You know, no matter how you slice it this past March was basically the Steve Bartman of calendar months. March comes for us sports fans each year and is the harbinger of what is possibly one of the most exciting times of the American Pro Sports Calendar with the NHL and NBA making their respective playoff pushes, MLB opening up for Spring Training and of course the legendary March Madness NCAA Basketball tournament. This March, though, we were smacked right in the face by the global bastard known as COVID-19 which threw the entire world at large, including our beloved sports world, into widespread panic and precautionary measures.
With sports postponed for the indefinite future and with our family deprived of one of our favorite sporting events of the year Jay, Justin, and I began thinking about different, March Madness-style tournament brackets from reading different articles and watching different videos/listening to podcasts online, and my idea was a pretty ambitious one: An NCAA Tourney-style showdown of all-time World Series Champions! In this tournament format, I am using the 64-team template used by the NCAA Tournament Committee including a set of first four matchups leading into 4 regions of 16 teams each.
How it's Gonna Go Down:
I know, I know! You've got loads of questions! Hold it right there, because I'm about to break down some of the methods of seeding and evaluating these matchups right now. Firstly, teams were selected for this field simply based on chronology starting with the 2019 Nationals and going all the way back to the 1951 Yankees. Yes, I know this metric excludes some of the "greatest teams of all time" like the famous Murderers' Row iteration of the New York Yankees, but due to the sheer volume of options here due to baseball's long and illustrious history, this was simply the easiest method of selection; not to mention it saves the time of trying to compare greatness from more distinctly different eras of the game (things like Home Run totals are much more comparable to now in the 50s than in the 20s, due to many factors that are tough to simplify).
After the teams were selected, they were seeded in the field according to regular season winning percentage. If that was a tie, the first tie breaker was which team took less games to clinch their title. If that too was a tie, the final tie breaker would be how many Hall of Famers each team had on their roster. I won't list the full seeding here because a list f 64 teams is what we in the biz call "a real doozy", but I will break down each individual region once we get there.
Hold your horses though, because before we get there we need to deal with the ever-popular Play-In round, in which we will determine the bottom seeds in each region with our First Four Matchups:
1) 1980 Phillies vs. 2006 Cardinals
2) 1997 Marlins vs. 1987 Twins
3) 1974 A's vs. 2000 Yankees
4) 2011 Cardinals vs. 2014 Giants
For the First Four round, these match-ups will be hypothetical one-game playoff scenarios and will be evaluated on three main factors, using information provided by baseball-reference.com: Pitching analysis, Head to Head comparison of each team's Top 12 Players according to WAR, and which team would have home field advantage according to record.
Matchup 1: 1980 Phillies vs. 2006 Cardinals
For our first game in the play-in round, we have a matchup that is 26 years apart as the 2006 Cardinals visit Veterans Stadium to take on the 1980 Phillies for the right to earn a 16 seed in the Mx3 Tournament of Champions field.
The starting pitching in this one is enough to make the biggest fan of the pitchers' duel die happy as Steve Carlton (Age 35, 24-9, 2.34 ERA, 286 Ks) hosts Chris Carpenter (31, 15-8, 3.09, 184). When looking at who gets the edge in this pitching matchup, as much as this iteration of Carpenter triggers flashbacks of a particularly hard year for my Mets fandom, it's tough to go against Carlton here. The man is possibly the greatest lefty ever, and in his age 35 season he propelled an otherwise statistically lackluster pitching staff by putting up 24 wins on a sub 3 ERA with nearly 300 Ks and an obscene 10.1 WAR compared to the mere 4.9 WAR generated by Carpenter in 06, who had more rotation help on a team which won less games. The edge in pitching goes to the Phillies.
When comparing these teams in their top 12 players according to WAR, the Phillies were paced by their ace Carlton while the Cards were led by the inhuman production of "The Machine" Albert Pujols. In 2006 Albert put up an 8.5 WAR, hitting .331 with 49 home runs and 137 RBIs. However, Albert was not enough as his Cards were decidedly handled by the Phillies in this category with other players like Mike Schmidt and Tug McGraw leading the way as they claim the edge 10-1 with 1 comparison being a tie between Larry Bowa and Hector Luna. Factor in the home field advantage, and the 1980 Phillies dispatch the 2006 Cards with relative ease.
