After adjusting for league and ballpark effects, the 2017 Houston Astros have been better on offense than any team in history, including the 1927 New York Yankees.
When it comes to the greatest hitting teams of all-time, the 1927 New York Yankees are always at or near the top of every list. The team was incredible. That was the year three Yankees finished first, second, and third in home runs in the American League. Babe Ruth hit 60 long balls, Lou Gehrig had 47 and Tony Lazzeri launched 18.
There are other Yankees teams who always rank high among the greatest-hitting teams of all time, including a few from 1930 to 1936. The 1950 Boston Red Sox, one of seven teams to score more than 1,000 runs in a season, are usually part of the conversation. Among teams in the last 25 years, the 1996 Seattle Mariners came up seven runs short of a 1,000-run season and had four 100-RBI guys and five players with 23 or more home runs. More recently, the 2003 Boston Red Sox had a very good season with the bats.
When it comes to evaluating the greatest offensive teams in baseball history, it’s not as simple as using a team’s runs scored or home runs or batting average. The level of offense has gone up and down throughout the history of the game. Many of the teams considered to have the greatest offenses of all-time played in high-scoring eras, times when offense dominated the game.
As an example, it would be unfair to compare the 1930 Cubs, who hit .309/.378/.481 and scored 998 runs, to the 1968 Detroit Tigers, who hit .235/.307/.385 and scored 671 runs. The Cubs played in a much more friendly environment for offense. In 1930, NL teams averaged .303/.360/.448. American League teams in 1968 averaged .230/.297/.339. A look at the raw numbers would say the ’30 Cubs had a much better offense than the ’68 Tigers, no question, but the run-scoring environment was too different to easily compare these teams.
This brings us to the metric that makes adjustments for the league run-scoring environment and the home ballpark of the team. Weighted Runs Created Plus (wRC+) measures how a player or team compares to league average after controlling for ballpark effects. League average is 100. A player or team with a 120 wRC+ has created 20 percent more runs than a league average player or team. Using wRC+, the ’68 Tigers had a better offense than the ’30 Cubs, with a 108 wRC+ for the Tigers to a 107 wRC+ for the Cubs.
By this metric, the 2017 Houston Astros have the best offense in MLB history, (albeit at the two-thirds mark of the season; the next two months will determine where they end up on the all-time list). There were three teams in the infancy of baseball with a higher wRC+ than the Astros, but we’ll set aside the 1875 Boston Red Stockings of the now-defunct National Association, the 1884 St. Louis Maroons of the Union Association, which lasted just one season, and the 1876 Chicago White Stockings, who had the best team in the first year of the National League, back when baseball was a very different game.
I can hear the traditional baseball fan now, scoffing at the idea that this year’s Astros team has a better offense than the ’27 Yankees after adjusting for league and ballpark effects. Let’s call this fan, Chris “Mad Dog” Russo. He would wave his hands around and yell and scream, saying there’s no way the 2017 Astros can compare to the ’27 Yankees. Here’s a sample Mad Dog rant:
I can hear him now. “Are you kidding me?” he would yell. “Oh, jeez, c’mon!” he would add, with a dismissive hand wave. “That’s ridiculous!” he’d scream, as his face gets redder and his hand gestures get wilder. “Get your head out of your spreadsheet and watch a game for once! There’s no way the 2017 Astros have a better offense than the ’27 Yankees!” he would shriek.
And he would be wrong. They do, through their first 109 games. Context is everything and the Astros, in the context of the 2017 American League, have a better offense than the Yankees in 1927, when league and ballpark adjustments are factored in.
Here are the top 10 hitting teams of all-time, based on Weighted Runs Created Plus.