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Pittsburgh Pirates: The franchise all-time bracket

By Bill Felber

BRADENTON, FL - MARCH 18: Field level general view of the Pittsburgh Pirates logo on the field before the Spring Training game against the Philadelphia Phillies at McKechnie Field on March 18, 1999 in Bradenton, Florida. (Photo by Vincent Laforet/Getty Images)
BRADENTON, FL - MARCH 18: Field level general view of the Pittsburgh Pirates logo on the field before the Spring Training game against the Philadelphia Phillies at McKechnie Field on March 18, 1999 in Bradenton, Florida. (Photo by Vincent Laforet/Getty Images) /
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(Photo by Morris Berman/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
(Photo by Morris Berman/MLB Photos via Getty Images) /

Five World Champions square off with three other great teams for the Pittsburgh Pirates franchise supremacy.

Since the loss of its stars to free agency in the early 1990s, the Pittsburgh Pirates have generally been one of MLB’s laggard franchises. Since 1992, only four Pirates teams have posted winning records, all of those since 2013.

Historically, however, it’s a different story. Established in the early 1880s, the Pirates – despite their consistent recent losing ways – have a .503 franchise winning percentage. They also have produced five teams that won the World Series, plus a dozen others that made post-season appearances.

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In fact, it was a Pirate team – the 1903 club – that represented Pittsburgh in the first modern World Series ever played, losing to Boston in 1903.

The Pirates have a curious tendency to produce players whose standing approaches the status of mythical. Honus Wagner spent virtually all of his career with Pittsburgh. Roberto Clemente and later Willie Stargell were lifetime Pirates. So was Paul Waner.

Those men all were elected to the Hall of Fame – Wagner with the inaugural class – and today are recognized as among the game’s immortals by any criteria, including off-field contributions.

The eight Pirate teams selected for this all-time bracket include the five World Series winners – the teams of 1909, 1925, 1960, 1971 and 1979. Supplementing the field are three teams of unquestioned caliber that fill out the franchise’s storied history. They are the Pittsburgh Pirates of 1902, 1991 and 2015.

Related Story. Milwaukee Brewers: The all-time tournament. light

Each matchup in the tournament is decided based on seven criteria. You can think of each as a ‘game,’ the winner of four games advancing. The seven criteria are:

  1. Game 1: Regular season winning percentage.
  2. Game 2: Post-season winning percentage
  3. Game 3: Team OPS+
  4. Game 4: Team ERA+
  5. Game 5 (if necessary): Team WAR
  6. Game 6 (if necessary: Fielding percentage above the league average for the season in question.
  7. Game 7 (if necessary): Hall of Famers or likely future Hall of Famers
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