The 10 best MLB teams of the now-concluding 2010s

The Houston Astros 2017-19 powerhouses hold three places among the decade’s 10 best MLB teams…but they all take a back seat to a championship rival.

Let’s get one thing straight at the outset. This is NOT a ranking of the decade’s 10 World Series champions. Although post-season success is an important consideration in ranking  MLB teams, it’s just one of four factors on which this ranking is based.

That’s why the recently crowned Washington Nationals are nowhere to be found on this list.

Honestly, the multi-layered post-season system simply introduces too much of an arbitrary element to be a primary indicator of team superiority. After all, three of the decade’s 10 World Series champions did not even win their own divisions. The 2011 Cardinals, 2014 Giants and 2019 Nationals all were wild card entries.

This rating of the decade’s 10 best teams considers four criteria. The criteria, with points awarded, are:

• Post-season success: World Series winner (5), World Series loser (3), and LCS losers 1.5 each).
• Regular-season record: The five best with points awarded on a 5-4-3-2-1 scale.
• Offense based on the five best team scores in OPS+: 5-4-3-2-1.
• Pitching based on the five best team scores in ERA+: 5-4-3-2-1.

That means a perfect score is 20 points for a team that won the World Series, had the season’s best record, and led the majors in both OPS+ and ERA+. For the record, no such team existed during the 2010-19 decade.

In the event of ties, post-season success is the tie-breaker.

It is a testament to the arbitrary nature of the post-season that only five of the decade’s 10 best MLB teams actually won the World Series. In fact, two of the decade’s 10 best were eliminated in the division series round. One lost at the League Championship Series level, and two others lost in the World Series.

Without further ado, here’s a look  at the decade’s 10 best MLB teams

The 10 best MLB teams of the now-concluding 2010s

T-9. 2011 Philadelphia Phillies, 10  points

Three years removed from their 2008 World Series win, the 2011 Phillies had the talent to repeat. They sailed through the regular season, winning an MLB-best 102 games to claim the NL East by 13 games. With an All-Star staff including Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Cole Hamels, and Roy Oswalt,  the Phils dominated pitching stats in 2011, compiling a 127 ERA+ that was a full 10 points better than any other team.

Halladay went 19-6 with a 2.35 ERA, and Lee complimented him with a 17-8 record and 2.40 ERA.

Although the offense did not produce at the rate of the team’s 2008 world championship club, Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, and Jimmy Rollins were still good enough to constitute a legitimate middle of the order.  Howard delivered 33 home runs and 116 RBIs.

Unfortunately, the St. Louis Cardinals did just enough damage to take out the Phils in the NLDS. After the favorites won two of the first three games, Edwin Jackson beat Oswalt in a 5-3 fourth game victory sealed on David Freese’s two-run home run.

Two days later, Chris Carpenter out-pitched Halladay in a stirring 1-0 duel in which the Phillies managed just three hits. The Cardinals went on to beat Texas in the World Series, intensifying the wonderment among Phillies fans of what might have been.

The 10 best MLB teams of the now-concluding 2010s

T-9. 2015 St. Louis Cardinals, 10 points

Based purely on regular-season performance, the Cardinals should have won the 2015 World Series. With a major league-high 100 victories, they dominated baseball’s toughest division, the NL Central, which also produced both of the National League’s wild card teams.

St. Louis’ strength was its deep pitching staff, the majors’ best. With five double-figure winners in the rotation, the Cardinals rang up a team 134 OPS+, 13 points better than any other team.

If the Cardinals had a weakness, it was an at-best average offense led by Matt Carpenter and Matt Holliday.

In the post-season, however, St. Louis ran afoul of the depth in its own division. After the third-place Chicago Cubs dispatched runner-up Pittsburgh in the wild card game, they spotted St. Louis a 4-0 Game 1 win and then swept the Cardinals three straight.

The vaunted pitching staff came up small in St. Louis and Chicago, allowing six, eight and six runs. In the fourth game, Anthony Rizzo’s sixth-inning home run off Kevin Siegrist broke a 4-4 tie, and Kyle Schwarber also homered off Siegrist to set the 6-4 final.

The Cardinals’ defeat opened the way for the NL East winning New York Mets to claim the National League pennant. In the World Series, Kansas City’s Royals polished off the Mets in five games.

The 10 best MLB teams of the now-concluding 2010s

7. 2018 Houston Astros, 11 points

But for the rise of the Boston Red Sox, the Houston Astros might have made it three straight American League pennants between 2017 and 2019.

