Most wins since 1967?

behindthepen

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Mar 26, 2005
6,236
Section 41
Since we will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the new era of the Red Sox, I was wondering who has been the most consistent franchise over that time. Anyone know the answer to that?

Note that the final regular season game (10/1) will coincide with the anniversary of the pennant clincher.
 

nvalvo

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 16, 2005
21,446
Rogers Park
There were 20 teams in the league in 1967. If my spreadsheet magic worked as intended, their records over the fifty year period 1967-2016:

Yankees 4424-3533 .556
Red Sox 4302-3664 .540
Dodgers 4245-3725 .533
Cardinals 4218-3744 .530
Reds 4031-3776 .516
A’s 4106-3862 .515
Orioles 4091-3858 .515
Braves 4089-3867 .514
Giants 4088-3885 .513
Angels 4014-3958 .504
Mets 3955-4008 .497
Phillies 3958-4012 .497
Astros 3957-4016 .496
White Sox 3949-4008 .496
Tigers 3950-4017 .496
Pirates 3918-4039 .492
Rangers 3897-4062 .490
Twins 3894-4070 .489
Indians 3878-4071 .488
Cubs 3875-4081 .487

We have a ways to go to catch the Yanks, but the Cubs and Indians may pass the Twins over the next year or three.
 

jon abbey

Shanghai Warrior
Moderator
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
70,599
Wow, the thing that jumps out to me there is how much over .500 those 20 teams skew to collectively. My rough calculation is that those numbers mean expansion teams have gone roughly a collective 2500 games under .500, I guess that is not so surprising, but that is a huge number. If it's not hard to add the records for expansion franchises also, I'd definitely like to see those too.
 

Brand Name

make hers mark
Moderator
SoSH Member
Oct 6, 2010
4,388
Moving the Line
If it's not hard to add the records for expansion franchises also, I'd definitely like to see those too.
You got it. Teams added since 1967 bolded, with their debut year as an MLB franchise noted thereafter, as part of this larger list (thanks, nvalvo, this is pretty awesome!), so from '67 onward:

Yankees 4424-3533 .556
Red Sox 4302-3664 .540
Dodgers 4245-3725 .533
Cardinals 4218-3744 .530
Reds 4031-3776 .516
A’s 4106-3862 .515
Orioles 4091-3858 .515
Braves 4089-3867 .514
Giants 4088-3885 .513
Angels 4014-3958 .504
Blue Jays 3167-3188 .498 (since 1977)
Mets 3955-4008 .497
Phillies 3958-4012 .497
Astros 3957-4016 .496
White Sox 3949-4008 .496
Tigers 3950-4017 .496
Pirates 3918-4039 .492
Rangers 3897-4062 .490
Twins 3894-4070 .489
Diamondbacks 1503-1575 .488
Indians 3878-4071 .488
Cubs 3875-4081 .487
Royals 3704-3933 .485 (since 1969)
Nationals 3705-3935 .485 (since 1969)
Brewers 3642-4001 .477 (since 1969)
Mariners 2984-3371 .470 (since 1977)
Marlins 1793-2026 .469 (since 1993)
Rockies 1784-2042 .466 (since 1993)
Padres 3540-4110 .463 (since 1969)
Rays 1420-1656 .462 (since 1998)

Since the beginning of MLB's first expansion in 1961, and going back to the first years of those teams (IOW, from '61 for LAA, TEX; '62 for HOU, NYM), expansion teams are a combined 44501-47997, good for a net .481 win-loss percentage.
 

uk_sox_fan

Member
SoSH Member
Nov 11, 2006
1,273
London, England
You got it. Teams added since 1967 bolded, with their debut year as an MLB franchise noted thereafter, as part of this larger list (thanks, nvalvo, this is pretty awesome!), so from '67 onward:

Yankees 4424-3533 .556
Red Sox 4302-3664 .540
Dodgers 4245-3725 .533
Cardinals 4218-3744 .530
Reds 4031-3776 .516
A’s 4106-3862 .515
Orioles 4091-3858 .515
Braves 4089-3867 .514
Giants 4088-3885 .513
Angels 4014-3958 .504
Blue Jays 3167-3188 .498 (since 1977)
Mets 3955-4008 .497
Phillies 3958-4012 .497
Astros 3957-4016 .496
White Sox 3949-4008 .496
Tigers 3950-4017 .496
Pirates 3918-4039 .492
Rangers 3897-4062 .490
Twins 3894-4070 .489
Diamondbacks 1503-1575 .488
Indians 3878-4071 .488
Cubs 3875-4081 .487
Royals 3704-3933 .485 (since 1969)
Nationals 3705-3935 .485 (since 1969)
Brewers 3642-4001 .477 (since 1969)
Mariners 2984-3371 .470 (since 1977)
Marlins 1793-2026 .469 (since 1993)
Rockies 1784-2042 .466 (since 1993)
Padres 3540-4110 .463 (since 1969)
Rays 1420-1656 .462 (since 1998)
Not to be a pit-nicker but your totals come to 108081-108093 leaving a mismatch of 12 games...
 

