New York Yankees: The franchise all-time bracket
The all-time New York Yankees bracket features legendary teams from 1927 to 2009. All eight entrants were World Series champions, several by sweeps.
The first trick to winning an all-time New York Yankees bracket is qualifying for an all-time Yankees bracket.
After all, the franchise can lay claim to 27 World Series titles, a number that overflows an eight-team bracket pretty thoroughly.
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So selecting the competitors will require a few rules.
First, we’ll require at least one, but no more than two, teams from every era. For the purpose, these are the eras:
- The Ruth-Gehrig era, 1923-1932. We’re picking 1927 and 1932, both of which swept their World Series after dominating their regular seasons.
- The DiMaggio-Gehrig era, 1936-1949. The 1936 and 1939 teams are the two best.
- The Mantle era, 1951-1962. The obvious selections are the 1953 and 1961 champions.
- The Core Four era, 1996-2009. The 1998 club is an obvious choice, and the 2009 World Series winners make an excellent modern complement.
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That leaves out some powerful teams, notably the1923, 1928, 1938, 1943, 1956, 1977 and 2000 World Series winners. But hey, the number eight is a cruel taskmaster.
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.
New York Yankees: The All-Time Bracket
No. 1 vs. 8 seed
The 1927 New York Yankees are the legendary ‘Murderer’s Row’ team. Babe Ruth set the home run record with 60, added 165 RBIs, and in the process hit .356 … just because he could. Lou Gehrig pounded 47 homers and 173 RBIs while batting .373. Gehrig, by the way, beat out Ruth for the MVP.
Outfielder Bob Meusel and second baseman Tony Lazzeri each drove in more than 100 runs.
As a team, the Yankees scored 121 more runs than any other American League team…that’s 16 percent more. They hit 158 home runs, 47 more than the next two teams combined.
Pitching? The Yankees had four 18-game winners, one of whom – Wilcy Moore – did it in just 12 starts. Waite Hoyt was 22-7 with a 2.63 ERA.
The 2009 Yankees draw the honor of testing that legendary team. The 2009 team won 103 games, claiming the East by eight games. Derek Jeter hit .334, Robinson Cano batted .320, and Alex Rodriguez drove in 100 runs with a 30-homer season. Mark Teixeira hit 39 homers with 122 RBIs.
C.C. Sabathia led the pitchers with a 19-8 record and 3.37 ERA in 34 starts. Andy Pettitte was 14-8, and Mariano Rivera saved 44 games.
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Game 1: The 2009 Yankees’ 103-59 record amounts to a .636 percentage. But the 1927 team was 110-44, a .714 percentage.
Game 2: The 2009 team won 11 of its 15 post-season games, a .733 percentage. As good as that is, it doesn’t live up to the 1927 team’s 1.000 post-season percentage thanks to a four-game World Series sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Game 3: The 2009 Yanks of Jeter, A-Rod, Teixeira and Cano had a 109 OPS+. But Ruth produced a 225, Gehrig delivered a 200, and the 1927 team added up to 127.
Game 4: In 2009, the champions accumulated a 108 staff ERA+. But that doesn’t even approach the 1927 team’s 122 ERA+.
Result: 1927 in four games
New York Yankees: The All-Time Bracket
No. 4 vs. 5 seed
DiMaggio was a 21-year-old rookie in 1936; he debuted with a .323 average, 29 home runs and 125 runs batted in. The only reason he wasn’t a unanimous Rookie of the Year selection was that the award hadn’t been invented yet.
Gehrig, the team veteran, batted .354 with 49 homers and 152 RBIs. Catcher Bill Dickey added a .362 average, 22 homers and 107 RBIs. Lazzeri and outfielder George Selkirk also topped 100 in that department.
The team batting average was .300.
With that kind of offense, pitching was essentially optional. Still, the Yanks offered up Red Ruffing, 20-12, 3.85, and Monte Pearson, 19-7, 3.71.
Gehrig was also a feature of the great 1932 team that won 107 games, captured the pennant by 13 games, then swept the Chicago Cubs in a World Series made memorable by the legend of Babe Ruth’s Called Shot. Still operating as supporting actor to Ruth, Gehrig batted .349 with 34 homers and 151 RBIs. The Babe? He hit .341 with 41 and 137. Lazzeri again topped 100 RBIs, as did outfielder Ben Chapman.
Lefty Gomez that year was 24-7 despite a 4.21 ERA. Ironically, Ruffing only managed an 18-7 record despite an ERA that was more than a point better than Gomez at 3.09.
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Game 1: The 1932 Yankees’ 107-47 regular-season record works out to a .694 percentage. In 1936 the Yanks were 102-51, .667. How .667 is a losing percentage is a subject for greater minds than this one, but it is.
Game 2: The 1936 Yanks knocked off the Giants in five games. But the 2932 team dispatched the Cubs in four. That makes it 2-0 for 1932.
Game 3: The 1936 team produced a 115 team OPS+. But the 1932 team produced a 119 OPS+. This series is on the verge of a sweep.
Game 4: Not yet. In 1932 Yankee pitchers put together a 103 ERA+. But the 1936 staff had a 111 ERA+. We move along.