The 2018 Astros were, on paper at least, the equal of both the 2017 and 2019 teams. Four-deep in dominant starters, they had the majors’ best pitching, compiling a 134 ERA+. Justin Verlander (16-9), Gerrit Cole (15-5), Dallas Keuchel (12-11) and Charlie Morton 915-3) all were double-digit winners, and among them, they took care of all but 32 of Houston’s starts.

Compared with their principal competition the Red Sox, Houston’s only weakness was its offense which, while good, wasn’t in a league with Boston’s. Behind its core 3 of Altuve, Bregman, and Springer, the Astros tied for fourth in OPS+ at 106 behind the Red Sox, Yankees, and Athletics.

Still, Houston was good enough to build a six-game margin over Oakland in the AL West, and to take out AL Central champion Cleveland in three games in the division round.

That set up an ALCS showdown with the Red Sox. The series was an exercise in frustration for the Astros, who were thoroughly dominated by their soon-to-be successors as world champions. Boston pitching held the Astros to a team .219 batting average, while Houston pitchers compiled a 5.52 team ERA.

After a 7-2 Astros victory in the series opener, the Red Sox rolled the defending champs four straight, Price defeating Verlander 4-1 in the finale.

The 10 best MLB teams of the now-concluding 2010s

6. 2010 San Francisco Giants, 11 points

At 92-70, the Giants brought only the majors’ fifth-best record into post-season play. They held on down the stretch to beat out the San Diego Padres by two games for the NL West title, using six pitchers to beat the Padres 3-0 on the season’s final day to win a post-season berth.

Had they not won that final game, the Giants would have been thrown into a playoff against the Atlanta Braves for the National League’s wild-card spot.

Still, Bruce Bochy’s first of three World Series champions had plenty going for them, especially on the mound. Led by Tim Lincecum (16-10, 3.43), Matt Cain (13-11, 3.14) and a mid-season call-up named Madison Bumgarner (7-56, 3.00), the Giants compiled a 117 ERA+ that was the majors’ best.

Closer Brian Wilson ran up 48 saves.

In the division series, the Giants knocked off those Braves in four games, then beat the Phillies in six. Juan Uribe’s 8th inning home run broke up a 2-2 tie.

The World Series victory over Texas came in a surprisingly easy five games. Bumgarner’s 4-0 Game 4 shutout gave the Giants a 3 games to 1 advantage, and one day later Lincecum closed the Series out with a 3-1 victory. Between them, Bumgarner and Lincecum held the Rangers to a total of six hits in those final two games.

The 10 best MLB teams of the now-concluding 2010s

5. 2013 Boston Red Sox, 14 12 points

Coming off a 97-win season and matching the Cardinals for the majors’ best record, the Red Sox were a favorite to make a strong run at the World Series title. They didn’t disappoint.

The Sox’ strength was their offense, statistically the majors’ best. DH David Ortiz led that attack with 30 home runs and 103 RBIs, but he got plenty of help from veteran Dustin Pedroia. The team’s batting average was .277; its 116 OPS+ led the majors.

The pitching staff was not as deep, but with Jon Lester (15-8, 3.75) and John Lackey (10-3, 3.52) it was experienced and good enough.

The Red Sox eliminated baseball’s first wild-card game-winner, the Tampa Bay Rays, in four games before taking out the Detroit Tigers in six games for the American League championship.

In the World Series, they met the St. Louis Cardinals in a rare matchup of the majors’ two best records. St. Louis won two of the first three games, but Jonny Gomes’ three-run sixth-inning home run carried Boston to a series-evening 4-2 win in Game 4.

It was all the Red Sox needed. Lester beat the Cardinals 4-1 on a four-hitter in Game 5, and Shane Victorino’s four RBIs provided more offense than Boston needed in the 6 -1 clincher.

The 10 best MLB teams of the now-concluding 2010s

4. 2016 Chicago Cubs, 16 ½ points

The Cubs famously broke their 108-year-old World Series drought with a team that deserved the championship it won. Chicago entered post-season play with both the majors’ best record – 103-58 – and the best pitching staff.

Jon Lester went 19-5 and Jake Arrieta 18-8 to lead that staff, but Kyle Hendricks contributed a 16-8 record and 2.13 ERA. Chicago’s 133 ERA+ was 11 points better than any other team.

