Baseball history: 2017 sixth seasonwith three 100-win teams
2017—Dodgers, Indians, Astros
104-58 Los Angeles Dodgers
102-60 Cleveland Indians
101-61 Houston Astros
So much has happened with the Dodgers this year that it can get lost that they were in third place well into May and in second place as late as June 20. The Rockies and Diamondbacks were making headlines for their early season success in the NL West, while the Giants were just as surprising for how terrible their season began. The Dodgers, meanwhile, were off to a solid start with a 35-25 record through June 6. Then they went 16-1 over the next two-and-a-half weeks and shot into first place.
They kept their winning ways going well into August. From June 7 to August 6, they were 44-7. They just couldn’t lose. By August 25, they were 91-36, with a winning percentage that would get them to an MLB record-tying 116 wins if they could keep up that pace.
Then, suddenly, they couldn’t win at all. They lost 16 of 17 games and saw their division lead drop from 21 games to nine games. It just didn’t seem possible that a team that had looked so unbeatable was suddenly very beatable. The Dodgers recovered from their ugly stretch of play to easily win the NL West and still had the best record in baseball. They didn’t equal the 2001 Mariners’ record of 116 wins, but still finished tied for 25th all-time in wins in a season.
Like the Dodgers, the Cleveland Indians didn’t run away with their division early. They were in second place as late as June 25, when they had a record of 39-35. They had a nice winning streak of nine games from July 21 to July 29 that would be a preview of what was yet to come. They later went 9-4 from August 11 to August 23 and opened up a 4.5-game lead in the AL Central.
On August 24, Cleveland beat Chris Sale and the Red Sox, 13-6. That was the first of an AL-record 22 straight wins, propelling the team from 69-56 and 4.5 games ahead to 91-56 and 13.5 games ahead. The streak ended with a 4-3 loss to the Royals on September 15, but the team closed out the year by winning 11 of their final 14 games. Overall, from August 24 to the end of the season, Cleveland was 33-4. They had the second-most wins in the history of the franchise, behind only the 111-win 1948 squad.
The Houston Astros didn’t have a record-setting winning streak like Cleveland and didn’t have a stretch like the Dodgers’ 44-7 run. Instead, they took over first place in the AL West in mid-April and ran away with the division. Their best month was May, when they went 22-7 on their way to a first-half winning percentage of .674, best in the AL. They had a lull in August, when they went 11-17, but bounced back by going 21-8 in September/October to win their division by 21 games.
Only one other Houston team has won more games than this year’s group. The 1998 Astros won 102 games before losing in the NLDS. Their top player was second baseman Craig Biggio, who finished fifth in NL MVP voting. Their best player this year is Jose Altuve, who should finish first or second in AL MVP voting.
2003—Yankees, Braves, Giants
101-61 New York Yankees
101-61 Atlanta Braves
100-61 San Francisco Giants
The 2003 Yankees were part of a long stretch of playoff teams in the Bronx. They made the postseason 17 times in 18 years from 1995 to 2012, including 13 years in a row at the beginning of that stretch. The 2003 team won the AL East by six games, beat the Minnesota Twins in the ALDS, and edged the Boston Red Sox in seven games in the ALCS.
That ALCS is best remembered for Red Sox manager Grady Little leaving Pedro Martinez in well past his expiration date. The Red Sox led 5-2 going into the bottom of the eighth but Pedro was nearing the 100-pitch mark. He ended up blowing the lead, with the help of Mike Timlin. The Yankees won the game in the bottom of the 11th inning on Aaron Boone’s home run off of Tim Wakefield.
After that exhausting series with the Red Sox, the Yankees lost the World Series in six games to the Florida Marlins. It was their second World Series loss in three seasons and they wouldn’t make the Fall Classic again until 2009.
The 101-win 2003 Atlanta Braves were nearing the end of their long streak of postseason appearances that lasted for most of the 1990s and the first half of the 2000s (minus the 1994 strike season). This team had Braves mainstays Chipper and Andruw Jones, power hitting Gary Sheffield, and an incredible 43-homer season from catcher Javy Lopez.
On the mound, only Greg Maddux remained in the starting rotation of The Big Three of Maddux, Glavine, and Smoltz. Smoltz was in his third season in the team’s bullpen. He was excellent in that role in 2003, finishing the year with 45 saves and a 1.12 ERA in 64.3 innings. Tom Glavine was pitching his first season with the New York Mets.
The Braves won the NL East by 109 games over the Marlins, but lost to the Chicago Cubs in the NLDS. Those Cubs would go on to lose the NLCS to the Marlins after taking a three-games-to-two lead into Game Six, then blowing a 3-0 lead in that game and losing Game Seven the next day. That blown Game Six would become known as “The Bartman Game” but could easily be called the “Alex Gonzalez” game because of the error made by the shortstop at a key moment in the eighth inning.