Game 5: The 1936 DiMaggio Yankees had a 54.6 team WAR. In 1932 the Yanks rolled up a 53.8 WAR, less than one point short of what they needed.
Game 6: The 1932 team fielded .969, exactly at the league average. The 1936 team fielded .973, two points above the league average. Fittingly this series will boil down to Hall of Famers.
Game 7: Both teams can count an abundance of immortals. From the 1936 team, that count includes Dickey, DiMaggio, Gehrig, Gomez, Lazzeri and Ruffing. That’s six. But the 1932 club…now that’s a roster of immortals. That team included Ruth, Gehrig, Ruffing, Gomez, Lazzeri, and Dickey as well as outfielder Earle Combs, infielder Joe Sewell, pitcher Herb Pennock. That’s nine immortals. And that’s a classic win for 1932.
Result: 1932 in seven games
New York Yankees: The All-Time Bracket
No. 2 vs. 7 seed
The 1939 New York Yankees are every bit the challenge that the 1936 team was. Gehrig’s illness-related absence only seemed to spur the team to new heights. DiMaggio hit a league-best 381 with 30 homers and 126 RBIs, taking home the American League MVP in the process. He headed an every-day lineup that featured five .300 hitters and four 100-RBI guys.
The Yanks scored a half run more per game than any other team and hit 42 more home runs. They also had by far the superior pitching staff with a team 3.31 ERA…this in a year when the league average was 4.62.
Ruffing was 21-7 and 2.93, and seven arms won in double digits.
The 1961 Yankees had plenty of weapons of their own. Winners of 109 games in the newly expanded 162-game schedule, they were famously led by the M&M Boys, Roger Maris (61 homers, 141 RBIs), and Mickey Mantle (54 homers, 128 RBIs). Mantle also hit .317 but Maris took his second consecutive MVP award.
Whitey Ford dominated the pitching numbers with a 25-4 record and 3,.21 ERA. Not surprisingly, Ford won the Cy Young Award that year. And by the way, a few words are in order about those four losses: three of them came by scores of 2-1, 2-1 and 1-0.
Ralph Terry supported Ford with a 16-3, 3.15 season, and Luis Arroyo rolled up 29 saves in 119 innings of work.
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Game 1: The 1961 Yanks had a .673 regular-season percentage. Bu the 1939 team’s 106-45 works out to a .702 percentage, giving it the win.
Game 2: The 1961 team finished off the Cincinnati Reds in just five World Series games. But in an all-time Yankee bracket, five games isn’t good enough. The 1939 team swept the Cincinnati Reds four straight.
Game 3: In 1939 all those Yankee bats piled up a 111 team OPS+. The 1961 Maris-Mantle team hit plenty of long balls, but they only lifted the OPS+ to 109. Another sweep looms.
Game 4: The 1961 Ford-led pitching staff showed off a 107 ERA+. But the 1939 Yankees went other-worldly, with a staff ERA+ of 132.
Result: As inconceivable as it may seem to those who saw the 1961 team play, this series goes to 1939 in four straight.
New York Yankees: The All-Time Bracket
No. 3 vs. 6 seed
The 1998 World series winners may have been the best team of the last half-century…at least. They won 114 games against just 48 defeats, they wrapped up the division on Sept. 9, they won it by 22 games, and they lost only two of 13 post-season games.
Derek Jeter hit .324, outfielder Bernie Williams won the batting title at .339, outfielder Paul O’Neill hit .317 with 116 RBIs, and first baseman Tino Martinez drove in 123 runs.
On the mound, David Cone, David Wells, and Andy Pettite produced records of 20-7, 18-4 and 16-11 respectively. Cone added 209 strikeouts. Mariano Rivera closed out 36 saves.
The 1953 Yanks were probably the best team of the early Mantle era. The Mick may have had better personal numbers in 1956, but he had better support in 1953 when the team took the pennant by eight and one-half games.
Mantle hit .295 but added 21 home runs and 92 RBIs. Fellow outfielders Hank Bauer and Gene Woodling both topped .300, while catcher Yogi Berra hit 27 home runs and drove in 108.
Fiord was 18-6, but Ed Lopat took the ERA title at 16-4, 2.42 in 24 starts. Vic Raschi, Allie Reynolds and Johnny Sain all won at least 13 games.
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Game 1: The 1953 Yanks were 99-52 .656, but that would have finished nine and one-half games behind 1998’s 114-48 .704.
Game 2: The 1998 team had a .846 postseason percentage including a World Series sweep of the San Diego Padres. The 1953 team won it’s World Series against Brooklyn, but needed six games to do so.
Game 3: Led by Woodling’s 146, Mantle’s 144 and Berra’s 141, the 1953 club had a 105 team OPS+. But in 1998, seven Yankee regulars produced an OPS+ of at least 115, Williams led at 160, and the team score was 116. A third sweep looms.
Game 4: The 1998 champions presented a 116 team ERA+ led by Orlando Hernandez’ 142, and nicely seasoned by Rivera’s 233 in the closer’s role. In 1953, Lopat produced a 152 ERA+ while Ford and Sain both came in at 123. But the team score was only 115, a bare point short of extending the series.
