MLB: 10 Teams Who Can Win It All in 2017

Bill James recently wrote an article entitled, “The All Important Closer” in which he showed that having an elite MLB closer was the most common element of World Series Champions over the past 40 years. The other thing they had in common was they had multiple top ten players by position.

In “The All Important Closer”, Bill James finds that 78% of the last 40 World Series Champions had a top ten closer. He also discovered that 58% of the regulars on the Championship teams were top ten players at their respective position. In James’ article, he looked at 11 positions; Catcher, 1st base, 2nd base, 3rd base, shortstop, left field, center field, right field, right-handed starter, left-handed starter, and closer.

55% of the last 40 World Series Champions had a top ten MLB player at 7 positions. The ’76 Reds had 9 top ten players including 4 top players at their particular position. The ’98 Yankees actually had 10 top ten players, but the average ranking of all positions was 4.6 for the ’76 Reds and 6.7 for the ’98 Yankees.

With this in mind, lets look at the 10 teams that have a chance to win it all in 2017. This of course is being done by projecting top ten players at each position when in fact Bill James based his rankings on actual year long production. Only time will tell if the projections meet reality. Lets go.