The Giants were the third 100-win team in 2003. They easily won the NL West over the Dodgers but lost the NLDS to the Marlins, three games to one. You may have heard of the left fielder for the Giants this year. His name is Barry Bonds. At 38 years old, Bonds hit .341/.529/.749. Per Baseball-Reference, he was worth 9.2 WAR, which makes this only the seventh-best season of his career.
It’s surprising that this team won 100 games. They finished fifth in the NL in runs scored. Surprisingly, their pitching staff allowed the second-fewest runs in the NL despite a pitching rotation that had only one starter pitch enough innings to qualify for the ERA title. That was Jason Schmidt, who was 17-5 with a 2.34 ERA in 207.7 innings. The rest of the rotation included Kirk Rueter (10-5, 4.53 ERA), Damian Moss (9-7, 4.70 ERA), Jesse Foppert (8-9, 5.03 ERA), and Jerome Williams (7-5, 3.30 ERA).
2002—Yankees, Athletics, Braves
103-58 New York Yankees
103-59 Oakland Athletics
101-59 Atlanta Braves
The 2002 season came one win short of having four 100-win teams. Along with the Yankees, Athletics, and Braves winning 100 or more games, the Anaheim Angels went 99-63. Had they not lost their 160th game, a 7-6 defeat in 12 innings to the Seattle Mariners, they would have hit the century mark in wins.
This Yankees team not only won 103 games in the regular season, they also made the playoffs for the eighth year in a row. Unfortunately for Yankees fans who were accustomed to the team advancing deep into the postseason, this Yankees team lost to the Angels in the ALDS. It was the first time in five years the Yankees didn’t make it to the World Series.
The 2002 A’s were the team made famous by the Michael Lewis book that was made into the movie Moneyball. The A’s got off to a good start, then slumped. Their fortunes picked up in June when they went on a 16-1 run from June 6 to June 24. They would be even better in August when they had an incredible 20-game winning streak that was the AL record until Cleveland surpassed it this year.
Of course, like every A’s playoff team since 1990, they lost in the playoffs. This time, it was in five games to the Minnesota Twins in the ALDS, which was a nice change after losing in five games to the Yankees in each of the previous two seasons. They would lose in five games to the Red Sox the following year. Losing in five games in the ALDS was kind of the A’s thing in the early 2000s.
The 2002 season was the last year Maddux, Glavine, and Smoltz would be together during the Braves long run of success in the 1990s and early 2000s. Maddux was 16-6, with a 2.62 ERA. Glavine went 18-11, with a 2.96 ERA. Smoltz had moved to the bullpen a year earlier after missing the 2000 season with an injury. He saved a league-leading 55 games in 2002.
After winning their division, the Braves faced the San Francisco Giants in the NLDS. They took a two-games-to-one lead but lost Games Four and Five in San Francisco when Glavine was rocked in Game Four and the offense was stifled in Game Five. They would also lose in the NLDS in each of the next three seasons as the dynasty faded out with just one World Series victory in 14 postseason appearances.
1998—Yankees, Braves, Astros
114-48 New York Yankees
106-56 Atlanta Braves
102-60 Houston Astros
The first time there were three 100-win teams in one season was 1942. It happened again 35 years later, in 1977, then not again for another 21 years. Then, suddenly, it happened three times in six years. All three times, two of the three teams were the Yankees and Braves.
Like the previous time there were three 100-win teams, back in the expansion year of 1977, the 1998 season was also an expansion year. The Arizona Diamondbacks joined the National League and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays (now the Rays) joined the American League.
The Yankees took advantage of the expansion Devil Rays by beating them 11 out of 12 times. They went 10-0 against the Kansas City Royals, 9-3 against the Baltimore Orioles, and 8-3 against four different teams. This was the year the Yankees won 114 games, the second-most in MLB history. They won nearly 77 percent of their games at home and finished 22 games ahead of the 92-win Red Sox.
Shortstop Derek Jeter led the AL in runs scored, with 127, and finished third in AL MVP voting. Per Baseball-Reference, this was the second-best season of his career. The rest of the team could hit the ball also. These Yankees scored 965 runs, which ranks them 19th in MLB history.
In the postseason, the Yankees swept the Rangers in three games in the ALDS, allowing just a single run in the series. It took them six games to dispatch of the Cleveland Indians in the ALCS. The World Series was a nice, four-game sweep of the San Diego Padres. They would sweep the Braves in the World Series the next season, then make it three in a row with a four-games-to-one win over the New York Mets in 2000. This was the peak of Yankees greatness at the turn of the millennium.
