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Baltimore Orioles: The franchise all-time bracket

By Bill Felber

SARASOTA, FLORIDA - MARCH 20: A general view of the orioles logo before a spring training game between the Baltimore Orioles and the Boston Red Sox at Ed Smith Stadium on March 20, 2019 in Sarasota, Florida. (Photo by Julio Aguilar/Getty Images)
SARASOTA, FLORIDA - MARCH 20: A general view of the orioles logo before a spring training game between the Baltimore Orioles and the Boston Red Sox at Ed Smith Stadium on March 20, 2019 in Sarasota, Florida. (Photo by Julio Aguilar/Getty Images) /
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Earl Weaver manager of the Baltimore Orioles. (Photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images)
Earl Weaver manager of the Baltimore Orioles. (Photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images) /

The Baltimore Orioles dominated the AL for nearly 2-decades. Several teams from that era are candidates as best in franchise history, but which is best?

For decades in the mid to late 20th Century, the Baltimore Orioles ranked among baseball’s dominant teams.

Between 1966 and 1983, the Orioles won three World Series, played in three others, won eight American League or AL East pennants, and won 500 more games than they lost.

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So it’s no wonder that the era dominates the Orioles’ All-Time bracket. Among the eight teams playing for the title of best in Orioles history, five are from that period: 1966, 1970 and 1983 World Champions as well as the 1969 and 1979 American League pennant winners.

One could as easily include the AL champion 1971 Orioles, but the era is so well represented already that throwing that team in would be overkill.

Selecting the other three franchise representatives is not difficult. The 1997 and 2014 Orioles won the franchise’s two most recent division titles. It is also appropriate to save one spot for the only pennant winner from the franchise’s pre-Baltimore days, the 1944 St. Louis Browns. That makes eight.

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:

  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): The standard for Game 7 is Hall of Famers or likely future Hall of Famers.
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