Trying to rank the MLB franchises, need some help (1 Viewer)

[Autumn Wind]

A few weeks ago I published an article wherein I ranked the NFL franchises according to a mathematical calculation involving things like championships, winning regular seasons, etc. In case you don't feel like reading the post, here are the categories I used to rank the NFL teams:

• Championship game/Super Bowl wins
• Championship game/Super Bowl losses
• Playoff berth (post-1967)
• Playoff win (post-1967)
• Winning regular season
• Regular-season winning percentage of .750 or higher
• Regular-season winning percentage of .250 or lower (points deducted)
• Bonus points for consecutive winning regular seasons

The idea behind choosing these categories is to rank teams according to more than just titles, and to reward consistency. It's not a flawless system, but what can you do?

Anyway, I'm now undertaking a similar venture for MLB and would love to get some input on that one. Here are the categories I'm thinking of for that project:

• World Series wins
• World Series losses
• LCS berth
• Playoff series win (post-1994)
• Winning regular season
• 90 regular-season wins
• 90 regular-season losses (points deducted)
• Bonus points for consecutive winning regular seasons

I'm pretty set on those categories, but wondering if I should add anything for division titles or pennants. Thoughts?

 

[Leroy Hoard]

Yankees at the top & Cubbies at the bottom, fill in the gaps as you wish.

 

[Bogart]

A few weeks ago I published an article wherein I ranked the NFL franchises according to a mathematical calculation involving things like championships, winning regular seasons, etc. In case you don't feel like reading the post, here are the categories I used to rank the NFL teams:

• Championship game/Super Bowl wins
• Championship game/Super Bowl losses
• Playoff berth (post-1967)
• Playoff win (post-1967)
• Winning regular season
• Regular-season winning percentage of .750 or higher
• Regular-season winning percentage of .250 or lower (points deducted)
• Bonus points for consecutive winning regular seasons

The idea behind choosing these categories is to rank teams according to more than just titles, and to reward consistency. It's not a flawless system, but what can you do?

Anyway, I'm now undertaking a similar venture for MLB and would love to get some input on that one. Here are the categories I'm thinking of for that project:

• World Series wins
• World Series losses
• LCS berth
• Playoff series win (post-1994)
• Winning regular season
• 90 regular-season wins
• 90 regular-season losses (points deducted)
• Bonus points for consecutive winning regular seasons

I'm pretty set on those categories, but wondering if I should add anything for division titles or pennants. Thoughts?

Props to you for giving Bob Sturm credit in your NFL article. His yearly updates are always a fun read.

Good luck with the baseball teams. Look forward to reading your finished findings.

 

[Autumn Wind]

Yankees at the top & Cubbies at the bottom, fill in the gaps as you wish.

Well yes, of course. But just for the sake of completeness.

 

[cheese]

A few weeks ago I published an article wherein I ranked the NFL franchises according to a mathematical calculation involving things like championships, winning regular seasons, etc. In case you don't feel like reading the post, here are the categories I used to rank the NFL teams:

• Championship game/Super Bowl wins
• Championship game/Super Bowl losses
• Playoff berth (post-1967)
• Playoff win (post-1967)
• Winning regular season
• Regular-season winning percentage of .750 or higher
• Regular-season winning percentage of .250 or lower (points deducted)
• Bonus points for consecutive winning regular seasons

The idea behind choosing these categories is to rank teams according to more than just titles, and to reward consistency. It's not a flawless system, but what can you do?

Anyway, I'm now undertaking a similar venture for MLB and would love to get some input on that one. Here are the categories I'm thinking of for that project:

• World Series wins
• World Series losses
• LCS berth
• Playoff series win (post-1994)
• Winning regular season
• 90 regular-season wins
• 90 regular-season losses (points deducted)
• Bonus points for consecutive winning regular seasons

I'm pretty set on those categories, but wondering if I should add anything for division titles or pennants. Thoughts?

All adding division titles or pennants would do is re-emphasize categories that you already have. The only exception being giving a slight edge to recent division winners over wild card teams.

I do think there will be an inherent recency bias in your findings, but I don't think that's a bad thing. There were a lot less 90 win/loss seasons years ago due to a number of factors, but primarily the shorters schedule. If you wanted to eliminate that factor, you could go with win% like you did in NFL. Similarly, teams that have been good in the last 20 years have racked up playoff wins (more playoff rounds) and division titles (there are more div now) than teams who dominated the 50s and before.

Do you plan on factoring at all how long a franchise has been around?

None of that is really meant as a negative. I think it will be cool to see what you come up with. Yankees 1, Cardinals 2.... then it gets closer. 3-8 in some order I would suspect Dodgers, Reds, Orioles, Tigers, Braves, Phillies.