The 106 wins by the 1998 Braves is the most in franchise history. Their regular five-man starting rotation went 88-37 and started 153 of the team’s 162 games. Of course, they had the Hall of Fame trifecta of Maddux (18-9, 2.22 ERA), Glavine (20-6, 2.47 ERA), and Smoltz (17-3, 2.90 ERA). Denny Neagle (16-11, 3.55 ERA) and Kevin Millwood (17-8, 4.08 ERA) rounded out the rotation.
Not only were the Braves terrific on the mound, leading all of baseball with a 3.25 ERA, they were also in the top 10 in runs scored and led the league in fielding (Total Zone, per FanGraphs). Andruw Jones was the best-fielding center fielder in baseball and hit .271/.321/.515, with 31 homers and 90 RBI. He was one of four Braves to smack 30 or more long balls, along with Chipper Jones (34), Javy Lopez (34), and the Big Cat, Andres Galarraga (44).
After a terrific regular season, the Braves swept the Cubs in three straight to advance to the NLCS. Then, like so many of those Braves teams, they lost in the NLCS to the San Diego Padres. The Padres would go on to be swept by the 114-win Yankees in the World Series.
The 1998 Astros were the first team in franchise history to win 100 games. This year’s Astros are the second. The 1998 Astros were the team of Biggio and Bagwell (and a third “Killer B”, Derek Bell). Biggo set the table at the top of the lineup with 123 runs scored, 50 steals, and a .403 OBP. Bagwell cleared the dishes with 34 homers, 111 RBI, and a .557 slugging percentage. Bell had the best year of his career, hitting .314/.364/.490, with 111 runs, 22 homers and 108 RBI. This was four years before Bell initiated “Operation Shutdown” as a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Shane Reynolds led the pitching staff with 19 wins, but mid-season acquisition Randy Johnson became the staff ace down the stretch. He was 10-1 with a 1.28 ERA in 11 starts with the Astros. Johnson started the first game of the NLDS against the Padres, but was outdueled by Kevin Brown, who had 16 strikeouts in eight shutout innings. The Astros came back to win Game Two, but lost Games Three and Four and were done for the year.
1977—Royals, Phillies, Yankees
102-60 Kansas City Royals
101-61 Philadelphia Phillies
100-62 New York Yankees
With the Royals, Phillies, and Yankees all reaching the century mark, the 1977 season was only the second time in history in which three teams won at least 100 games. It helped that the AL had two expansion teams. The Toronto Blue Jays went 54-107 and the Seattle Mariners were 64-98. The AL also had the Oakland A’s, who were even worse than the Mariners by a half-game.
The National League almost had two 100-win teams also. The Phillies finished with 101 wins, while the Dodgers finished 98-64. An 11-10 stretch to close out the season left them two wins short. The bottom-feeders in the NL this year were the 64-98 New York Mets and the 61-101 Atlanta Braves. You need to have some awful teams in order to have some great teams.
As you’d expect, the best player on the 1977 Royals was George Brett, who hit .312/.373/.532. He filled the stat sheet with 32 doubles, 13 triples, and 22 home runs. He also scored 105 runs, drove in 88, and stole 14 bases. It was the fourth-best season of his career.
Brett had help on offense from Al Cowens (23 HR, 112 RBI) and Hal McCrae (21 HR, 92 RBI). Not only were they all great run-producers, they all reached double-digits in doubles, triples, and home runs. On the mound, Dennis Leonard was 20-12, with a 3.04 ERA. He pitched 292.7 innings and had 21 complete games, which is unheard of these days. Jim Colborn (18-14, 3.62 ERA) and Paul Splittorff (16-6, 3.69 ERA) each pitched more than 225 innings.
In the ALCS, the Royals faced a Yankees team that won 100 games for the first time since 1963. The Yankees had lost the World Series in four games to the Big Red Machine the year before and were looking to get back to the Fall Classic. Graig Nettles and Mickey Rivers were the team’s best players according to Baseball-Reference WAR, but Thurman Munson was the team captain and Reggie Jackson would be the first to tell you HE was the best player on that team and every other team he played on.
The five-game ALCS was a rematch from the previous year. In 1976, the Yankees beat the Royals in five games thanks in large part to a Chris Chambliss home run in the ninth inning of Game Five. In 1977, the Royals jumped out to a two-games-to-one lead, but lost Game Four, so it would come down to another Game Five.
The team’s aces, Paul Splittorff and Ron Guidry, were on the bump, but only Splittorff would pitch like an ace. Guidry was removed in the third inning. The Royals took a 3-1 lead into the eighth inning. A Reggie Jackson RBI-single made it 3-2. That would be all the Yankees got in the eighth, but they still had one more inning to go.
Dennis Leonard came on to pitch the ninth with the Royals needing three outs to get to the World Series. Paul Blair singled and Roy White walked and Leonard was replaced by lefty Larry Gura. Mickey Rivers singled in Blair to tie the game and Gura was replaced by Mark Littell, who promptly gave up a sacrifice fly to Willie Randolph that put the Yankees ahead. An error a couple batters later by George Brett made it 5-3 Yankees, which would be the final score.