Matchup 2: 1997 Marlins vs. 1987 Twins
In the second game of the First Four, a decade separates our two teams as the 1997 Marlins host the 1987 Twins at Pro Player Stadium in Miami.
Jim Leyland sends Kevin Brown to the mound (32, 16-8, 2.69, 205 Ks), and Tom Kelly counters with Frank Viola (27, 17-10, 2.90, 197 Ks). Brown and Viola are really evenly matched here, so it's tough to say that one would have the edge based on these stats alone. They also each led their team in WAR, and that actual value is where we can make our final ruling on this pitching matchup as Viola's 8.1 bests Brown's 6.8. Viola gets the edge, if just barely.
Next, we look at the top 12 WAR comparisons. We already established that Viola and Brown led each team in this category with Viola coming out on top, which set the tone for an absolute domination as the Twins outclass the Marlins 10-1 with a tie between Charles Johnson and Bert Blyleven. Despite the Marlins' home field advantage, Kirby Puckett and co. move on to the field of 64.
Matchup 3: 1974 A's vs. 2000 Yankees
In the third play-in game, the 2000 Yankees take a trip west to the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum to take on the 1974 A's.
The pitching matchup for this one sees Al Dark giving the ball to Catfish Hunter (28, 25-12, 2.49, 143 Ks) while Joe Torre counters with Roger Clemens (37, 13-8, 3.70, 188 Ks). While Clemens (regardless of how you feel about the Steroid Scandal) is absolutely one of the greatest of his era, this is the 37 year-old version we're talking about here compared to a prime Catfish who posted 25 wins, accounting for almost 30% of the team's total while posting a team-leading WAR. The edge goes to Catfish Hunter.
When it comes to comparing the top 12 by WAR on these teams, We actually see the least lopsided matchup so far that resulted in three ties between Ken Holtzman and Ramiro Mendoza, Rollie Fingers and Glenallen Hill, and Claudell Washington and Paul O'Neill. However, despite putting up a valiant effort the Yanks couldn't overcome Catfish, Reggie and the A's who take the edge in this category 7-2 and clinch their spot in the field in front of the Oakland fans.
Matchup 4: 2011 Cardinals vs. 2014 Giants
Our fourth and final matchup in our First Four round is also our most contemporary as the 2014 Giants visit Busch Stadium to take on the 2011 St. Louis Cardinals, who are the first franchise to be represented twice in this tournament but certainly won't be the last.
Tony LaRussa sends Kyle Lohse (32, 14-8, 3.39, 111Ks) to the mound, while Bruce Bochy counters with Madison Bumgarner (24, 18-10, 2.98, 219 Ks). Here, I can't see how not to give Bumgarner the complete advantage as he ticks every box with a lower ERA, higher win total, higher K total and higher WAR. Lohse put up a quality year, but he stands out from his teammates far less than Bumgarner who was a 24 year old upstaging guys who had competed for several Cy Young Awards between them in Tim Hudson, Jake Peavy, Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain. Edge to the Giants here.
Moving on as we compare the Top 12 by WAR on these teams, we see something unprecedented in this tournament so far as the Cardinals take the category 9-3 behind a deep roster of position players led by Albert Pujols, Lance Berkman, Matt Holliday and Yadier Molina that evens these teams up at one edge in each of the first two categories. Since the tiebreaker here is who would have Last Licks via home field advantage, the 2011 Cards become the first team to move on despite losing the Starting Pitching battle.
And with that, this concludes our First Four play-in round of the Mx3 All-Time Tournament of World Series Champions! Make sure you subscribe to the blog to follow along because next week, we will be diving into the first round of the first region of our field of 64!
Craft Beer on Tap: Del's Lemon Shandy (Narragansett)
As we kick off the summer now that Memorial Day has passed and lockdowns are eased all around the nation, we would highly recommend a delicious and refreshing Del's Lemon Shandy from Narragansett!
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