uk_sox_fan

Member
SoSH Member
Nov 11, 2006
1,273
London, England
Another measure of 'consistency' over that span would be number of winning seasons. The Sox were 1st in that measure until their recent troubles this decade (3 losing seasons in the past 5 years) and now trail the MFY's by slightly less than the 3rd place Dodgers trail them for 2nd.

The standings* [(above .500) - (below .500) - (at .500)]:
NYY 42-8-0 .840
BOS 40-9-1 .810
LAD 37-12-1 .750
STL 35-14-1 .710
SFG 30-20-0 .600
BAL 28-21-1 .570
TOR 22-17-1 .563
OAK 27-21-2 .560
HOU 26-20-4 .560
CIN 27-22-1 .550
DET 27-22-1 .550
ATL 26-23-1 .530
NYM 25-25-0 .500
ANA 23-25-2 .480
PHI 22-26-2 .460
TEX 23-27-0 .460
KCR 21-26-1 .448
ARI 8-10-1 .447
MIN 21-27-2 .440
CWS 21-28-1 .430
WAS 19-26-3 .427
PIT 20-29-1 .410
CHC 19-30-1 .390
MIL 15-31-2 .333
CLE 15-32-3 .330
SEA 13-27-0 .325
TBR 6-13-0 .316
SDP 14-32-2 .313
COL 7-17-0 .292
MIA 6-18-0 .250 [pretty incredible that the Marlins have won the World Series in 1/3 of their winning seasons]

*I determined a 'winning season' to be when a team's season wins per bbref was greater than the games played for teams that year per bbref. A possible source of error would be if a team missed two of those games and went 80-80 during that year. In that case they would be recorded as having a losing year when they should be at .500. Similarly, a team that went 81-79 would show up as 'at .500' rather than 'above .500'.
 

glasspusher

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 20, 2005
9,973
Oakland California
The sox were above .500 from 1967 until 1982. Ironically 1983 was Yaz' last year, Boggs won the batting title and my man Jim Ed led the league in home runs for the last time. Ah, the Yawkey era- not quite sucking, but no rings. Diminished expectations, indeed.
 

dynomite

Member
SoSH Member
Impressive. Shows my age, maybe, but I would have bet a considerable amount that the Cardinals -- speaking of '67 -- had a better record than the Sox over the past fifty years.

As an aside, the Padres were my dark horse for worst MLB franchise, and I feel like this rundown underscores their troubles. That's nearly half a century of bad baseball. They've only made the playoffs five times (!). They've only won 90+ games four times. They had Dave Winfield and Tony Gwynn, who also happen to be #1 and #2 on their franchise WAR leaders. After that? ... Jake Peavy is #3. Andy Ashby is #5. And Chase Headley is top 10 (#10). Yuck.
 

Rice4HOF

Member
SoSH Member
Jan 21, 2002
1,882
Calgary, Canada
Another measure of 'consistency' over that span would be number of winning seasons.
...
Sure, and thank you for the work in coming up with these numbers. But another measure of consistency is, well, how consistent they have been year to year. e.g., a team that goes 62-100 every season is very consistent - they're just not very good. If I get some free time at work, I'll run all the teams' numbers and see what their standard deviations in wins (or maybe winning percentage to account for strike shortened seasons) is. If I had to guess, I'd say teams like Oakland, Cincinnati and Atlanta rank pretty low - many good seasons, and many bad ones - and teams like the Rangers, White Sox and Orioles are probably more consistent over that timeframe.
 

uk_sox_fan

Member
SoSH Member
Nov 11, 2006
1,273
London, England
The sox were above .500 from 1967 until 1982. Ironically 1983 was Yaz' last year, Boggs won the batting title and my man Jim Ed led the league in home runs for the last time. Ah, the Yawkey era- not quite sucking, but no rings. Diminished expectations, indeed.
I remember the streak of winning seasons being associated with Kevin White's long tenor as Mayor of Boston. He first ran for the office in 1967 and then announced he wouldn't seek re-election in May 1983.

