and Jeter 11th, whereas Baseball-Reference positioned Alex Rodriguez within the high spot, Jeter second, proper fielder Paul O’Neill (.317/.372/.510) fifth, and Williams 18th, but any of them would have been worthy winners.

As has been true of a lot of the Yankees pitching staffs described all through this survey, the standard of the pitching was precisely ok for the workforce to get the place it needed to go. That mentioned, the general stats don’t do an enough job of describing the workforce’s depth, which saved it profitable at a excessive stage all through the season. Pitchers like Andy Pettitte and Hideki Irabu had two seasons, with the previous going 10-5 with a 3.90 ERA within the first half and 6-6 with a 4.67 ERA within the second, whereas the ill-fated Irabu went 6-3 with a 2.91 ERA earlier than the break and 7-6 with a 5.21 ERA after. But, the Yankees didn’t endure too badly for these slumps as a result of different pitchers stepped ahead to choose up the slack. Southpaw David Wells appeared like a sack of soiled laundry on the mound, and early within the season usually had outcomes worthy of 1. On Could 17 he pitched an ideal recreation in opposition to the Twins, and from then on he was reworked, going 14-3 with a 2.93 ERA the remainder of the way in which. He demonstrated beautiful management, strolling solely 15 batters in 162.2 innings from the proper recreation on. He went on to dominate in October, going 4-0 with a 2.93 ERA in 4 begins and being named the ALCS MVP.

The Yankees additionally acquired a somewhat odd break—extra actually an odd chew—when David Cone (20-5, 3.55 ERA) needed to miss a June begin as a result of he had been bitten on the pitching hand by his mom’s terrier. That led the membership to name up an unknown amount, Cuban defector Orlando Hernandez. Livan Hernandez’s older (by 10 years) brother was within the minors making an attempt to get into game-shape after an 18-month layoff on account of his perilous escape from his dwelling nation. El Duque was already 32 (although on the time he claimed to be youthful) and an uncommon pitcher, a dancer on the mound who, although he didn’t break radar weapons, had a leg kick increased than the Flatiron Constructing that disguised his pitches. On June 3, Hernandez made his main league debut in opposition to the Tampa Bay Satan Rays. He allowed only one run in seven innings (a Fred McGriff homer) whereas putting out seven. Within the rotation the remainder of the way in which, he went 12-4 with a 3.13 ERA. His addition allowed Torre to push underpowered ground-baller Ramiro Mendoza to the bullpen, the place he compiled a 1.93 ERA in 42 innings (as a starter he was a really stable 6-1 with a 3.87 ERA, offsetting his lack of strikeouts with a low stroll price).

Briefly, although we would look again and word the absence of a Cy Younger Award candidate within the rotation (Toronto’s Roger Clemens was a unanimous winner of the first-place vote; Wells and Cone have been very distant third and fourth place finishers), this misses the purpose, which is somewhat that the employees might have lacked peak however had breadth and depth. The league-average beginning pitcher had an ERA of 4.77; Yankees starters had an ERA of three.85. When Cone had his canine encounter, Pettitte slumped, and Irabu reverted to disappointing kind, the Yankees have been in a position to complement them with a close to Corridor of Fame expertise in Hernandez. (Be aware that, relying on the system, El Duque had a roughly 22-WAR profession regardless of that protecting solely his age-32 by way of age-41 seasons. Whereas we are able to’t know what Hernandez might need carried out had he appeared within the majors when he was 22 years outdated, this sort of profession downslope compares favorably to the overwhelming majority of pitchers; of the pitchers who exceeded him on this similar interval of their careers about half of them acquired plaques.) This similar depth prolonged to the bullpen, which early on needed to cowl for Rivera whereas he spent three weeks therapeutic a groin pressure. When the first setup relievers confirmed pressure, with lefty Mike Stanton changing into homer-prone and righty Jeff Nelson succumbing to a again harm, the emergence of Hernandez allowed Mendoza to shift to aid and bolster the unit.

