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MLB: The franchise all-time bracket, AL edition

By Bill Felber

BOSTON, MA - APRIL 9: Brock Holt #12 and Andrew Benintendi #16 of the Boston Red Sox look at their rings during a 2018 World Series championship ring ceremony before the Opening Day game against the Toronto Blue Jays on April 9, 2019 at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Billie Weiss/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images)
BOSTON, MA - APRIL 9: Brock Holt #12 and Andrew Benintendi #16 of the Boston Red Sox look at their rings during a 2018 World Series championship ring ceremony before the Opening Day game against the Toronto Blue Jays on April 9, 2019 at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Billie Weiss/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images) /
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(Photo by Mark Brown/Getty Images)
(Photo by Mark Brown/Getty Images) /

Eight American League teams, each a franchise bracket champion and five of them since 2001, try to win the title of the best MLB team of all time.

The bottom half of the all-time American league bracket is dominated by recently successful teams. Five of the eight franchise champions in this part of the bracket made their marks since 2000, including the 2018 Boston Red Sox and 2019 Houston Astros.

As representatives of the second most successful franchise in AL history, the 2018 Red Sox are the top-seeded team in this portion of the bracket. But that may be a pyrrhic victory for it pits the Sox against the representative of the least successful franchise in AL history. That happens to be the Seattle Mariners, whose only truly memorable team was a historically great one, the 116-win 2001 club.

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The other first-round matchups will send the 2019 Astros against the 1991 Minnesota Twins, the 1948 Cleveland Indians against the 2008 Tampa Bay Rays, and the 2002 Los Angeles Angels against the 1977 Kansas City Royals.

The survivor from this part of the bracket advances to the all-time final four, where it will face the unenviable task of taking on the winner of the upper portion of the AL bracket, the 1927 New York Yankees.

If you missed any of the franchise bracket challenges or want to re-visit the process of selecting the best from your favorite franchise, don’t worry. Each team’s introductory material will include a link to their franchise qualifier.

The format is identical to previous bracket challenges.

light. Related Story. MLB: The franchise all-time bracket, NL edition

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, in the case of contemporary teams, likely future Hall of Famers.
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