After winning the ALCS, the Yankees faced their longtime rivals in the NL, the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Yankees won the series in six games. It was their first World Series title since 1962 and the only World Series title that Billy Martin ever won as a manager. This was the Fall Classic in which Reggie Jackson earned his “Mr. October” nickname, in part because he blasted three home runs in Game 6.
While the Yankees and Royals were reaching the 100-win threshold in the AL, the Phillies were doing it in the NL. Mike Schmidt (38 HR, 101 RBI) and Greg “Bull” Luzinski (39 HR, 130 RBI) were the big boppers. Luzinski finished second in NL MVP voting even though he finished with less than half the WAR as Schmidt (8.8 WAR for Schmidt to 4.2 WAR for Luzinski).
The staff ace was NL Cy Young winner Steve Carlton, who went 23-10 with a 2.64 ERA in 283 innings. Larry Christensen won 19 games despite a 4.06 ERA. He also hit three home runs and had 13 RBI. The bullpen trifecta of Gene Garber, Ron Reed, and Tug McGraw combined for 43 saves and a sub-3.00 ERA.
After winning the NL East by five games, the Phillies squared off against the Dodgers in the NLCS. They lost, three games to one. Mike Schmidt was 1 for 16 and Steve Carlton had a 6.94 ERA in 11.7 innings. It’s tough to win when your two best players perform so poorly.
1942—Cardinals, Dodgers, Yankees
106-48 St. Louis Cardinals
104-50 Brooklyn Dodgers
103-51 New York Yankees
The 1942 season was the first time MLB had three teams win 100 or more games. The St. Louis Cardinals beat out the Los Angeles Dodgers by two games in the National League, which must have been quite frustrating for the 104-win Dodgers. The third place team was 18 games back of the Dodgers. Down at the bottom of the NL were the Pittsburgh Pirates, who went 42-109 and finished 62.5 games behind the Cardinals. In a surprising twist, of all the teams the Cardinals played that year, they had their second-worst record against the Pirates.
This was Stan Musial’s first full season in the big leagues. He was good, but was about to become great. From 1943 to 1948, Musial won three NL MVP Awards in the five seasons he played (he missed 1945 because of WWII). Even though he wasn’t at that level yet, he was still a five-win player.
The Brooklyn Dodgers finished two games behind the Cardinals in large part because they were 9-13 in head-to-head matchups. The Cardinals were the only team they had trouble beating. The Dodgers actually led the Cardinals by a large margin at the All-Star Break, but couldn’t hold them back over the second half of the season. Pee Wee Reese, Dolph Camilli, and Pete Reiser were the team’s best players.
Reese was just 23 years old but already in his third season with the boys in blue. He would miss the next three seasons while serving in the military. Camilli led the team with 26 homers and 109 RBI. Reiser had burst upon the scene the previous year with a league-leading .343 batting average, 117 runs, 39 doubles, and 17 triples in his first full year in the big leagues. He finished second in NL MVP voting.
Reiser’s story is a sad one. He was an incredible athlete who could do it all on the baseball diamond when he first came up. After his terrific 1941 season, he hit .361/.416/.541 in the first half of the 1942 season. Then tragedy struck. In a game on July 19, the Cardinals’ Enos Slaughter belted a long drive to center. Reiser raced back and caught the ball in his glove, then slammed into the concrete wall as the ball fell to the ground. He was able to get up and throw the ball back in, then collapsed with a separated shoulder and blood oozing from his ears.
That injury, and others that followed, changed the course of his career. He hit .258/.335/.381 in the second half of the season, then missed three years due to military service. He came back from WWII to play seven more seasons but wasn’t close to the player he’d once been as injuries continued to pile up. According to this SABR article, “Reiser was carried off the field on a stretcher eleven times—six times conscious, five times not.”
While the Cardinals and Dodgers were battling it out in the NL, the Yankees finished nine games ahead of the Red Sox in the AL. Second baseman Joe Gordon won the AL MVP Award (that should have gone to Ted Williams). Charlie Keller, Joe DiMaggio, and Scooter Rizzuto were also very good.
The Yankees starting rotation had 21-game winner Tiny Bonham and 16-game winner Spud Chandler. Veteran Red Ruffing was 14-7, with a 3.21 ERA. The Yankees scored the most runs in the AL and allowed the fewest, for a terrific +294 run-differential.
Next: Top ten Midwest League propsects
The 1942 World Series began with a Yankees’ win, but the Cardinals then won four straight games to take the title. Johnny Beazley earned two of the wins with two complete games and Enos Slaughter hit .263/.364/.474. In a year in which three teams won 100 or more games for the first time ever, it was fitting that the winningest of them all took home the World Series trophy.