Within the subject of Sports activities Illustrated that adopted the World Collection, Tom Verducci wrote, “No surprise the tv rankings for this Collection wound up the worst ever. Too many individuals have been looking for the video games on The Historical past Channel, what with the Yankees being in comparison with the 1906 Chicago Cubs, the 1927 Murderers’ Row Yankees, the 1975 and ’76 Massive Purple Machine from Cincinnati, and different nice groups of yore. Are the ’98 Yankees the best workforce ever?” [Italics in original.]

It is a barely totally different query than we have now requested on this collection. One sure lesson from this survey is that to check nice groups throughout eras is an train in contrasting dinosaurs to birds: We perceive that at some elementary stage they’re the identical factor, however the comparability is just not terribly informative. (For extra on this side of the rating, see Rob’s remark under.) What we are able to say right here is that nearly as good as this workforce was, the proper workforce stays elusive. Having coveted Knoblauch for years, the Yankees spent 4 prospects to accumulate him solely to search out out that they acquired not an all-star however a prodigious producer of innocent fly balls who was psychologically unable to play protection (and whose egregious psychological error in Sport 2 of the ALCS, when he turned to argue with the umpire whereas a play was nonetheless in progress, value the workforce a doubtlessly disastrous loss). Girardi, who we aptly characterised as a “wildly overrated out machine” in our 1999 annual, was nonetheless siphoning too many plate appearances away from fellow catcher Jorge Posada, and Torre’s major first base substitute, Sojo, was a profession .265/.302/.356 hitter to that time and would solely worsen. A lot of gamers additionally misplaced time to harm. Along with Williams, Rivera, and Nelson, Raines was slowed by a sore knee, meant designated hitter Chili Davis missed a lot of the season to ankle surgical procedure, and Strawberry, who had top-of-the-line home-run to at-bat ratios by a part-time participant in workforce historical past together with his 24 homers in 295 at-bats, missed the postseason as a result of the abdomen pains he’d been quietly struggling all year long turned out to be colon most cancers.

In methods huge  and small, this workforce was in a position to cope. One secret to profitable in baseball isn’t tolerate a replacement-level participant within the lineup for lengthy. The Yankees have been in a position to try this. Curtis (a disgusting particular person), who performed practically daily whereas subbing for Williams and Raines, didn’t hit a lot, however did take 75 walks, steal 21 bases in 26 makes an attempt, and play wonderful protection. Brosius, who departed the A’s having hit .203/.259/.317, was such an excellent fielder that when he hit he turned an All-Star-level participant, and 1998 he averaged .300/.371/.472. Even the final man on the roster, infielder/pinch-runner Homer Bush, was extraordinary, hitting .380 in extraordinarily restricted enjoying time.

What makes all of this beautiful is that it will possibly’t be bottled and even credited because the grasp plan of a sole creator. Brian Cashman was the titular common supervisor as of February, however former GM Gene Michael was nonetheless within the group, and proprietor George Steinbrenner’s vice-president of participant improvement and scouting, Mark Newman, had a heavy say, as did Steinbrenner himself (Strawberry was certainly one of his impulses, half charitable intention, half wealthy man’s acquisitiveness) and different longtime Yankees advisors. Actually Cashman has confirmed time and again within the quarter-century since that he can do much less with greater than nearly any govt in historical past. It took the whole usually dysfunctional back-biting village to make an ideal workforce.

This model of the Yankees would win one other three pennants and two championships earlier than returning to the World Collection in 2003 with a considerably totally different solid of characters, gamers like O’Neill, Martinez, Brosius, and Cone having aged out. The Yankees have posted one other six 100-win seasons since 1998, and, in 2009, one other championship workforce that was practically nearly as good because the 1998 squad, and suffers compared solely as a result of it existed in a league not distorted by the consequences of enlargement. Nonetheless, regardless of that championship and 20 extra postseason appearances since 1998, they’ve been unable to recreate no matter magic animated that specific season, which is one other means of claiming that maybe the story of baseball did finish then in spite of everything. —Steven Goldman

Why the 1998 Yankees, and never the 1927 or 1939 Yanks, or, for that matter, the 1906 Cubs, 1942 Cardinals, 1902 Pirates, or any of the opposite groups we’ve profiled?

