The Worst Best of All Time

Baseball has attempted to play both ends against the middle by dividing into three divisions and adding a wild card. It's a compromise between the everyone-gets-a-trophy insanity of the NBA and NHL and the soul-crushing of baseball's early days when just the top two teams vied for the title.

Here's the cost: the chart below, courtesy of Baseball Prospectus, attempts to document the worst World Series winners of all time. The last and most relevant column is the team's projected winning percentage given its run-scoring/preventing profile and its strength of schedule. 

It's no surprise that the '06 Cards are first worst. They played sub-.500 ball in the second half and triumphed against the foundering Tigers in the Keystone Cops World Series. Blecch.

Dig deeper and you'll notice something: Of the 15 weakest champs, 12 hail from the Wild Card era. Five of the 11 titleholders since the turn of the millennium "earned" a spot.

Rank	Year	Team	W-L	HLF
1	2006	Cardinals	83-78	.497
2	1987	Twins	85-77	.497
3	1959	Dodgers	88-68	.533
4	2000	Yankees	87-74	.534
5	1985	Royals	91-71	.539
6	2003	Marlins	91-71	.545
7	1964	Cardinals	93-69	.548
8	1997	Marlins	92-70	.552
9	1996	Yankees	92-70	.552
10	1945	Tigers	88-65	.554
11	2008	Phillies	92-70	.555
12	1982	Cardinals	92-70	.556
13	2010	Giants	92-70	.558
14	1980	Phillies	91-71	.559
15	2005	White Sox	99-63	.561

Because short series are rolls of the dice, more weak teams are matching up for the Fall Classic. Moreover, because the playoffs are now weeks long, the winners are determined by a sprint after running a 162-game marathon. The best long-distance runner is often not the best dasher.

Expect more of this in the future, especially as the AL Beast continues to bulk up at the expense of other divisions, allowing mediocre division winners to ride a couple of hot starters to pay dirt. It's a Faustian bargain that's given more cities a rooting interest in the post-season but a less compelling championship series.
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