The Brewster

RANK: 69
YEAR: 1988
TEAM: Los Angeles Dodgers
TOP WAR: 424.9
PLAYOFF RESULTS: Won World Series 4-1 over Oakland Athletics
TOTALS: Top Offense: Top Pitching: Others of note: Comments: Dear lord this offense is bad, like really really bad. I guess there is a reason it was such a shocking upset when they took out Oakland who (spoiler alert) is quite a bit further up this list. Any time half of your fulltime starters have 3.2 WAR or less, and they are not balanced out by anyone remotely close to HOF caliber, that is probably a sign that you are reliant on your pitching to win. Fortunately for the Dodgers, their pitching was very very good, led by guys like Orel Hershiser and Fernando Valenzuela in their primes, and the ageless one in Don Sutton hanging on in the 5th spot. Other solid guys like Tim Belcher, Jesse Orosco and Alejandro Pena fill out the staff. Buried on the bench are old timers in Rick Dempsey and John Tudor, along with Ramon Martinez who while he is the 2nd best pitcher in his own family, he is still a pretty good one.

RANK: 68
YEAR: 1991
TEAM: Minnesota Twins
TOP WAR: 429.2
PLAYOFF RESULTS: Won World Series 4-3 over Atlanta Braves
TOTALS: Top Offense: Top Pitching: Others of note: Comments: A paper thin team that played in the worst stadium in MLB history, this team had no depth but managed to win one of the most memorable and tightly contested World Series in recent memory. Once you get beyond the starting nine on offense, the leader in WAR was Paul Sorrento with a whopping 5.6 and he still doubled up all but 1 of his teammates. Fortunately for the twinkies, a team led by 2 Hall of Famers (at least in title if not worthiness) had enough to get the job done. A balanced offense led by Kirby Puckett and a young Chuck Knoblauch scored just enough runs for a pitching staff that is on the young side except for Jack Morris (in the first of his 3 appearances on this list) to get the job done.

RANK: 67
YEAR: 1969
TEAM: New York Mets
TOP WAR: 430.2
PLAYOFF RESULTS: Won World Series 4-1 over Baltimore Orioles
TOTALS: Top Offense: Top Pitching: Others of note: Comments: Ladies and gentlemen, meet the worst pennant winning offense of the wild card era. I can only imagine one of the reason this team was called the “Amazin Mets” was because it was amazing that offense was able to score more than two runs a game. They were also the youngest offense on the books, so there was probably some potential there that just never panned out. The pitching meanwhile, was fronted by a dynamic duo of inner-circle HOFer Tom Seaver and the very very solid Jerry Koosman, with solid youngsters Tug McGraw and Nolan Ryan operating out of the pen. The bench had a couple of decent vets on it, but the true find there is a very young Amos Otis, who earned his notoriety a decade later on some very good Royals teams.

May as well be the 1969 Tom Seavers. He really was the franchise that year. (nod to Koosman and a very young Nolan Ryan). I wonder how Ryan was perceived as a 22 year old reliever.

Also regarding those Braves from a few posts back, I always recall Otis Nixon looking like an old man. Looked up some pictures, was literally an old man the entire time he played. Also named Otis Nixon, which I assume prematurely aged him.

Ted wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 21, 2020 8:12 am

Also regarding those Braves from a few posts back, I always recall Otis Nixon looking like an old man. Looked up some pictures, was literally an old man the entire time he played. Also named Otis Nixon, which I assume prematurely aged him.

I felt the same about Otis. Also worth noting that ryan split time in 69, 15 relief appearances 10 starts.

EDIT: jeff blauser was another guy from those Braves teams who was always just old to me.

Ted wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 21, 2020 8:12 am

Also regarding those Braves from a few posts back, I always recall Otis Nixon looking like an old man. Looked up some pictures, was literally an old man the entire time he played. Also named Otis Nixon, which I assume prematurely aged him.

Haha I remember him the same way. Always envision a toothless old guy sitting on a porch in the south.

This is an amazing bit of work. Much fun. I am certainly sensing considerable bonus PPT.

It is easier for me to put together the summaries when I'm at the office, and given that I have a 24 hour weekend shift coming up in a few weeks there will likely be a large dump then.

RANK: 67
YEAR: 1969
TEAM: New York Mets
TOP WAR: 430.2
PLAYOFF RESULTS: Won World Series 4-1 over Baltimore Orioles
TOTALS: Top Offense: Top Pitching: Others of note: Comments: Ladies and gentlemen, meet the worst offense to make the World Series in the data collected (1969-2009). The fact that an offense this bad actually won a series truly was a “miracle”, but in reality this team was carried by two pitchers (inner circle HOFer Tom Seaver and Hall of Very Good Jerry Koosman. Another reason this staff got a kick up was that they got to count youngster Nolan Ryan (in his only career World Series appearance), who pitched out of the bullpen. There is also a country song joke to be made about Tug McGraw being the father of Tim, but I don’t listen to country music so I don’t have one there.

RANK: 66
YEAR: 1980
TEAM: Kansas City Royals
TOP WAR: 432.9
PLAYOFF RESULTS: Lost World Series 4-2 to Philadelphia Phillies
TOTALS: Top Offense: Top Pitching: Others of note: Comments: Before their 30 years in the wilderness covering most of my lifetime, the Royals actually had a pretty good run in the mid 70s through mid 80s. After hitting the roadblock that was the New York Yankees (not an uncommon experience for teams) in the 70s, they finally broke through and won the pennant in 1980. This team was led by a pretty solid offense, with a mediocre pitching staff (including a lot just downright bad guys) being pulled along. The big name here is HOFer George Brett, but guys like Porter, Wilson, White and Otis weren’t bad as a supporting cast.