A part of the reason being the title of the collection. We purposely selected to take a look at the most dominant groups, not the finest. Each are subjective measures, nevertheless it’s simpler to quantify dominance than high quality. The 1998 Yankees had by far one of the best file in a 15-team league. The 1927 Yankees had by far one of the best file in an eight-team league. That’s quantifiable.

Figuring out the finest requires a type of sport-specific amnesia. The shortstop with the very best profession bWAR (his complete profession preceded WARP) is Honus Wagner. For those who have been to ask me who was the best shortstop ever, I’d say Wagner, not Ripken or Jeter. It’s true that Wagner generated significantly extra wins above alternative than the trendy duo. It’s additionally true that Wagner performed at a time when the game was competed solely amongst native-born white males, most of whom needed to take offseason jobs somewhat than work out. Wagner by no means noticed a slider or a 100-mph fastball. Sports activities medication was…nicely actual medication didn’t have antibiotics. In 1908, arguably Wagner’s finest season, America’s Melvin Sheppard gained the Olympic  gold medal within the 1,500 meters with a time of 4:03.4. In 2022, the high highschool boy on the USA Observe & Discipline Outside Championships, George Stark, ran 3:59.26. The athleticism of right this moment far outstrips something prior to now.

So on one hand, we are able to say that Babe Ruth is the best baseball participant of all time. On the opposite, given the passage of time and the evolution of the game and the world, we are able to additionally say that Adam Ottavino was in all probability not far off when he mentioned, “I’d strike out Babe Ruth each time.”

(For no matter cause, different sports activities don’t have this drawback. You don’t hear individuals insisting that Otto Graham was one of the best quarterback, or George Mikan one of the best middle, or Maurice Richard one of the best winger in historical past.)

Additional, scouting and participant improvement have been nascent expertise a century in the past. The most effective pitcher on the 1927 Yankees, Wilcy Moore, was in pinstripes as a result of workforce president Ed Barrow observed he’d remade his repertoire in 1926 and the Yankees had $3,500 to spare to purchase him from the Class B South Atlantic League. The minor leagues in 1998 have been now not impartial and have been ubiquitously scouted.

However dominance is simpler to measure. The 1927 Yankees ran the desk enjoying in opposition to native-born white guys who have been part-time athletes. The 1998 Yankees ran the desk enjoying in opposition to a various group of full-time worldwide athletes. They each dominated. So the query isn’t which workforce would win if the 1927 Yankees performed the 1998 Yankees, it’s which workforce was extra dominant of their time.

The case for the 1927 Yankees, whom I described final week as essentially the most well-known workforce ever, is fairly clear. They have been wire-to-wire AL champions. They waltzed to the pennant, with a lead of 10 video games earlier than June was over. They scored 131 extra runs and gave up 103 fewer than some other workforce within the league. They swept the Collection.

The 1998 Yankees, as famous above, stumbled out of the gate earlier than taking management of the division, profitable by a better margin than the ‘27 membership. They led the league in scoring, however by solely 25 runs, and in run prevention, however by solely 74. They usually not solely performed in an enlargement 12 months–1998 was Tampa Bay’s inaugural season–however they had them in their very own division, going 11-1 in opposition to the Satan Rays.

All true. However the second-best workforce within the American League in 1998, by won-lost file, was Boston. Cleveland was third, however Toronto tied the Rangers for fourth-best. So the Yankees needed to frequently face two of the highest 4 groups aside from themselves. Extra to the purpose, even with the 63-99 Satan Rays, the American League East was a troublesome division. In interdivision and interleague play, the division had a profitable file (235-221) excluding the Yankees. These 114 wins got here in opposition to a tougher-than-average intradivisional schedule. 