Result: 1998 in four games
New York Yankees: The All-Time Bracket
Semi-finals
What kind of an audience would a series featuring the 1927, 1932, 1939, and 1998 New York Yankees draw?
1927 vs. 1932
Game 1: The 1927 version of the Ruth-Gehrig Yankees had a .714 regular-season percentage. That was three games better than the 1932 Ruth-Gehrig team’s 107-54 .695.
Game 2: Both teams swept their World Series, so this game will be decided by a tie-breaker, post-season run differential. In 1927 the Yanks out-scored the Pirates by 13 runs, 23-10. In 1932 they took out the Cubs by 14 runs, 37-23. That’s a one-run win for 1932 and a series evener.
Game 3: The 1932 Yanks compiled a 119 OPS+. Ruth was at 201 and Gehrig at 181. The 1927 team topped out at 127, Ruth and Gehrig generating scores of 227 and 220.
Game 4: The 1932 pitchers managed a 103 staff ERA+. In 1927, the Yanks soared to a 122 ERA+.
Game 5: Led by Ruth (12.5) and Gehrig (11.8), the 1927 team had six players produce in excess of 6.0 WAR. That explains the team-total of 68.3. The 1932 team was a game bunch, but it only got to 53.8 WAR, Ruth and Gehrig leading the way at 8.5 and 8.2.
Result: 1927 in five games
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1939 vs. 1998
Game 1: The 1998 team had a .704 regular-season percentage based on a 114-48 record. The 1939 team was 106-45 with one tie and two un-replayed rainouts. That’s a .702 percentage. Only in Yankee Universe is .702 not good enough.
Game 2: The 1939 team’s World Series sweep evens the score at one game each. The 1998 team also swept the World Series, but it did have two losses in prior playoff rounds, spoiling its perfect post-season record.
Game 3: In 1939 the Yankees had a 111 OPS+ thanks to guys like DiMaggio (184) and Dickey (133). The 1998 team built its 116 OPS+ on Williams’ 160.
Game 4: In 1998 Yanks pitchers generated a 116 ERA+. The 1939 club isn’t thought of as a pitching powerhouse, but it was. Ruffing had a 148, Bump Hadley a 146, and the staff total was 132. This series is even at two games each.
Game 5: The 1939 team had a 62.7 WAR. You would too if your lineup included DiMaggio (8.4), third baseman Red Rolfe (6.6), and second baseman Joe Gordon (6.3). The 1998 team included Jeter (7.5) plus a supporting cast that rang up a 62.8 WAR. That gave 1998 a victory by the narrow margin of one-tenth of a point.
Game 6: The 1998 team fielded .984, three points better than the league average. But in 1939, the Yanks fielded .978, a full nine points higher than the league’s .969 average. This series will be settled in Cooperstown.
Game 7: Let’s begin with the 1939 team since it is the known quantity. That club featured the following six Hall of Famers: Dickey, DiMaggio, Gehrig, Gomez, Gordon, and Ruffing. The 1998 Yankees already have three officially enshrined immortals in Jeter, Rivera and Tim Raines. Is it possible to squeeze three or even four more off that roster?
The candidates presumably would include Williams, Darryl Strawberry, Wells, Posada, Pettitte, and Cone. In 2019 voting – his first year on the ballot, Pettite got 9.9 percent support. That’s enough to keep him on the ballot, but hardly compelling support for his candidacy, Williams debuted at about the same level in 2012 and fell off one election later. Strawberry, Posada, Wells, and Cone all got less than five percent support and fell off the ballot after one election.
Result: 1939 in seven games.
New York Yankees: The All-Time Bracket
Championship
This championship match is obviously a battle of the titans.
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Game 1: Once again the 1939 team somehow manages to lose despite a .702 regular-season percentage. The 1927 team played .714 ball.
Game 2: Both teams swept their World Series. The 1927 club out-scored its opponents, the Pirates, by 13 runs. The 1939 Yanks were more charitable, only out-scoring the National League champion Reds by 12 runs. The 1927 team leads this series 2-0.
Game 3: The 1939 club had a 111 team OPS+. The 1927 Murderer’s Row team produced a 127 OPS+.
Game 4: In 1927 Yankee pitchers compiled a 122 staff ERA+. The 1939 team had a 132 ERA+, averting a sweep.
Game 5: The 1939 Yanks totaled 62.7 WAR. That’s tough to beat…unless you’re the Murderer’s Row 1927 Yanks. They got all the way to 68.3….and the bracket championship
Result: 1927 Yankees in five games
The 1927 Yankees survived the toughest bracket imaginable. They swept 2009 in four straight, then eliminated both 1932 and 1939 in five. Since they were never taken to a sixth game, let’s take their measure as fielders and also as Hall of Famers.
The champs fielded .969, two points better than the .967 AL average for that year.
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As you might guess, the 1927 team is well-represented by Hall of Famers, six of them. They are Ruth, Gehrig, Lazzeri, Pennock, Hoyt, and Combs.