Its offense, with Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo as the focal points, ranked fourth with a 104 OPS+ behind only Boston, Detroit, and Seattle.

The Cubs eliminated San Francisco in four games in the division round, then beat the Dodgers in six in the NLCS to earn their first World Series trip since 1945. In an emotional Series replete with stories of multi-generational fan bases on both sides, the Cubs fell behind the mutually title-starved Cleveland Indians 3 games to 1, then came back to win the final three games.

The seventh, a World Series classic, saw the Cubs surrender a three-run lead on Rajai Davis’ eighth-inning home run, then survive a brief rain delay before winning 8-7 in extra innings. In the 10th, World Series MVP Ben Zobrist and Miguel Montero drove in the go-ahead runs, and journeyman Mike Montgomery recorded the final out.

The 10 best MLB teams of the now-concluding 2010s

3. 2019 Houston Astros, 18 points

In the record books, the Washington Nationals are crowned as champions of 2019 by virtue of their four games to three victory this week over the AL champion Astros.

Based purely on the data, however, there’s no doubt that the Astros had the better team – in fact, they had one of the best teams of the decade.

Houston’s failure to win a second World Series in three seasons is largely ascribable to the element of caprice inherent in any seven-game series between relatively even teams. The easiest way to get your arms around that concept is to remember that the visiting team won all seven games. There’s no logical explanation for why that should happen.

In fact, the Astros were the decade’s most dominant non-champion. They had the majors’ best regular-season record (107-55), one game better than the Dodgers, four games better than the Yankees and 14 games better than the Nationals.

They were the only team all decade to possess both the majors’ best offense and best pitching, as determined by their 119 OPS+ and 127 ERA+.

They lacked only a victory in Wednesday’s seventh World Series game to give them a perfect score of 20 points on our “decade’s greatest teams” scale. That single loss drops them into third place for the decade.

The 10 best MLB teams of the now-concluding 2010s

2. 2017 Houston Astros, 18 points

Houston’s 101 regular-season victories were just one fewer than the AL-leading Cleveland Indians.  But the Astros cruised to the AL West title by an imposing 21 games and featured a deep offense led by American League MVP and batting champion Jose Altuve (.346), third baseman Alex Bregman and outfielder George Springer (34 home runs).

With a 123 OPS+, that offense was baseball’s best.

The pitching staff was not as deep, at least not until a waiver deadline deal brought Justin Verlander over from Detroit. Verlander went 5-0 across the season’s final month, joining with veterans Dallas Keuchel and Charlie Morton to solidify Houston’s three-deep playoff rotation.

In that post-season, the Astros eliminated Boston in four games, then prevailed in a tense seven-game American League Championship Series against the New York Yankees. Morton shut out the Yankees 4-0 on three hits in the deciding contest.

That earned Houston the right to make its first World Series appearance since moving to the American League. Pitted against the National League champion Dodgers, they prevailed in seven thanks to Springer’s 11 hits and seven RBIs. Verlander lost his only decision, but Morton held the Dodgers to a single run in the seventh game in Los Angeles.

The 10 best MLB teams of the now-concluding 2010s

1. 2018 Boston Red Sox, 18 1/2 points

Boston’s 2018 World Series champions come closest of any team in the decade to maxing out the four criteria for greatness.

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The Red Sox’ 112 ERA+ matched the Yankees as the majors’ best offense. Led by AL MVP and batting champion Mookie Betts (.346) and by DH J.D. Martinez (43 home runs), they led the majors in runs scored (876), batting average (.268) on-base percentage (.339) and slugging (.453).

The Red Sox combined that with the majors’ second-best pitching staff behind only the Houston Astros.   Rick Porcello and David Price combined for 33 wins, and Chris Sale went 12-4 during an injury-marred season that reduced him to 27 starts. It added up to a 118 team ERA+, exceeded only by the Astros.

After eliminating the Yankees in four games in the division series, the Red Sox squared off against the Astros in the ALCS. It was no contest, Boston winning in five games.

Advancing to the World Series against the two-time National League champion Dodgers, Boston made short work of them as well. With lightly regarded Steve Pearce delivering eight RBIs and the Boston staff holding Los Angeles to a team .180 World Series batting average, the Sox won in five games. LA’s only win was a memorable 18-inning marathon in Game 3. Price pitched the clincher, besting Clayton Kershaw 5-1 on a three-hitter.