30 Year MLB Rankings: Yanks #1, Expos/Nats Dead Last
Today being the eve of the 2009 Strasburg draft, I thought I'd create a formula to rank all 30 major league teams over the last 30 years (1979-2008). Why only 30 years? Good question. According to my flawless logic, in a 30-year span, every team in a 30-team league should have one championship (let's ignore the strike-shortened season of 1994).
Here is the transcript of a potential conversation between Reader and Writer (me) regarding these rankings:
Reader: The scoring on this is soooooo arbitrary!
Writer: Yes, and I don't give a crap.
Reader: Did you really make a World Series Championship twice as valuable as a World Series Loss?!
Writer: Yes, I did.
Reader: I'm from Philly. Did you only date back to 1979 because the Phillies made the playoffs three consecutive seasons before that? I have herpes.
Writer: Sorry about the herpes, but you probably deserved it. And bingo, I did date back to only 1979 to reduce Philadelphia's score. Why? Because I can.
In all seriousness, though, these rankings are not perfect, and I wouldn't even argue if you told me my numbers were weighted arbitrarily.
Key:
Orioles
Nationals/Expos
Best in League.
Expansion Teams' Adjusted Total Points per 30 seasons
[If the table is blurry, just click on it for a slightly more focused view]
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What stands out? Arizona so high. What doesn't? I'll give you a hint: it's right above this line.
The Washington/Montreal franchise has, just to confuse you, without fail succeeded at failure year-in and year-out. ONE playoff appearance in THIRTY years.
Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper can not arrive soon enough.
