The Arizona Diamondbacks have produced one World Series winner. But there are other contenders, including some from the team’s recent history.
At first glance, an Arizona Diamondbacks franchise bracket would appear to come down to whether any team could challenge the franchise’s only World Series winners.
After all, the 2001 D-Backs had a couple of pretty good aces at the top of the rotation in Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling. They also had hitting that was clutch enough to carry them past a strong New York Yankees team in seven games.
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Thus they enter the bracket as strong favorites.
Yet there are potential hurdles. The 1999 team won the franchise’s first National; League pennant, and did so in only Arizona’s second season. It also actually won a franchise-record 100 games, eight more than the 2001 champions.
The 2017 post-season team also cannot be ignored. The 2017 club featured Paul Goldschmidt at first base, winning the wild card game before being eliminated in the division round.
The 2002 Diamondbacks failed to repeat as world champions, but they did win 98 games, making them a strong fourth entry.
The bracket’s final four spots go to four teams that compiled the best regular-season records, the 2000, 2007, 2011 and 2019 clubs.
The format is identical to previous bracket challenges. 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:
- Game 1: Regular season winning percentage.
- Game 2: Post-season winning percentage
- Game 3: Team OPS+
- Game 4: Team ERA+
- Game 5 (if necessary): Team WAR
- Game 6 (if necessary: Fielding percentage above the league average for the season in question.
- Game 7 (if necessary): The standard for Game 7 is Hall of Famers or likely future Hall of Famers.