 

[Eephus]

A few weeks ago I published an article wherein I ranked the NFL franchises according to a mathematical calculation involving things like championships, winning regular seasons, etc. In case you don't feel like reading the post, here are the categories I used to rank the NFL teams:

• Championship game/Super Bowl wins
• Championship game/Super Bowl losses
• Playoff berth (post-1967)
• Playoff win (post-1967)
• Winning regular season
• Regular-season winning percentage of .750 or higher
• Regular-season winning percentage of .250 or lower (points deducted)
• Bonus points for consecutive winning regular seasons

The idea behind choosing these categories is to rank teams according to more than just titles, and to reward consistency. It's not a flawless system, but what can you do?

Anyway, I'm now undertaking a similar venture for MLB and would love to get some input on that one. Here are the categories I'm thinking of for that project:

• World Series wins
• World Series losses
• LCS berth
• Playoff series win (post-1994)
• Winning regular season
• 90 regular-season wins
• 90 regular-season losses (points deducted)
• Bonus points for consecutive winning regular seasons

I'm pretty set on those categories, but wondering if I should add anything for division titles or pennants. Thoughts?

All adding division titles or pennants would do is re-emphasize categories that you already have. The only exception being giving a slight edge to recent division winners over wild card teams.

I do think there will be an inherent recency bias in your findings, but I don't think that's a bad thing. There were a lot less 90 win/loss seasons years ago due to a number of factors, but primarily the shorters schedule. If you wanted to eliminate that factor, you could go with win% like you did in NFL. Similarly, teams that have been good in the last 20 years have racked up playoff wins (more playoff rounds) and division titles (there are more div now) than teams who dominated the 50s and before.

Do you plan on factoring at all how long a franchise has been around?

None of that is really meant as a negative. I think it will be cool to see what you come up with. Yankees 1, Cardinals 2.... then it gets closer. 3-8 in some order I would suspect Dodgers, Reds, Orioles, Tigers, Braves, Phillies.

It depends how far back you go and whether your methodology weights recent success more heavily. The Phillies went almost 100 years without a World Series win with only two pennants during that run.

 

[jon_mx]

The Super-era Lions are easily the most patheitic organization in sports.

 

[Autumn Wind]

A few weeks ago I published an article wherein I ranked the NFL franchises according to a mathematical calculation involving things like championships, winning regular seasons, etc. In case you don't feel like reading the post, here are the categories I used to rank the NFL teams:

• Championship game/Super Bowl wins
• Championship game/Super Bowl losses
• Playoff berth (post-1967)
• Playoff win (post-1967)
• Winning regular season
• Regular-season winning percentage of .750 or higher
• Regular-season winning percentage of .250 or lower (points deducted)
• Bonus points for consecutive winning regular seasons

The idea behind choosing these categories is to rank teams according to more than just titles, and to reward consistency. It's not a flawless system, but what can you do?

Anyway, I'm now undertaking a similar venture for MLB and would love to get some input on that one. Here are the categories I'm thinking of for that project:

• World Series wins
• World Series losses
• LCS berth
• Playoff series win (post-1994)
• Winning regular season
• 90 regular-season wins
• 90 regular-season losses (points deducted)
• Bonus points for consecutive winning regular seasons

I'm pretty set on those categories, but wondering if I should add anything for division titles or pennants. Thoughts?

All adding division titles or pennants would do is re-emphasize categories that you already have. The only exception being giving a slight edge to recent division winners over wild card teams.

I do think there will be an inherent recency bias in your findings, but I don't think that's a bad thing. There were a lot less 90 win/loss seasons years ago due to a number of factors, but primarily the shorters schedule. If you wanted to eliminate that factor, you could go with win% like you did in NFL. Similarly, teams that have been good in the last 20 years have racked up playoff wins (more playoff rounds) and division titles (there are more div now) than teams who dominated the 50s and before.

Do you plan on factoring at all how long a franchise has been around?

None of that is really meant as a negative. I think it will be cool to see what you come up with. Yankees 1, Cardinals 2.... then it gets closer. 3-8 in some order I would suspect Dodgers, Reds, Orioles, Tigers, Braves, Phillies.

I did consider going with winning/losing percentage instead of straight totals. So a 90-win season now would equate to a .556 winning percentage (.444 for 90 losses), which I could use instead.

A small point of clarification on the playoff win category - a team can only get this once in a year. So winning a wild card game and/or a divisional series still gets the same total. A team only gets additional points if they make it to the LCS.

Also, franchise age comes into play in that the final rankings are based on average points per season rather than total points. I think the only area where older teams can absolutely have an advantage is the points awarded for consecutive winning seasons. There's just no way around it.

One thing I discovered in doing the NFL rankings is that age alone didn't give a team a leg up over newer franchises. In fact, it makes things a little harder because they had to be consistently good for a longer period. That's how the Giants ended up not making the top 10. I suspect we'll see the same for MLB.