RANK: 65
YEAR: 1985
TEAM: St. Louis Cardinals
TOP WAR: 433.3
PLAYOFF RESULTS: Lost World Series to Kansas City Royals 4-3
TOTALS: Top Offense: Top Pitching: Others of note: Comments: A well balanced offense that was full of very productive slap hitters and defense, but that formula was one Dane Iorg bouncer away from being good enough to win the cross-state battle. Alas they had to settle for second best in the show-me state as Don Denkinger was not satisfied that Todd Worrell had shown him his foot on the bag. This team was loaded with guys (porter, Pendleton, McGee) who would make the World Series with multiple teams. The pitching staff had exactly three guys on it that are worth a damn, but that is more than some of the Cardinals teams in this era had. Bonus points for having one of the bench deep benches on the offensive side, including future manager Art Howe.

RANK: 64
YEAR: 1998
TEAM: San Diego Padres
TOP WAR: 434
PLAYOFF RESULTS: Lost World Series to New York Yankees 4-0
TOTALS: Top Offense: Top Pitching: Others of note: Comments: To call this bunch “seasoned” would be an understatement, particularly on offense. The offense was built around the (dubiously assisted) power of Ken Caminiti and Greg Vaughn, but the big glaring name here is Tony Gwynn, who was the only holdover from the teams previous appearance in 1984. Kevin Brown (possibly the most underrated pitcher of the last 40 years), leads a pitching staff that was light on star power until you get to the closer in Trevor Hoffman.

I remember screaming at hitters to stop swinging at Kevin Brown's splitter during the '98 playoffs. To this day, I have never watched a guy just go back to the same pitch over and over like that and have hitters just be completely fooled and swing over it again and again. It was maddening. I don't know if it was because his sinker was so good, too, and he threw that for strikes, or what. It was insane though. He was unhittable.

The weirder thing is that when I look back, I feel I really should have been rooting for the Padres. He faced the hated Astros (who I can't imagine rooting for in the late 90's) and the Braves, who I was kind of a casual fan of, simply because they had such great players and a great organization.

Ted wrote: ↑

Mon Dec 28, 2020 10:23 am

I remember screaming at hitters to stop swinging at Kevin Brown's splitter during the '98 playoffs. To this day, I have never watched a guy just go back to the same pitch over and over like that and have hitters just be completely fooled and swing over it again and again. It was maddening. I don't know if it was because his sinker was so good, too, and he threw that for strikes, or what. It was insane though. He was unhittable.

The weirder thing is that when I look back, I feel I really should have been rooting for the Padres. He faced the hated Astros (who I can't imagine rooting for in the late 90's) and the Braves, who I was kind of a casual fan of, simply because they had such great players and a great organization.

that astros team was the one that got Randy Johnson for potentially one of the most incredible post-trade seasons of all time. 10-1 with a 1.28 ERA and 116 Ks in 84 IP.

Glad to see this return!

usnspecialist wrote: ↑

Mon Dec 28, 2020 9:30 am

RANK: 65
YEAR: 1985
TEAM: St. Louis Cardinals
TOP WAR: 433.3
PLAYOFF RESULTS: Lost World Series to Kansas City Royals 4-3
TOTALS:
OVERALL.PNG

Top Offense:
OFFENSE.PNG

Top Pitching:
PITCHING.PNG

Others of note:
OTHERS.PNG

Comments: A well balanced offense that was full of very productive slap hitters and defense, but that formula was one Dane Iorg bouncer away from being good enough to win the cross-state battle. Alas they had to settle for second best in the show-me state as Don Denkinger was not satisfied that Todd Worrell had shown him his foot on the bag. This team was loaded with guys (porter, Pendleton, McGee) who would make the World Series with multiple teams. The pitching staff had exactly three guys on it that are worth a damn, but that is more than some of the Cardinals teams in this era had. Bonus points for having one of the bench deep benches on the offensive side, including future manager Art Howe.

Andy Van Slyke's nephew (I think.. could of been great nephew) was my chemisty teacher in high school.

Sterling Hitchcock was the NLCS MVP in 1998. He had a great post season.

RANK: 63
YEAR: 1970
TEAM: Cincinnati Reds
TOP WAR: 443
PLAYOFF RESULTS: Lost World Series 4-1 to Baltimore Orioles
TOTALS: Top Offense: Top Pitching: Others of note: Comments: The first of many pennant winners for the Reds in the 70s, this served as the blueprint for the rest of the decade, high powered offense, and a putrid pitching staff. There were some key pieces of the Big Red Machine missing here (which is why they rank so much lower than their subsequent teams), but with Johnny Bench, Pete Rose, Dave Concepcion and Tony Perez in place, the groundwork was there. As for the arms, well they were young and that is about all you can say for them. Also it would appear that Woody Woodward was better at building teams (GM of the mariners from 88 to 99 when they acquired 3 ELITE Hall of Fame talents in Ken Griffey Jr, Randy Johnson and Alex Rodriguez) than he was at actually playing baseball.

The 1969 Mets offense was weakish, but note that they were all mid-young-20s. Though I was very young, I remember really liking Tommy Agee in particular. And Swaboda's catch in RF was iconic.

Tug McGraw was a very good pitcher at times, too.