Sure his office was associated with corruption and embezzled finances but at least he brought winning seasons!
http://www.nytimes.com/1983/05/27/us/kevin-white-bars-5th-race-for-the-mayorality-in-boston.html
 

charlieoscar

Member
Sep 28, 2014
1,339
The expansion clubs were built on expansion drafts in which the other clubs had to make players available. The rules did not remain constant for the various drafts of 1960, 1961, 1968, 1976, 1992, 1997. There was also a small supplementary draft for Houston and the Mets in October 1963.

Anyway, the average first year record of the 14 expansion clubs during this time frame was 60.6-100.9 (some teams did not play the full 162 game schedule or there were ties). The range was from 40 wins (Mets - 1962) to 70 (Angels - 1960) and it took an average of 6.5 seasons for the clubs to reach at least the .500 mark in any one season (the Angels and the Diamondbacks each achieved a winning record in their second season while it took Seattle 14 seasons. In all, it took nine of the clubs at least six seasons to get to at least a .500 mark but not many of them kept that up).
 

dbn

Member
SoSH Member
Feb 10, 2007
7,785
La Mancha.
Impressive. Shows my age, maybe, but I would have bet a considerable amount that the Cardinals -- speaking of '67 -- had a better record than the Sox over the past fifty years.

As an aside, the Padres were my dark horse for worst MLB franchise, and I feel like this rundown underscores their troubles. That's nearly half a century of bad baseball. They've only made the playoffs five times (!). They've only won 90+ games four times. They had Dave Winfield and Tony Gwynn, who also happen to be #1 and #2 on their franchise WAR leaders. After that? ... Jake Peavy is #3. Andy Ashby is #5. And Chase Headley is top 10 (#10). Yuck.
The other night at trivia there was a sports category question: other than the Washington Nationals, which is the only current MLB franchise never to have appeared in a World Series? The Padres were my first (incorrect) thought. The answer is pretty easy, actually, but someone else on my team thought of it before I did.

Seattle Mariners
 

pk1627

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
May 24, 2003
2,511
Boston
Yankees and Cardinals have the most pennants in this time, 11 and 9 respectively. Bizarre that they have never played each other in the WS since '64. Sox have the 3rd most pennants at 6 (tied with Oakland) and tied for 4th in WS titles. This has been a top-tier team since this resurgence year, even with 2/3 of the period owned by damn Yawkee and the trust.
 

Rice4HOF

Member
SoSH Member
Jan 21, 2002
1,882
Calgary, Canada
I've started a spreadsheet to calculate the standard deviation in wins over the last 50 years by team, and let's just say that the results so far are surprising. The teams that in my mind were consistent haven't been and vice-versa. The database I have on my laptop only goes until 2013. I'll add the last 3 seasons tonight and post the full results.
 

StupendousMan

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 20, 2005
1,897
Perhaps this graph will help. I've placed average winning percentage on the horizontal axis and standard deviation in winning percentage on the vertical axis.

Good teams to RIGHT, bad teams to LEFT.

Consistent records at BOTTOM, varying records at TOP.

consistency_a.png

Some of the team names overlap in the figure above, so I made a much larger version in which all the names are distinct. Click on the spoiler below to see it.

consistency_b.png
 

nvalvo

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 16, 2005
21,446
Rogers Park
I'd never have guessed Boston would have the lowest StDev -- especially after the last five years.
The Sox were abjectly awful in the 20s and 30s, and nothing special in the 50s and early 60s. But since '67, they've only finished under .500 for three consecutive years once, the up and down last five notwithstanding. That's pretty impressive.
 

Rice4HOF

Member
SoSH Member
Jan 21, 2002
1,882
Calgary, Canada
Yes, @StupendousMan's graph matches my spreadsheet's findings fairly well. Boston has the lowest standard deviation, and 2nd highest winning percentage (Yankees).
Boston averaged 87.5 wins(*), with an SD of 7.4. Sounds about right, meaning 2/3 of the time they win between 80 and 95 games. I had Washington (combined with the Expos) as the most inconsistent, with an average of 75.6 wins and an SD of 19.2, putting their 2/3 between 56 and 95 games - quite a variance.
Here is a link to the spreadsheet with all the details. (see the summary tab for the list of teams sorted by standard deviation)

(*) I extrapolated all partial seasons to 162 game seasons
 

AB in DC

OG Football Writing
SoSH Member
Jul 10, 2002
13,556
Springfield, VA
I had Washington (combined with the Expos) as the most inconsistent, with an average of 75.6 wins and an SD of 19.2, putting their 2/3 between 56 and 95 games - quite a variance.
You're including two zeroes in the sample from 1967 and 1968 (before the Expos existed)