And the 1927 Yankees? They didn’t face the Satan Rays, however they did play 22 video games in opposition to the Purple Sox, whose 51-103 file was their finest in three years. The Browns have been 59-94, barely worse than they have been in 1926, after they have been 62-92. Cleveland was 66-87 and would win 4 fewer video games in 1928. These three groups had a mixed profitable share of .383, and the 1927 Yankees performed 43% of their video games in opposition to them. The 1998 Satan Rays had a profitable share of .388, and the 1998 Yankees performed 7% of their video games in opposition to them.

The 1998 Yankees needed to play 14 American League and 5 Nationwide League groups. The 1927 Yankees performed in opposition to the identical seven groups, again and again. In 1927, Babe Ruth confronted 64 opposing pitches. In 1998, Derek Jeter confronted 190. 

The 1998 Yankees performed 162 video games over 180 days. The 1927 Yankees performed 155 over 173 days. The 1998 Yankees needed to play three postseason rounds, the 1927 Yankees one. Within the World Collection, the 1927 Yankees outscored the Pirates by 13 runs. The 1998 Yankees outscored the Padres by the identical margin.

Granted, none of those elements enter into our calculations, that are based mostly solely on the methodology described within the first hyperlink on the high of this text. However they provide us confidence in our rankings. The 1927 Yankees have been, for his or her time, an outstanding workforce, completely dominant. The 1998 have been the identical. However even a little bit bit extra so. —Rob Mains

The collection to this point

97-101: 1917 Giants, 1951 Yankees, 1988 Mets, 1998 Braves, 2017 Dodgers

88-96: Half 1 1913 Giants, 1933 Giants, 1957 Yankees, 1971 Pirates, 2013 Purple Sox; Half 2 1916 Purple Sox, 1946 Purple Sox, 1969 Mets, 1985 Cardinals

86-87: 1925 Pirates, 2021 Dodgers

81-85: 1911 Giants, 1915 Purple Sox, 1922 Giants, 1941 Dodgers, 1949 Yankees

74-80: Half 1 1913 Athletics, 1962 Yankees, 1966 Orioles, 1989 Athletics; Half 2 1913 Braves, 1963 Dodgers, 1978 Yankees

72-73 1952 Yankees, 1967 Cardinals

65-71 Half 1 1931 Athletics, 1934 Tigers, 1940 Reds, 1943 Yankees; Half 2 1953 Dodgers, 1954 Giants, 1974 Dodgers

58-64 Half 1 1904 Giants, 1921 Giants, 2007 Purple Sox, 2019 Dodgers; Half 2 1919 Reds, 1948 Cleveland, 2009 Yankees

53-57 1920 Cleveland, 1950 Yankees, 1931 Cardinals, 1971 Orioles, 2019 Astros

49-52 1923 Yankees, 1930 Athletics, 1956 Yankees, 1960 Pirates

47-48 1935 Giants, 1946 Cardinals, 1995 Cleveland*

43-46 1917 White Sox, 1935 Tigers, 1958 Yankees, 2004 Cardinals

41-42 1910 Cubs, 1955 Dodgers

38-40 1903 Individuals, 1912 Giants, 1943 Cardinals

35-37 1947 Yankees, 1969 Orioles, 2022 Astros

34 1976 Reds

30-33 1942 Yankees, 1953 Yankees, 1954 Cleveland, 2022 Dodgers

25-29 Half 1 1910 Athletics, 1961 Yankees; Half 2 1968 Tigers, 2016 Cubs; Half 3 2018 Purple Sox

24 1975 Reds

20-23 Half 1 1907 Chicago Cubs, 1938 New York Yankees, 1986 New York Mets; Half 2 1941 Yankees

19 1984 Tigers

17-18 1911 Athletics, 1928 Yankees, 2020 Dodgers*

15-16 1905 Giants, 2001 Mariners

14 1909 Pirates

13 1912 Purple Sox

11-12 1944 Cardinals, 1970 Orioles

10-9 1937 Yankees, 1929 Athletics

7-8 1932 Yankees, 1902 Pirates

6 1942 Cardinals

5-4 1936 Yankees, 1906 Cubs

3 1939 Yankees

2 1927 Yankees

*Honorable point out on account of brief season